# Legend of the Seeker: Series Premier OAD 11/1/2008



## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

A two part premier of the new series "Legend of the Seeker" will occur Saturday. From Wikipedia:


> Legend of the Seeker is a live-action weekly television series based on The Sword of Truth novels by Terry Goodkind. Distributed in domestic syndication by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, ABC Studios is producing the series, which is its first foray into broadcast syndication....
> 
> The series follows the epic journey of a young woods guide named Richard Cypher (played by Craig Horner) and a mysterious woman named Kahlan Amnell (played by Bridget Regan) to stop a vengeful wizard from unleashing an ancient and terrifying power.
> 
> ...Production is currently taking place on location in New Zealand. A large portion of the first episode was filmed in Lion Park, just outside of Auckland....


 Because it's syndicated, it is offered on an independent or affiliated channel in each area of the country, though not in all DMA's. And, of course, it may not be available from your local channel in HD. But do not despair as it is offered nationally on WGN starting at 5 pm EDT (also see schedules for KTLA and WPIX). It will be repeated on Sunday.

The show has an official web site where you can put in your Zip Code to find out which local channel it is on. There is also a 10-minute preview video that was presented earlier this month on a 30-minute special hosted by Lucy Lawless. An unofficial web site is also up and running.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Just a reminder that this is coming up Saturday. Reviews have been...ah...mixed? But it is the pilot and we all know pilots today have to be crammed with everything. Typical are these comments from Variety:


> The producing team of Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert enjoyed considerable success a few years back with "Hercules" and "Xena,"....
> 
> ...There's nothing howlingly bad here (except perhaps for a few of the supporting performances), but nothing particularly distinctive, either. Rather, "Legend of the Seeker" feels like a hodgepodge of better sci-fi/fantasy fare, including slow-motion action sequences that looked way-cool in "300" and this time around merely feel like a cheap way of ensuring nobody gets clipped by an errant sword.
> 
> Disney is producing and distributing the 22-episode order, which in light of the show's youth-oriented qualities could easily have played on one of the studio's cable platforms. Thus exploring the wilds of firstrun syndication is probably the most daring aspect of "Seeker's" familiar quest.


But I'm a great deal less jaded than many reviewers and feel more like these comments in TV Squad:


> Wow, "syndicated adventure series." Whatever happened to all of those cheesy syndicated adventure shows that used to dot the television landscape?...There aren't too many of them anymore, replaced by reality, home improvement, court shows, and talk shows, or not replaced at all.
> 
> ...It sounds silly and over the top and Legend of the Seeker is a horrible title (unless you're making a kids video game or a follow-up to the self-help book The Secret), but this could actually be a lot of fun....


 Personally, I like traditional fantasy over reality TV which is not only fantasy but frequently a depressing attempt to provide escapist entertainment. I prefer evil wizards to Donald Trump.


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## frederic1943 (Dec 2, 2006)

phrelin said:


> I prefer evil wizards to Donald Trump.


I thought The Donald was an evil wizard.


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## leww37334 (Sep 19, 2005)

tried the website with my zip code, of course they showed a Nashville station.


:rant: I am in Tennessee, (the only Tennessee county forced to watch Huntsville, Alabama political commercials). Please call your congressman and free me from the clutches of Alabama television.:rant:


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## puckwithahalo (Sep 3, 2007)

I have a hard time seeing some of the things from the Sword of Truth novels making it onto network tv....the Mord-Sith for one....then again, a lot of things are shown on network tv these days.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

puckwithahalo said:


> I have a hard time seeing some of the things from the Sword of Truth novels making it onto network tv....the Mord-Sith for one....then again, a lot of things are shown on network tv these days.


Since I know nothing about the novels I looked up the Mord-Sith in Wikipedia:


> Mord-Sith wear skin-tight leather outfits. They usually wear brown leather, but when they are training a captive, they wear red, because it hides the blood of their victims better. When a Mord-Sith has broken a victim, and has him completely obedient to her whim, and chooses her "pet" to be the her mate she wears white. The leather uniform always has a crescent and a star on it, as the symbol of the Mord-Sith. In addition, a Mord-Sith always wears her hair in a single, long braid.


Hmmmmmm. So I then had to look up the entry on the novels:


> The Sword of Truth series is written with an adult audience in mind. There are sections in which topics such as philosophy are addressed at a level beyond the interest of most younger readers, as well as frank depictions of the sometimes brutal and violent nature of life in a medieval world. Goodkind himself has stated that he wrote the books with mature adults in mind, not children or those seeking to escape reality.


 There's a whole lot more.

Well, now. I guess maybe the show isn't on Disney for a reason? I'll be real curious if it attempts to in any way head off into philosophy. The show is based on the first book only, _Wizard's First Rule_. Again, looking to Wikipedia I discovered the Wizards First Rule:


> "People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true."


"Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!", said Gomer. I don't expect that bit of wisdom to appear in the Disney version, even in syndication. But we'll see. In the meantime, off to Amazon to find these subversive books with all their perversions before they are all burned....:grin:

In the meantime, there is a decent review of the show in the LA Times.


