WTF Legend of the Seeker?

[MissK]

I was wondering if anyone else has has the (mis)fortune to see "Legend of the Seeker" on Fox? I was clicking around, and at first I thought, "Oh, a nice little fantasy series." But I was not prepared for the sheer craziness that would unfold in last Sunday's Dominatrix Episode. Those who know what I'm talking about can help me answer these questions -- What the f*** was that about? What issues does the writer have? How did Stephen Tolkien end up as the executive producer?

[Dienekes]

Welcome to the magical world of Terry Goodkind.

Sure I've heard the show varies from the books a bit. But the craziness, the dominatrix, the complete insanity of the plot and characters is all still present.

[Metal Head]

I recall a thread being started way back when this show started. We all talked about how much it sucked. It isn't even really all that close to what Terry Goodkind wrote. It's a butchered and anally violated version of it, not that Goddkind's works were that great to begin with.

[SurlySeraph]

I recall a thread being started way back when this show started. We all talked about how much it sucked. It isn't even really all that close to what Terry Goodkind wrote. It's a butchered and anally violated version of it, not that Goddkind's works were good, OK, or even remotely sane to begin with.

Fixed. Because Terry Goodkind writes some very, very disturbed stuff.

[jlvm4]

I was wondering if anyone else has has the (mis)fortune to see "Legend of the Seeker" on Fox? I was clicking around, and at first I thought, "Oh, a nice little fantasy series." But I was not prepared for the sheer craziness that would unfold in last Sunday's Dominatrix Episode. Those who know what I'm talking about can help me answer these questions -- What the f*** was that about? What issues does the writer have? How did Stephen Tolkien end up as the executive producer?

It is my understanding they are loosely based on the Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodkind (not sure I'm spelling this right). I stumbled upon the TV show first, and from what I hear loosely-based is the operative word. Since I kind of like the show, I'm waiting to read the books, so that I can take it on its own terms.

But the dominatrix ladies are called mord-sith. They are immune to magic and tortured into their scarier traits.

[averagejoe]

Man, that series was just bad. The books, at least, were hilariously bad, but the show was just awful. The woman they got to play Khalen cannot act at all. I actually laughed when the mord sith touched Khalen with her pain stick, which is the only time I've ever really laughed at that sort of thing.

[Mr. Scaly]

I actually saw half an episode not that long ago before I had to go to work. The one where a wizard is selling magic to fund an army.

Honestly, I...didn't hate it. It had a certain campiness to it that reminded me of Hercules: the Legendary Journeys.

[ArlEammon]

I actually saw half an episode not that long ago before I had to go to work. The one where a wizard is selling magic to fund an army.

Honestly, I...didn't hate it. It had a certain campiness to it that reminded me of Hercules: the Legendary Journeys.

That's because it has some of the same makers of Xena and Hercules.

[pita]

It's supposed to be a replacement for Hercules and Xena. It's why fans of SoT hate it, and fans of it generally hate SoT. The more it deviates from the original, the better it will be, though.
By the way, Lemmings of Discord is the name given to a group of SoT haters by Terry Goodkind's #1 fan.

[The J Pizzel]

I read the first book of the series and really didn't get into it. It wasn't awful...but I just didn't connect with it. I had a friend who swears by the whole book series and says it's the greatest thing since LotR. I just laugh.

Anywho, the TV show was pretty funny. I remember signing into Hulu for the first time and wondering what to watch. I tossed between the Sarah Conner Chronicles and Legend of the Seeker. I settled on LoS and was laughing through most of it. Scaly and Armin are right, it's just real campy. The acting is bad, the action is bad, the guy playing Zed is hilarious (naked on a rock with the chicken was awesome, I'm glad they threw that in there), the bad guys are bad, it's just....bad...and funny. I ended up watching about 3 episodes before calling it quits. Don't miss it all either.

In closing, I'll agree I can definetly see a modernized version of Hercules and Xena in the production...except those were great shows....or was I just adolescent...who knows.

jP

[Berserk Monk]

It's based on the novel Wizard's First Rule, one of the books in the Sword of Truth series. The books are really good and filled with sex and gore. My favorite character: Stein (he has a cloak made out of human scalps:smallbiggrin:).

