
You might not be able to tell it from my initial review, but yes, I do see some faults with the television show. When LotS premiered on Nov. 1st with the episodes ‘Prophecy’ and ‘Destiny’, I sat through it with an open mind and a smile on my face. That two-hour premier was a whole new experience for all of us, and I was perhaps more than a little forgiving during that time.
I was not so forgiving of certain situations this time around. I caught some things that made me either scratch my head or roll my eyes. Sitting through the first two hours a second time last Wednesday I had some of the same moments, but we’re not talking about the premier. I’m here to discuss ‘Bounty’ after all.
I’m not all that much of a nitpicker, and that usually allows me to enjoy little things that some people just can’t. There are too many people out there who just like to nitpick whatever happens to come to them over the idiot box.
Though I’m not a nitpicker, I have been known to pick nits on occasion. One of my big advantages is I’m able to completely clear the books from my mind as I watch LotS, which allows me to follow the show without arguing every little detail. That said, there were still a few blaring incidents that troubled me on Saturday.
The first is a line Richard uses to defend his intentions to help Lilly, the gorgeous blonde who attempted to trade the Seeker to the D’Harans for her brother Liam’s life. When Kahlan tells Richard that Lilly isn’t deserving of his help after what she has done, Richard says, “It shouldn't matter that she deserves our help. It should be enough that she needs it.”
While the sentiment is very Richard-like, the manner it is expressed clearly steers away from the Objectivist message of Terry’s novels. It was a hard pill to swallow. There were plenty of other ways to express the necessity of saving Liam. In fact Zedd hits on a key point: the people need to know that the Seeker will stand up against tyranny, that he is on their side. To simply allow Liam to die would contradict that message. So in the end, the needs of the Seeker and his party were met, but the message Richard delivers misses the mark. I was disappointed.
The second gaffe, in my mind, comes when Richard and Kahlan are facing the bounty hunter with the crossbow. As Zedd, Lilly, Richard, and Kahlan pass a man fighting to repair his wagon, who asks for assistance, Richard tells them there is no time—they are, after all, looking for her missing brother. He promises they will return if they can.
As they pass, however, the bounty hunter throws off his cloak and takes aim with a crossbow.
After a series of slow-motion, Matrix-style sequences in which Richard and Kahlan both dodge crossbow bolts and then Richard cuts a pair of others out of midair, they quickly subdue the bounty hunter and the scene is over.
The scene itself doesn’t bother me all that much. This is something that Richard similarly accomplishes in the books, to a degree. What did strike me as unnecessary is Kahlan’s awkward dodge to avert the same bolt that Richard dodged. It was just a tad bit hokey, the scene that literally caused me to roll my eyes.
The third gaffe comes as the D’Haran soldier is kneeling over an imprisoned Liam with an offer of food. He takes his time in a quite convincing show of empathy, to get Liam to accept the offer, only to pull it back with a laugh and a “We hang thieves, we don’t fatten them up!”
I thought this was a perfect opportunity to show a bit of humanity amongst the D’Haran soldiers. Not all serving beneath Rahl’s boot have to agree with the man. It was a bit disheartening to see the writers drop the ball on what could have been a scene for inspiration in the later goings.
But at the same time, it’s early in the season, and the D’Harans are the enemy, so I will give the creator’s time to show that aspect.
I think the main characters are pretty much spot-on. The opening sequence with Richard and Kahlan chasing a rabbit, only to have it incinerated by a blast of Wizard’s Fire was quite hilarious. “I was hungry,” Zedd exclaims, “and it was getting away!” On my end, there was pure bliss from that simple line. I laughed long and hard. There were moments of disagreement between Richard and Kahlan that show they are still getting to know one another. Those scenes felt important, and I have to give Craig Horner and Bridget Regan a ton of credit: the chemistry is there. They are Richard and Kahlan.
The guest stars were great, for the most part. Lilly, the D’Haran leader, and the bounty hunters were convincing (though perhaps the bounty hunters were a bit too much like bumbling idiots). The star of the show, though, was really the brother of producer Sam Raimi, Ted. He played the mapmaker Sebastian, and he hit home the line that to me was the most important in the episode.
“Where was the Seeker when we were suffering under Lord Rahl?”
