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farmers.

Flash cut to the present (whenever that may be) Where we see two women (Confessors, apparently) riding on horseback through the woods, being chased by Darken's armored goons, and carrying the plans to the Death St... excuse me, carrying a mystical book that contains the secret of how the next Seeker is going to kill Darken Rahl. Showing an amazing amount of fortitude, one of the sisters gets shot through the back with an arrow, and yet stays conscious, lucid, and capable of coherent speech without coughing up blood as she spends a few minutes on some expository last words. The woman entrusts her companion with The Book (you can almost hear the capital letters tinkling into place) and reminds her of how important it is that they get it to it's destination.

After a short chase, the woman walks straight into The Boundary (more capitals), a massive force-field that apparently walls off a large chunk of countryside. The Tyrant's goons move in, but are astonished when the Confessor pulls out an amulet which lets her through the boundary. Despite being briefly stymied, the hole stays open long enough to let three of the goons in armor chase after her on foot.

To make a long story short, a local farmboy rescues her from the goons, and she seeks out Obi Wa... an old man who lives nearby and knows What Is Going On (see? I can use capitals, too!). The backstory is explained to us in slightly contrived speech between Leia and Obi... sorry, I really cannot continue with a straight face. There's more to the plot, but that is the way it begins, and that is plenty to understand my objections to it.

There are a few things that trouble me with this show. First of all, while it's more original than say, Eragon, it's still full of Generic Fantasy Cliches. It recycles scenes and situations that we've seen again and again in books and movies and television. And this goes far beyond simple archetypical situations being similar across stories, it is a blatant lack of creativity. I know it's hard to come up with something truly original, particularly when you are working within a specific genre, but it isn't impossible, and we don't NEED to see the same tired cliches regurgitated back at us anymore.

Not content with merely recycling old mythic archetypes and fantasy cliches, Legend of the Seeker deals starkly in terms of absolute good and absolute evil, one of the most overused themes in western history, and it doesn't bring anything new to the table when dealing with them, either.

Another problem I had was that this show takes itself far too seriously. I don't like movies or television shows where the actors wink at the cameras, but it IS possible to take it too far the other way. I was not terribly moved by how serious everything seemed to be, it doesn't seem to work. The tone seemed too stiff and forced. Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, heck, even film adaptations of 1984 tend to have a better moods than this one.

Overall, it isn't actually a bad show, and I have not watched all of it yet, since it has just started airing. However, what I have seen is little more than another dime a dozen generic fantasy story, reusing tired cliches and simple themes, in an effort to draw in money from targeted audiences that are expected to flock to the fact that this is based on a fantasy book. I haven't read the original books, but from what I have seen of this series, I'm not sure I really want to. I went into it without outside expectations, but what the series really is, is so lacking in originality or points of interest.

Learn more about this author, Kristopher Chambers.
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