[pita]

Wow, a forum with a fan of SoT.
Bring on the tears :).
No, I won't enter this debate unless challenged... I'm an adult... I hope...
In any case, I was considering watching the show. Is it mst3k bad, or Eye of Argon bad, or Sword of Truth bad? If it's the first i'm definitely going to watch it. Not that mst3k is bad, but they find a lot of very entertaining stuff.
Are there rifftrax of it?
EDIT-http://sandstormreviews.blogspot.com/2006/08/goodkind-parodies.html explains why I'm a hater, by the way.

[The J Pizzel]

It's based on the novel Wizard's First Rule, one of the books in the Sword of Truth series. The books are really good and filled with sex and gore. My favorite character: Stein (he has a cloak made out of human scalps:smallbiggrin:).

While I agree it does have a good bit of sex and gore, I can't agree that the series is good (opinion). From what I remember, (and I read it a good long time ago) the sex and violence felt kinda forced and needless in most scenarios. Like there really wasn't a good reason for it. I do remember a male pedophile in the book who tried to butt-rape Khalen at the end of the first novel and I remember thinking that was a little forced (no pun intended). I'm not against graphic sex and violence in a book ( I actually love George R. R. Martin) it just felt a little shallow; as if it was only there for shock factor.

Back on topic...the show was funny.

jP

[Smiling Knight]

By the way, Lemmings of Discord is the name given to a group of SoT haters by Terry Goodkind's #1 fan.
But we have proudly made it our official group title!

The Lemmings are the literary equivalent of the boarders here who have all the threads on Dominc Deegan. Some of the parallels are actually eerily similar...

[Muz]

I find it to be "mostly entertaining cheese." But don't watch it alone if you can help it. It's much better if you've got someone there with you to help you laugh at it.

Plus it's got evil-Haldir! :smallbiggrin:

[averagejoe]

But we have proudly made it our official group title!

The Lemmings are the literary equivalent of the boarders here who have all the threads on Dominc Deegan. Some of the parallels are actually eerily similar...

Oh, I hardly think we hate Dominic Deegan; in fact, I think a lot of us would be very disappointed if it ended tomorrow. We just don't like it for things like quality.

[ThunderCat]

http://sandstormreviews.blogspot.com/2006/08/goodkind-parodies.html explains why I'm a hater, by the way.I was going to post that. I'm glad I'm not alone :smallsmile: And MissK, the Mord Sith are nothing in the books :smallsigh: Read the parts about the namble, a phallus monster who helps the weak female sorceresses absorb the much stronger male power, and Jagangbang (actually just Jagang, but the other is more correct), an evil emperor whose hobby should be obvious from the name.

[MissK]

I love the voice the mord-sith lady - Denna? - uses when she yells at Richard. I now use that voice to ask normal questions of my husband. Ex:

"WHY have you eaten all the cookies!!???!!! Maybe I've been ...TOO EASY ON YOU!!!!!"

So fun.

[Jerthanis]

Hey, I liked the Legend of the Seeker show. It was campy and ridiculous, and had a lot of mediocre-poor acting, but had occasional cool fight scenes, episodic plots that were interesting and self-contained, and plenty of humor. It was better than the book series by leaps and bounds.

I'm honestly surprised Goodkind would let his story be made by people who would change it this much, but at least now there's a halfway decent TV show to go along with the brand rather than just a book series that could only be accurately portrayed as, "Proof that literally no matter how bad your book series is, you can get be published and popular if you try hard enough." (Words of a reviewer, I think from Amazon, so take with a grain of salt.)

[Drakyn]

Oh that's accurate, Amazon or no. I read the whole thing up to about the second-to-last book.
Imagine a world divided into sheerest black and brightest(allegedly) white. Where the bad guys are so breathtakingly inanely evil that it's actually physically, mentally, and philisophically impossible for them to exist anywhere, in any universe.
Then imagine that thanks to this the good guys (the most awesome and ideal people ever, anywhere, who are perfect and incredible in every way you can imagine and many more because you suck compared to them and had best worship them) could perform any atrocities they pleased without limit and not merely be justified but be actually praised for it.
In short: gorn, porn, entire civilizations and cultures of strawmen, and ultra-objectivist propaganda (starting at book twoish in small doses and increasing exponentially as you go in).