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## puckwithahalo (Sep 3, 2007)

Very very good books *nod nod nod*


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## Getteau (Dec 20, 2007)

I'm still hoping that they will be true to the books and not completely PC'afy them.
Off the top of my head, I can think of several things that may get cut in the need to be PC.

1. Rape/abuse of women/women as property - There's a lot of it in the series. At some points, it was overwhelming.

2. Richard's whole philosophy that "You're on your own. The only person that can take care of you is yourself. Any government/leader that says the needs of the many outweigh your needs is lying to you because they want to keep under control." 

3. Richards other philosophy that "You're either with us or against us; there is no middle ground or grey area. If you want to sit in the middle or preach peace to both sides, you are aiding those who would kill us and therefore, you are against us. If you stand between us and them, we won't go out of our way to save you and we won't hesitate to kill you if you get in the way."

4. Mord-Sith. I'll be interested to see how much background they give on them and how they were trained.


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## russ9 (Jan 28, 2004)

It's on WGN National, worth a look...


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## Pink Fairy (Dec 28, 2006)

OMG!!! DUDE! SO EXCITED! 

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these books - although I have not finished the series.


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## frederic1943 (Dec 2, 2006)

It was very good here in Portland, Oregon. Our CW channel is on satellite in HD and the picture quality was great. The acting and the special effects were much better than the Sci-Fi channel's movies. And as with Xena the spectacular scenery of New Zealand was used to good effect.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

frederic1943 said:


> It was very good here in Portland, Oregon. Our CW channel is on satellite in HD and the picture quality was great. The acting and the special effects were much better than the Sci-Fi channel's movies. And as with Xena the spectacular scenery of New Zealand was used to good effect.


I agree that it was much better than a Sci-Fi channel movie, but that's a pretty low standard. Considering the two hours was the pilot that had to lay the groundwork for a complicated series, it was OK.

For reasons only known to the TV Gods, the first showing on WGNHD (on Dish, at least) missed a few seconds of the opening scene and they showed the first 43 minutes in 4:3 switching to 16:9 after a commercial.:nono2:

The Bay Area CW is in SD, but its sister station, a Fox affiliate, is in HD and is airing it from 12-2 am this morning. I'm recording that out of curiosity.

The scenery, special effects, and other production values are good. While they did squeeze in a little humor, this appears likely to be more serious show than Xena but I could be wrong.

I was very surprised that the following quote did appear:


> "People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true."


With that said, if you are a true fan of the books, you're going to have to pretend the pilot is not based on them or you'll likely be disappointed. Whether they actually incorporate more of the books in later episodes, who knows?


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## bicker1 (Oct 21, 2007)

They broadcast it here at 12:05AM, but of course started it 35 minutes late, so even with the show padded 30 minutes, we missed the last 5 minutes; I'm re-recording ep 2 again tonight so we'll catch those 5 minutes. I suspect, however, if we really want to watch this show, we basically need to pad an hour every week, basically doubling how much space the show takes up on the DVR.

It is pretty good, though, so it is probably worth doing so. I did read the books, and I prefer the television show, actually.


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## Pink Fairy (Dec 28, 2006)

Yep, if you have read the books, you spend the entire time screaming in your head the plot it all wrong.

I don't know if I can keep watching it. It is nothing like the books.


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## puckwithahalo (Sep 3, 2007)

> Yep, if you have read the books, you spend the entire time screaming in your head the plot it all wrong.
> 
> I don't know if I can keep watching it. It is nothing like the books.


I wouldn't say its all wrong. I think they're just cutting corners on some of the parts of it that really aren't as significant. I'm looking at it as something totally separate from the book, not trying to nitpick, and I liked it. That or I'm completely missing something that was integral to the original storyline (it has been a while since I read the book). The only big thing that I'm wondering how they'll handle is the Book of Counted Shadows and him not having memorized it yet.


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## Getteau (Dec 20, 2007)

puckwithahalo said:


> I wouldn't say its all wrong. I think they're just cutting corners on some of the parts of it that really aren't as significant. I'm looking at it as something totally separate from the book, not trying to nitpick, and I liked it. That or I'm completely missing something that was integral to the original storyline (it has been a while since I read the book). The only big thing that I'm wondering how they'll handle is the Book of Counted Shadows and him not having memorized it yet.


I agree, I think this is going to end up being something based loosely on the series. I also think buring the book is going to be a pretty big thing to get around without completely re-writing the story. Did anyone notice that they got rid of the "pain" he would feel when he killed someone with the sword.

Was it just my recording, or did anyone else notice the few 30 seconds of dead air going into and comming out of some of the commercial breaks. It's almost like CW in Houston didn't have enough advertising so they just left blank 30 second blocks.


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## Pink Fairy (Dec 28, 2006)

Well, I was looking at the episode list at the website and one of them is labeled "Denna." So we will see how they tie in the Mord Sith.

