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Shannara TV series in development at MTV with IRON MAN director


Werthead

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It's at least better than Sparticus, which I went in hoping for greatness and was sorely disappointed.  With my expectations fully lowered though, it's definitely watchable.  

I'll echo previous poster :o

To be fair, the first episode was slightly better than the first episode of Spartacus, but Spartacus improved a lot after. This needs to, as well.

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The pilot was entertaining if cheesy. Apart from Rhys-Davies and Bennet the cast seem pretty week, but then it's not like they've got much to work with. The plot is pretty basic, which makes it easy to follow but also makes me wonder what the story will actually be about (since I've never read anything by Brooks).

I'm watching the first two episodes. It's a bit odd the way this Alanon fellow zips around from one location to the next. 

I just assumed the setting is roughly the size of Luxembourg.

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I'll echo previous poster :o

To be fair, the first episode was slightly better than the first episode of Spartacus, but Spartacus improved a lot after. This needs to, as well.

That only makes sense in terms of the pilot. I heartily defend people's hatred of the spartacus pilot - one of the worst I've ever seen and it took a lot of convincing from this forum before i even tried to watch another episode. Very glad I did though.

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Just started watching it. I cannot believe how goofy they look, there is zero effort to make them look "elvish" other than ridiculous looking ears. And then the fact that every guy has an incredibly muscular body, and at the age of what, 16-18? 

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Could be that they are a mutated race in the TV show but in the book series I believe the Elves had always been there since the time of Fairie and they were essentially hiding in the woods of Oregon. The other races were mutations due to nuclear fall out. Its been a while but the backstory is covered in The Genesis of Shannara series.

I know the illegal occupation has gone on for a while now, so the joke is not that current but... Can we all rewrite our headcannon in such a way that the Elves are all descendents of Amon Bundy and his militia cronies? :P 

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I was not expecting good things based on the few things I'd read, but I actually ended up liking it. I was chiefly annoyed by the costuming, which seemed way too modern and out of place. But once they moved past the Elven kingdom, it got a little better and did not take me out of the story so much. I did also notice the strange time-jumping or just place-jumping that Wil and Allanon did, raised an eyebrow how they were able to get places so quickly without any problems. I also thought they were hitting the "this is Earth" notes WAY hard (and also, given that it's been thousands of years, how is there that much junk around?). 

I read this book ages ago, in high school, and it was one of my favorite books. My mom got genuinely concerned when she heard me sobbing in my room after finishing it. I don't remember too much of it, though, so it's kind of nice to have an idea of what is going on but not having every plot point in my head.

My boyfriend, who hasn't read the books, watched it with me and also found it entertaining if not the best show ever. And he did not have much trouble following what was going on.

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Yeah the Spartacus pilot was pretty bad. It didn't start clicking for me until episode 3, but I'm glad I kept watching. It is one of my all time favorite shows.

I think it took longer than that for it to click for me, but yeah it got really good once you got invested.

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I also thought they were hitting the "this is Earth" notes WAY hard (and also, given that it's been thousands of years, how is there that much junk around?).

Seriously!  It's a bit ridiculous.

I think as long as they don't find any working technology I'll be fine with it. It's basically the only aspect that makes the world not look like generic fantasyland.

Plus, if you're into that drinking game mentioned above, it helps you get wasted in no time.

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I do really like the music they are using in the show.

I guess you might expect that with MTV, but still.

Rhys Davies & Bennett are ok, though Bennett just looks quite different from what I always thought Allanon would look like.

But he makes the character his own. I think sofar, it's just the two leads that are so annoying, the princess and her perfect , caring but of course dull witted "boyfriend" who wants her badly but she of course does not really want him, and then the Will character, but who is then 5 times more dull witted than every other character again, all the while looking like a young Jax Teller who fell out of his bedroom window as a boy.

 

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Got through all 4 episodes that have been release. Its okay and I am glad they are making a solid effort on the visuals but they need to do a little more world building. In the books Allanon spends a fair amount of time setting the stage about why things are happening. It would have been a little better if they had spent time explaining the different races, the Geo of the four lands, the origin of the druids, Shea's backstory, Jerle Shannara etc.. They have touched on a little of it and I'm sure more is coming but I was hoping for more details versus the bouncing around from location to location that has taken place so far.

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Got through all 4 episodes that have been release. Its okay and I am glad they are making a solid effort on the visuals but they need to do a little more world building. In the books Allanon spends a fair amount of time setting the stage about why things are happening. It would have been a little better if they had spent time explaining the different races, the Geo of the four lands, the origin of the druids, Shea's backstory, Jerle Shannara etc.. They have touched on a little of it and I'm sure more is coming but I was hoping for more details versus the bouncing around from location to location that has taken place so far.

That's a great point.... I don't know if the world building will come over the course of the season, but you're right, it needs to be done.... if for no other reason to provide context, and establish the motivations of certain courses of action.... not to mention I'm clueless enough in my everyday life to not understand why a gnome is doing what he's doing. 

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That's a great point.... I don't know if the world building will come over the course of the season, but you're right, it needs to be done.... if for no other reason to provide context, and establish the motivations of certain courses of action.... not to mention I'm clueless enough in my everyday life to not understand why a gnome is doing what he's doing. 

I think the amount of worldbuilding with regards to the races will look a bit like this:

Race made up of beefcakes and smoke shows = good.

Race made up of ugly mutants = bad.

It's still MTV after all :P 

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