[pita]

Wait until the last book. Richard gains ultimate power, sends everyone he doesn't like and all of those anti-magic people to a world in which there is no afterlife. This world is heavily implied to be Earth. We are all descended from commies!
EDIT- And have you read the plot of his new "thriller"? It's Wizard's First Rule all over again, but in a modern world. He kept the magic. And the main character is Alex Rahl. And he lives on Orden Street.

[warty goblin]

I recall a thread being started way back when this show started. We all talked about how much it sucked. It isn't even really all that close to what Terry Goodkind wrote. It's a butchered and anally violated version of it, not that Goddkind's works were that great to begin with.

Strangely enough, I'm not sure that the complete violation of Goodkind's creative vision wouldn't improve the actual story. Although to be fair, the first book wasn't actually all that bad. Rather weird in parts, but not the crap that the later ones degenerated into.

[thorgrim29]

I liked the first book... The others were kinda like watching a very slow trainwreck.

[Nanan]

The "Legend of the Seeker" show has as much to do with the Sword of Truth book series as the movie "Star Ship Troopers" had to do with the "Enders Game" book.


I could not watch past the second episode it was that bad, the producers and writers should be shot for what they did to the book series.

[jlvm4]

The "Legend of the Seeker" show has as much to do with the Sword of Truth book series as the movie "Star Ship Troopers" had to do with the "Enders Game" book.

Just for clarification, did you mean to say the Starship Troopers book (by Robert Heinlein) or were you being deliberate in your comparison using a book completly unrelated to the movie in any way, including the titles.

Not trying to cause trouble, just curious.

[Weezer]

Because of this thread I was inspired to watch the first episode of this series and found it was indeed as bad as everyone says. Sadly even though i wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at how bad it was it was in some ways an improvement over Goodkinds later books.

I do have one good thing to say about it: wherever they filmed it was amazingly beautiful.

[averagejoe]

The "Legend of the Seeker" show has as much to do with the Sword of Truth book series as the movie "Star Ship Troopers" had to do with the "Enders Game" book.

Or as the movie Starship Troopers had to do with the book, Starship Troopers. :smallwink:

[Ditto]

I enjoy the show LoS for it's campy goodness, it's like a weak version of Hercules. The original writing, however, is HILARIOUSLY bad. I just spent time trawling through that Sandstorm like that was posted and the parodies there, most excellent. :smallsmile:

[FoE]

Did the show have ... the chicken that was no chicken?!

[Erothayce]

I actually enjoyed the book series despite the problems with it. Say what you will but I found it a fun read. The show is nothing at all like the series in any way except for names. I got through 15 minutes of an episode before I turned it off. Honestly it wouldn't be that hard to be completely true to the source material.

[averagejoe]

Did the show have ... the chicken that was no chicken?!

I have not been a fan of the show, but I would probably pay to see that.

[Swordlol]

I didn't read the books.


Here in NJ the series ended and was ran on the CW11.

I found it enjoyable, there isn't here in NJ when it comes to television - I personally hate reality shows, game shows, and shows dealing with antiques or houses or music shows.

Thats basically what you get here in NJ.

[Indon]

By the way, Lemmings of Discord is the name given to a group of SoT haters by Terry Goodkind's #1 fan.

...himself? (I kid)

I guess I don't need to ask about your signature.

If I stumble onto the show in some way I'll probably watch it. SoT would be hilarious with a sufficiently large pulp injection. I'm envisioning Johnny Quest combined with Rocky Horror Picture Show, with a bit of 60's cold war paranoia tossed in - you know, like Duck and Cover.

With as cold-war pulpy as the book series is, I don't imagine it'd take too much divergence to get that feel.

Also, I rather liked the book series - thanks to them, I know I can kill people horribly and painfully by getting them to inhale ground glass!

[pita]

Terry Goodkind's #1 fan is a guy called mystar. He used to have his own forum, but it shut down a month ago. He's a genius at inventing inane metaphors to describe other people. Notably, The Lemmings of Discord.

[Indon]

Terry Goodkind's #1 fan is a guy called mystar. He used to have his own forum, but it shut down a month ago. He's a genius at inventing inane metaphors to describe other people. Notably, The Lemmings of Discord.

Really? Genius? I'm pretty sure 'Lemming' is in the first chapter of the objectivist handbook (see: XKCD (http://www.xkcd.com/610/)), and 'Discord' draws pretty handily from the book series itself.