Jaxom 1974 Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 C'mon. You know you wanna keep watching. C'mooooonnnn... :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moosicus Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Hmm, Zedd's story of the "slaughter of the first-born" seems familiar somehow. I can't quite place it. It wasn't in the book. Maybe a different book. Edit: Yikes, the claymation Gar was pretty poor, and Dick being named Seeker in a ring of fire before thrusting the sword in the air to be struck by lightning was a bit much. There's not enough whiskey to wash the taste of cheese out of my mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myshkin Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 10 minutes in and it's almost too embarassing to watch. But at least it had the odd looking vine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Did the vine get a proper close up? Let alone proper billing? Wish I hadn't missed the beginning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Humble Asskicker Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 First, even though most people are here for deriding the show, I show note that there are spoilers below. Right, so I promised myself I wouldn't be a part of this shameful wreck of a show; I criticized others for so gleefully acknowledging they would...but, friends and neighbors, I kept thinking about my childhood memories of one of the first fantasy series I read, of the good things in the books (they exist) and however lame the rest of the show, it would be nice to see some of them realized. So my will collapses and I, hypocrite, watched the show. All I can say is that I'm baffled. I knew there would be changes, I knew that TV likes to make things stupidly entertaining, but this wasn't even that. I just don't understand the point of this show. As I feared, the story of the novel was taken and shredded, with the scattered remains interlaced with plot from the show's writers. I expected it, but the degree was alarming, and every single change made was so awful that in all seriousness, I believe it could only have been accomplished if the writers deliberately set out to make it that awful, as though they were trying to hit a milestone or something. I don't understand. The series has a large fan-base, for better or worse, but when you take the plot, the whole reason that fan-base exists, and simply toss it so that the writers can stuff in their own story, what's the point of adopting the content in the first place? Why not just create your own material, since that's what you're doing anyway? When you abandon what attracted the fan-base, you ostracize the fan base. In movies, shit is usually changed for time limit and pacing reasons, or to adapt from book format what is difficult to display in film format. With this series, some things probably need to be altered (the torture and rape) to make it television friendly, and some things changed to make the narrative smooth and cohesive for viewing, but here it was none of that. Changes were made just to make changes, and ever single variation was worse than the book by such a stretch that it's almost commendable an accomplishment. The writers could have made elements of the show accidentally entertaining but they avoided that in spades. That's talent. I mean, sixteen year old Richard Cypher - I understand where that's coming from. Gotta attract the tweens. Gratuitous battle scenes - I understand this too, because now we're aiming at the young teens. And I understand Kahlan's cleavage chosen for the role, because again, those young teens are an important demographic (but why couldn't they find among all those others in the auditions an actress with just as fine a pair of breasts but with superior acting skills?). However, the other shit is just beyond comprehension. Kahlan bringing Richard the book of counted shadows - why? It didn't add anything, and only made the show less. Richard's father living at the onset of the show, the whole plot-line with that D'haran soldier, and then the father being killed not by Darken Rahl, but that soldier. What the hell? There's a very good reason to make Darken Rahl the murderer, what with all the dramatic tension it creates between him and Richard, but with anonymous, now dead random first episode villain being the killer, that promise of the books is now dead. Then there's the weird alteration made to Zedd and Richard's relation - it was much better in the books. And how Zedd revealed himself to Kahlan and Richard, the mystery of Kahlan's nature...everything. This is what people liked, and every point therein was replaced by something worse than what you would find in Xena and Hercules, which while cheesy to the core, knew they were cheesy. This show is trying to be serious. Also, every flash of magic, from the Gar to the boundary to Zedd's wizard fire, was hilariously bad. There is nothing good about this show, and a ton that is bad (although I did kind of like the music just before Richard was named Seeker; not the full-blown operatic overture, but the subtle tunes before). I'm generally supercilious and willing to criticize most things, but I do have a certain low threshold for stuff I can accept in their less than sublime element, and this shatters it absolutely. I don't know how people could find this show entertaining. I hope that the first episode gets huge ratings, to show TV networks that fantasy is now a niche that should be heeded. But I hope the ratings take an absolute dive to the bottom from hereon out, to show those networks that while we fantasy geeks are populous, we are not whores that will except any piece of shit so long as it's called fantasy. This is a terrible, terrible show. Raimi, at least now Spiderman 3 isn't your worst project out now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ouroboros Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 [quote name='Myshkin' post='1574412' date='Nov 1 2008, 19.55'][url="http://www.terrygoodkind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12893"]Here you go.[/url] A mixed bag, but you will see some of the wailing you were hoping for, and a lot of forced cheerfulness on how "great" the show was.[/quote] They've actually banned people from comparing the series to the book....isn't that a tad draconian? Very telling of the quality/faithfulness the series keeps to the source material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foreverlad Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 I will say this for the series, its proved that there are worse writers out there than Goodkind. While the first 2-3 books are generally considered his better books, this television series makes Wizard's First Rule look like a product of G.R.R.M. ...okay, that's a bit too much, but hopefully I've made my point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 [quote name='Ouroboros' post='1574469' date='Nov 1 2008, 20.45']They've actually banned people from comparing the series to the book....isn't that a tad draconian? Very telling of the quality/faithfulness the series keeps to the source material.