The Shannara Chronicles (MTV) (1 Viewer)

MTV shoots for its own "Game of Thrones" with this adaptation of Terry Brooks's bestselling Shannara series, from "Smallville" showrunners Alfred Gough and Miles Millar.


Based on that trailer, I'm not sure how I feel. Some of the shots are visually breathtaking, like the toppled remains of the space needle, some of the New Zealand location shots, and the intricately designed buildings. Others seem like "Legend of the Seeker"-esque generic low budget fantasy.


The producing director for the show is Jonathan Liebesman, best known for churning out disappointing sequels and big-budget critical flops like Battle: Los Angeles and the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Liebesman was brought on board after Iron Man director Jon Favreau was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Favreau is still credited as an executive producer.


The cast is a mix of some really talents (like Ivana Baquero, Manu Bennett, and John Rhys-Davies) and the usual MTV staple of pretty young faces. The male lead, Austin Butler, has been adequate but unexceptional in everything I've seen him in, usually playing the troubled love interest in teen dramas like "Life Unexpected" and "Switched at Birth". I'm not sure he can carry a show on his shoulders.

The trailer makes this feel like it has a very large budget.

I think I'm going to give this a watch and see how it plays out

but keep my expectations at a moderate level.

Man, don't know how well this creative team will do, but I remember the Shannara series being my first 'completest' obsession. Finding another Shannara book at the library or bookstore thrilling. That, and Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser series.


Weird, that I never got into D&D or comic books or video games, or any of that nerdist goldmine stuff. But I loved all manner of books.

I've been very worried for a long time that this was going to be some sort of low budget rip-off, but Terry Brooks himself is very pleased with how the show is panning out. It looks like it's actually going to be a good show. They're currently shooting for one book (trilogy?) per season if the show pans out. They're starting with 'The Elfstones of Shannara' which I think is a good move.


I'll be watching!

I'm in.

I read a Shannarra book 25 years ago, in high school. I remember enjoying it, but not enough to to seek out the rest of the series. I have no recollection of its story and the trailer is brand new to me.

Title credits sequence:
[media]

Gah. I forgot about this. 2016 looks like a year were I'll have make heartless decisions on cutting lots of compelling shows from my list. I was just expressing excitement over The Expanse. But there's Shannarra. And Childhoods End. Maybe Old Mans War. The 100 returns. Season two of Dark Matter. Orphan Black.

A glut of potentially superb scifi and fantasy.

This show began last night with an extended premiere. It proved to be an interesting counterpoint to Into the Badlands, the other new Millar/Gough series this TV season. Like Into the Badlands, this show featured captivating visuals and complex worldbuilding. And like Into the Badlands, the writing and the acting left a great deal to be desired.


In terms of production values, this falls somewhere between "Legend of the Seeker" and "Game of Thrones", though much closer to "Game of Thrones" than the sort of low-budget syndicated fantasy that "Legend of the Seeker" represented. There are a lot of common visual reference points between the post-apocalyptic landscape of this show and the post-apocalyptic landscape of the last Jon Favreau-produced television series, NBC's "Revolution". The main difference is that a lot more time has passed since the world ended, and your classic fantasy tropes have begun to poke out of the ruins.


Based on what the internet tells me, there are about three dozen novels in the Shannara series, not including short stories and what have you. The upside of that is that the series has a lot of material to draw from. The downside is that the pilot frequently gets buried in exposition. From what I can tell, the show is primarily an adaptation of the second book, published in 1982. But events that I am guessing featured prominently in the first book weigh heavily on the storytelling, and the show grinds to a halt as characters expound on their backstories for the benefit of the audience.


The more distinguishable ruined landmarks (including a toppled Space Needle) make it clear that the show takes place in the Pacific Northwest, so it shouldn't be a surprise that nearly all of the characters have American accents. The bizarre thing for me was how much the flat American accents undermined the conceit of elves. You have this elegant and even at times breathtaking elven kingdom, but as soon as the characters start talking, it's like they stepped out of any high school drama. The idea that such extraordinary creatures could be so ordinary was both disconcerting and somehow alienating as a viewer.


The best actor on the show is unquestionably Manu Bennett as Allanon, the Last Druid. He was terrific on "Arrow" and this show is an even better showcase for his talent. He elevates even the stalest of his dialog, and he owns the screen every frame he appears in. When he's at the center of a scene, the show works and comes closest to its cinematic ambitions.


Among the young trio at the forefront of the show, who serve as contemporaries for MTV's target audience, Ivana Baquero (Pan's Labyrinth) is the standout. The slight hint of her native Spanish accent gives her speech an interesting quirk, and she's the only one whose performance offers any surprises. British actress Poppy Drayton ("Downton Abbey") is a stunning beauty, but an underwhelming actress -- especially in her her early scenes. Once she's out on her own, her strengths come to the fore and her limitations fade into the background a bit. Austin Butler has built his career on being the likable love interest on teen dramas like "Life Unexpected", "Switched at Birth" and "The Carrie Diaries". That same likability is on display here, but I'm not sure he has what it takes to be the leading man.


The show deploys John Rhys-Davies's resume as a way to give the Elf King weight and gravitas. He's fine in the role, but didn't bring anything to the table that blew me as away.


Aaron Jakubenko, the remaining series regular, gives a fun and engaging performance as Ander Elessedil, who from what I can tell is basically the Prince Harry of the elf kingdom. He's clearly the brighter and more interesting brother, but younger and so the spare and not the heir. The dynamic with Drayton's character is enjoyable, more like conspiring siblings than the uncle and niece. The problem is that it feels like a performance for a different show. Every line reading punctures of the sober solemnity of this fantasy universe.


Despite the flaws, there was enough heft here to suck me into this world. I'll give it at least a few more episodes to improve.

I completely forgot about this (doubly so after discovering Mr. Robot this weekend). I hope Shannara goes well, but I've got to skip it until some future repeat.

It was a lot better than I thought... I'll be tuning in for now. It's got good potential so far!

Last night's episode sort of threw into relief what a bad director Jonathan Liebesman is. He's built his career on stylized but terrible movies. The third episode (if you count the extended premiere as two episodes) lacked the visual artistry of Liebesman's contributions but did a much better job establishing the reality of this world. James Marshall (who directed 26 episodes of "Smallville" for Millar & Gough and their successors) took over and he coaxed much better performances out of the three young leads. John Rhys-Davies's elf king also started to get some dimensionality.


It's still not anywhere close to the bar set by "Game of Thrones", and the writing still left a lot to be desired, but the elaborate world building really started to suck me into the story.

The second season got delayed after MTV decided to exit scripted programming. Now Viacom has moved it to another of its networks, Spike (soon to be the Paramount Network).

The Season 2 Trailer just popped up online:

Adam Lenhardt said:

The second season got delayed after MTV decided to exit scripted programming. Now Viacom has moved it to another of its networks, Spike (soon to be the Paramount Network).

The Season 2 Trailer just popped up online:

Click to expand...

Oh good! I'm glad this is back. I actually enjoyed it.

Season 1 was okay, but nothing like I pictured while reading the books. I'll give season 2 a try.

Just finished watching Season 2 on Netflix; clearly they expected a third season, because it ended on a massive cliffhanger.

Terrible in many ways, but fun and watchable like a b-movie.