The Shannara Chronicles [MTV] [** Spoilers **]

paulbok

Just spotteda trailer for this, starts tonight on MTV (I presume stateside).
10 episode season.
Can't post actual link but can be found here

I loved this series of books having first read them over 20 years ago, and the origional book The Sword of Shannara was nearly 20 years old at that stage (1977).
Must be close to 30 books in the series by now fro Terry Brooks, including the prequel series

Knight of the Void etc, very interesting, if a little clunky, how he managed to evolve a fantasy series set in the modern Earth to the Shannnara series

so a huge source of material to work with.

But it is MTV making it so I'm afraid it will look like a teenage version of Lord of The Rings.

Mr E

Good buzz about it actually. Some pretty positive reviews popped up on my facebook feed last night.

http://www.polygon.com/features/2016/1/4/10708672/chronicles-of-shannara-review

The solid acting, amazing cinematography and intriguing plot are helped along by hints of the strange world in which Chronicles takes place. The special effects — one of my biggest concerns for the show — are fantastic, leaning on CGI when necessary, but still relying on a lot of practical effects to ground the fantasy series in a sort of warped reality. I was particularly taken with my first sighting of this world’s trolls. By the third episode, set to air next week, my wife, my 14-year-old son and myself were all hooked.

And that’s the real magic of this show: It blends the appeal of high fantasy with the grounding of a post-apocalyptic, yet seemingly healthy planet to deliver something both familiar to fans of today’s big shows and unique.

Mitch Connor

Bought the Sword of Shannara trilogy having read LoTR and while waiting for book 8 or 9 (maybe neither) of Wheel of Time.
HATED all three books, and only finished them because I had bought them as one large trilogy set. Worst fantasy books I have read. All felt like the bit in LoTR before they get to the elven kingdom for the first time - they just never got going really, imo.

Would consider anything by Feist, Gemmell or Goodkind (Sword of Truth series) as far better. Have always felt a lot of Gemmels books should get TV or movie treatment, Legend and the associated books could be amazing.

paulbok

The Shannara books were the first fantasy series I read, even before LOTR so I have a particular grá for them. Having said that, I did find the storylines in later books a bit repetitive.

I'm looking forward to checking this out some time, currently have no tv or access to 'other sources' and it'll be a few weeks yet before I do.

Huge amount of tv to catch up on.

Lirange

It's been absolute ages since I read any Shannara Books. I only remember bits and bobs. He wasn't the most riveting storyteller in terms of writing style but the payoffs were often worth it...he wasn't always predictable or wedded to happy endings. So though some might consider his work dated I think it might actually translate fairly well to TV if done right. I'm not expecting this to be great especially since it seems to be going for a young(ish) demo on MTV. But it might be watchable enough.

Agent Coulson

John Rhys-Davies & James Remar in it so that was good enough for me to watch it.

The first three episodes are out and I enjoyed it not knowing anything about it before sitting down to watch it.

Dan_Solo

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Would consider anything by Feist, Gemmell or Goodkind (Sword of Truth series) as far better. Have always felt a lot of Gemmels books should get TV or movie treatment, Legend and the associated books could be amazing.

You have heard of the Legend of the Seeker TV show? Worth watching for the lesbian ninjas if nothing else...

titan18

I enjoyed it, but was a big fan of the books when I read them (they're not good tbh, I was just young so bit of nostalgia for them, and other than LOTR, had never read anything like them), so I was probably going to enjoy it no matter. Only thing that caught me off guard was how Allanon looked. Not what I had in my head at all for him. Always had more of a Gandalf or Merlin sort of vibe of him in my head.

corkie

Agent Coulson wrote: »

John Rhys-Davies & James Remar in it so that was good enough for me to watch it.

The first three episodes are out and I enjoyed it not knowing anything about it before sitting down to watch it.

Also watched the first three episodes, never read the books, also enjoyed it.

DVD-Lots

Watched the first 4 eps last night, terrible acting (apart from JRD, Austin Butler and Manu Bennett) and some really terrible dialog ("did he get you knocked up?") , but has some great fantasy elements. Reminds me of the Eragon movie, looks great but meh. I'll watch till the end though, I'm sure the actors will grow on me eventually......

DareGod

I've watched the first three episodes, currently watching the fourth. (Haven't read the books.) It's fairly mindless tv, which can be a good thing. I'm enjoying it. The fifth episode isn't being released until the 26th of this month, so an almost-three week wait for the next episode unfortunately.

DVD-Lots wrote: »

Watched the first 4 eps last night, terrible acting (apart from JRD, Austin Butler and Manu Bennett) and some really terrible dialog ("did he get you knocked up?") , but has some great fantasy elements. Reminds me of the Eragon movie, looks great but meh. I'll watch till the end though, I'm sure the actors will grow on me eventually......

It's MTV so that's to be expected At least, I knew to expect it having watched MTV's "Scream" tv series last summer. I've noticed many parallels between the two shows, despite the entirely different premises.

Mr E

I found this surprisingly great. I really enjoyed it.

suffering golfer

This.Is a bit of a wierd one for me. Obviously it is trying to feed off the LOTR and GOT success. I always had a bit of a soft spot for Brooks, apart from his latest stuff which is a bit meh. Favorite books for me were the Scions series as think they were his best work. Hopefully they will do that in series 2 etc... If it survies the 1st series.

As for the tv show, stunning visuals TBF. Not sure I like the way they just seem to hop from place to place as if it doesn't seem that far apart. In the books from what I remember, it was much more difficult and much further apart.

Watchable enough, seem to follow the book well enough but with some differences

didn't the changling survive much longer in the book before it was discovered and kill the king of the elves before it was distroyed? Have a feeling they change the plot and have one of the princes kill the father. My guess anyhow.

Don't like Will character protrayal though, very annoying for some reason.

suffering golfer

suffering golfer wrote: »

This.Is a bit of a wierd one for me. Obviously it is trying to feed off the LOTR and GOT success. I always had a bit of a soft spot for Brooks, apart from his latest stuff which is a bit meh. Favorite books for me were the Scions series as think they were his best work. Hopefully they will do that in series 2 etc... If it survies the 1st series.

As for the tv show, stunning visuals TBF. Not sure I like the way they just seem to hop from place to place as if it doesn't seem that far apart. In the books from what I remember, it was much more difficult and much further apart.

Watchable enough, seem to follow the book well enough but with some differences

didn't the changling survive much longer in the book before it was discovered and kill the king of the elves before it was distroyed? Have a feeling they change the plot and have one of the princes kill the father. My guess anyhow.

Don't like Will character protrayal though, very annoying for some reason.

Nailed the spoiler :pac:

Enjoyable enough if mindlessly silly. The two female leads are hot though.

JP Liz V1

Renewed

http://tvline.com/2016/04/20/the-shannara-chronicles-renewed-season-2-mtv/

budhabob

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Renewed

http://tvline.com/2016/04/20/the-shannara-chronicles-renewed-season-2-mtv/

Watched this recently, pure popcorn TV but I must say I kinda enjoyed it and I'm glad it got renewed.

EoinMcLovin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHXcwCgAcKM

Mr E

The first episode was on last week. Glad there was a good long "previously" segment because I couldn't remember very much about season 1.

Decent start to the season. Lots of new characters.

Mr E

Finished season 2 last night. Very good season overall. The last 4 episodes were a bloodbath with lots of main characters being killed off.

EoinMcLovin

Paramount passed on a Season 3, is being shopped to other outlets
http://tvline.com/2018/01/16/shannara-chronicles-cancelled-spike-tv-paramount-no-season-3/