[/quote] And it isn't even M*'s primary site and they're acting like he is! Moose or Mysh need to head over there and scream "FIRST AMENDMENT! FIRST AMENDMENT!" :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moosicus Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Two hours of my life I'll never get back. I watched it with my wife and she may never forgive me. What can really be said about this? It sucked, profoundly. Not one redeeming quality. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Tairy's book was better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Would that Lemmings could go over and express their concerns and/or views, eh...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenMockingbird Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Mild spoilers here, too. Sooo... they kept the vine. They kept the spice soup. They eliminated the long boring speeches, but they also threw out... the plot. They even changed the way the sword works. They tiptoed around most of the broken Aesops, and such memorable parts as the willie-stealing and the fire speech, and they figured that substituting the Mayfair babies thing (Is that what it was?) was a novel substitute? I can't really claim disappointment, but I'm really confused. Where does Raimi think he's going with this? Realistically, I was expecting bland, but not pointless, confusing, badly-acted-and-animated bland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 [quote name='greenMockingbird' post='1574489' date='Nov 1 2008, 21.19']I can't really claim disappointment, but I'm really confused. Where does Raimi think he's going with this? Realistically, I was expecting bland, but not pointless, confusing, badly-acted-and-animated bland.[/quote] Let us not forget that Raimi bought a property. The original material, and the fan base, be damned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigei Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Watched the segment at [url="http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/007342.html"]http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/007342.html[/url] LMAO at the cheesy music and slow mo when Richard first sees Kahlan. Er, the cleavage is lacking somehow but the shirtless scene is good except when he is doing the woodcutting/work bits which seems lackluster. :thumbsup: I love when Richard gets bitchslapped like 7 mins into the episode. Sweetness! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenMockingbird Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Yeah, I'm actually liking that D'haran dude. He's actually... smart, and very professional. Darken Rahl himself was turned into a weenie, I notice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nails77 Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 First commercial break makes heavy mention of the show being sponsored by the company I work for. This can't be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myshkin Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Totally. Fucking. AWESOME!!!!!! All my cheese filled dreams come true! It simultaneously managed to be horrible and to piss off Tairy fans by not sticking to the books. Soooooo awesome!!!!! My favorite things: The acting was ridiculously bad They cast a scrawny wimp to play Big Dick The effects were horrible (especially the claymation gar) The over-dramatic seriousness was great Richard's constant heavy breathing The odd looking vine Things I was disappointed they didn't show: The rousing fire speech The penis stealing scene The "People are stupid" rule All-in-all I love how this turned out! [quote name='Jaxom 1974' post='1574479' date='Nov 1 2008, 19.02']Moose or Mysh need to head over there and scream "FIRST AMENDMENT! FIRST AMENDMENT!" :P[/quote] [url="http://www.terrygoodkind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12616"]The rules[/url] for discussion over at TG.com. But me and Moose aren't allowed to go over there and talk to them about it. I have no idea why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myshkin Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 [quote name='Mystar']Did anyon eelse get the Richard/Christ aspect? I mean...I felt as if they were laying out the ground work for Richard story paralleling Jesus?...even down to the (step) mothers name being "mary"...[/quote] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 [quote name='Myshkin' post='1574520' date='Nov 1 2008, 22.27'][url="http://www.terrygoodkind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12616"]The rules[/url] for discussion over at TG.com. But me and Moose aren't allowed to go over there and talk to them about it. I have no idea why.[/quote] [i]3) Do not discuss the differences between the books and the TV show. See the goal is to get people who like the show to read the books. Since the stories are very different, we do not want to spoil the books for people.[/i] I see he has a form of rationale behind this further down the list, but this entire concept makes no fucking sense. Don't compare them because people won't want to read the books and/or watch the show! Please. If you think the show did a disservice to the books, then you should be letting people know and encouraging them to read the books in any case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mashiara Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 Reading the comments made by Tairy's fans is entertaining, but not as entertaining as actually watching the thing would have been. I'm not surprised they didn't stick to the book plot and that made the show suck even more. Even by watching the first 10 minutes that are available online I know that, just by seeing Kahlan carry the Book of Counted Shadows and understanding that Richard and Zedd aren't related any more. I know it's truly no great loss, not getting to see the show. I appreciate the people who give 'spoilers' though, if we can call them that. At least this way I'll get a glimpse of what I'm missing. I do regret not being able to see the odd looking vine. :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zap Rowsdower Posted November 2, 2008 Share Posted November 2, 2008 So wait... this was on TONIGHT? According to my schedule the two hour premier is coming on tomorrow. Does the schedule lie? Or is it coming on at a different time for other people as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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