They could have at least picked actors that fit the descriptions!


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## jeffshoaf (Jun 17, 2006)

Pink Fairy said:


> They could have at least picked actors that fit the descriptions!


That bothered me as well; it's been several years since I read any of the books, but I distinctly remember Khalen (sp?) being blond and Richard being a very large man.


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## bicker1 (Oct 21, 2007)

Generally, I'm more concerned about acting ability than 100% conformance to appearance specs.


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## Pink Fairy (Dec 28, 2006)

jeffshoaf said:


> That bothered me as well; it's been several years since I read any of the books, but I distinctly remember Khalen (sp?) being blond and Richard being a very large man.


Exactly. and Darken Rahl was a blonde haired blue eyed beauty - and where are his scars?

I am watching the second part right now - Richard chasing after the book - ...Rahl is using a journey book which is interesting considering they are not introduced to later in the book series.


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## Getteau (Dec 20, 2007)

Pink Fairy said:


> Exactly. and Darken Rahl was a blonde haired blue eyed beauty - and where are his scars?
> 
> I am watching the second part right now - Richard chasing after the book - ...Rahl is using a journey book which is interesting considering they are not introduced to later in the book series.


I had to stop thinking about all the little things that were different; otherwise, I wouldn't be able to watch the series. Granted, it's probably been at least 12 years since I read the first book, so I may have forgotten some things. Other things I noticed
1. They show Richard eating a red apple. I thought they were going to lead into the whole red fruits are poisonous in mid world, but they didn't follow through on it.
2. Women's hair in regard to their stature in society. I seem to remember that being a pretty big thing in the beginning of the series.
3. Maybe I missed it in the beginning of the books, but I seem to remember Richard being full of self confidence. He seemed pretty wimpy to me in the first two episodes.
4. I need to go back and re-read the first book, but I don't remember Zed being with Richard/Khalan when they crossed the boundary. I thought Zed spent several months with Addie.
5. The Dhahran's that followed Khalan were part of a "quad" which only had 4 soldiers. It seemed like there were 6 or 7 following her in episode 1 (maybe there were 2 units and she had already killed one).
7. Chase seemed smaller that I imagined him in the books. But as large as Chase was in the books, I thought even he was small compared to the Dhahran soldiers. The Dhahran's in the series didn't seem overly impressive to me.
8. No mention of Richard as a great archer. That's huge in the series.

OK, I have to stop...


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## jeffshoaf (Jun 17, 2006)

Getteau said:


> 2. Women's hair in regard to their stature in society. I seem to remember that being a pretty big thing in the beginning of the series.


I don't think they got into the hair length thing until after they crossed the barrier - it wasn't an issue on the Westland side.


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## Getteau (Dec 20, 2007)

After week 3, this one has moved to the "if I have nothing else to watch on the DVR" status. I know they can't follow the book 100%, but this looks like it's going to be the A-Team with swords and magic. First 5 minutes, ride into town and find this weeks trouble. Next 45 minutes get captured by bad guys/get free from bad guys. Final 10 minutes, chop/blast everyone to bits and then sit around the fire and tell everyone what we learned today.

wash/rinse/repeat

I sooooo much wanted this to be good.


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## bicker1 (Oct 21, 2007)

I doubt many people would watch it if it was "good" in the way you imply.


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## mreposter (Jul 29, 2006)

I'm watching episode 12, "Home" on WGN where Richard dreams about being back home and decided to see if they'd released Series 1 on DVD yet. It looks like it'll be out October 13th. Amazon has it for pre-order. I've only seen about half the episodes, but have really enjoyed the series.

According to LegendoftheSeeker.com, Series 2 starts the first week of November.


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## Getteau (Dec 20, 2007)

mreposter said:


> I'm watching episode 12, "Home" on WGN where Richard dreams about being back home and decided to see if they'd released Series 1 on DVD yet. It looks like it'll be out October 13th. Amazon has it for pre-order. I've only seen about half the episodes, but have really enjoyed the series.
> 
> According to LegendoftheSeeker.com, Series 2 starts the first week of November.


Wow, blast from the past thread.

If you are still watching the show, you may want to check out this forum:
http://www.legendoftheseeker-plus.com/forum/index.php
Because it's between seasons, the site is pretty dead right now. At the very beginning or season 1, it was pretty busy over there. But after the first 4 or 5 shows, site attendance dropped off considerably as people stopped watching and commenting.

There are Seeker forums on Terry Goodkind's site as well. However, they had a pretty big blowout early on in season 1. I guess the sites moderator got mad at all the negative posts and blew away the forums related to the show. Someone convinced him to put them back. However, the forums had a "talk nice about the show or else" kind or mantra after that.


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## bonscott87 (Jan 21, 2003)

FYI that all the episodes are available on Hulu still.


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## mreposter (Jul 29, 2006)

The boxed set is only 32 bucks, not bad for a 5 disk collection. I'm sorely tempted to order it and check out the extras.


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