This is the defining question, the question that Richard must overcome to convince the people of the Midlands that he is there to rise up to fight Darken Rahl. In helping Lilly to save her brother, despite that cloud hanging over them all, Richard is beginning to answer that question.
Overall, I thought it was an enjoyable episode, and I personally think it was better quality than the premier despite the gaffes.
Until next time, may the good spirits be with you!
8 comments:
Here's an attribution:
thompa2 from PI
http://www.prophets-inc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13486&page=2
Disclaimer: Yes, I am fully aware that this may be the only post on this thread that disagrees with the OP, and I am also fully aware that you will all probably yell at me for it.
I couldn't disagree with Pauleon more. The show got "dumbed down" for the "the real world" and that's supposed to be ok? Since when has Richard or Kahlan EVER dumbed anything down for those around them? I also don't buy the "it has to be like 'The Hills' for it to be successful" argument. I will point no further than The West Wing. That show was brilliant, incredibly brilliant. They had outstanding acting, stunningly intelligent dialogue, and coherently tackled some of the most pressing issues facing our world today. Two Cathedrals, an episode at the end of the 2nd season, is, in my opinion, the greatest single hour of television to ever be produced. Not only was The West Wing smart in a way few shows have ever been smart, it was very, very successful. Television can be both intelligent and successful, there are countless examples of it both past and present.
I will give another example: The Lord of the Rings. Those movies captured nearly perfectly the magic and power of Tolkein's words in a way that captivated everyone. Not just the smartypants, and not just the meatheads, because it touched on what it meant to be human and the nobility of that spirit. Goodkind does that in his books, but this show so far hasn't even come close. Making a dumbed down show that caters to the lowest common denominator won't inspire anyone to do anything, especially not convince people who never read to pick up an 800 page book.
This story has been eviscerated for no purpose, and it both saddens and angers me. They had a chance to do something great with this and they completely blew it. The megaphone-to-the-masses concept is absurd. Richard spent hundreds of pages throughout these books giving eloquent speeches to the masses that convinced countless people to choose to join his cause rather than the Order. This show is neither eloquent nor convincing. It does not in any way have the heart and soul of the original books. We have all been let down.
/rant
Disclaimer 2: I loved the books and I despise the show. The contents of this post are the sole opinions of the commenter and are not intended to represent the views of anyone else, at all.
Good to see you CAN nitpick. Here are my thoughts.
Take a look at this, and despair. This is verbatim, from the episode that just aired.
Kahlan: What has she done to deserve our help?
Richard: How do we decide who deserves our help? It should be enough that she needs it.
Kahlan: Richard, people like her are only looking out for themselves.
Richard: And if the Seeker's just out for himself? What chance do they have?
Is it just me, or does Richard sound a lot like Nicci - before she wised up? I had no idea Goodkind was pushing for altruism. All this time, he had us fooled.
And to think you people actually ridiculed me for calling Goodkind a sellout...
Other things worth noting:
1. Not one second of this episode came from the book. Though you guys could probably care less.
2. Zedd's Wizard's Fire not only blows gars up, it also blows humans up. How craptacular.
3. Apparently, Kahlan can run faster than a team of horses and dodge arrows. Huh, who knew? Unless... she's Wonder Woman! Yeah, that must be it.
4. Slow motion and shitty camera work zooming in on Kahlan's heaving breasts are fixtures in this series.
5. Kahlan's cleavage is the only redeeming part of the show so far.
See, you CAN produce a post that earns you some respect. Your tone might suck but at least you back yourself up decently. Thank you.
Just out of curiosity, may I ask why it is you respect thompa2? Is it simply because you agree with him on this particular topic, or do you have other reasons?
I actually fully agree on the case of the discussion between Richard and Kahlan.
The only bit of that particular conversation that could almost be attributed to books (and you pretty much have to really stretch) is Zedd leaving the people to their fate. There is an altruistic tone when he is convinced that his decision is hurting more people than just the counsel.
BTW, if this show is so bad, why bother watching?
And that end scene DID come from the books. Not that you probably care.
My tone is fine, under the circumstances.
Don't know thompa2, but I liked his post.
I'm still watching because I'm hoping it'll get better.
Rainshadow, couple of questions:
1. Which end scene are you talking about?
2. I realize you say you aren't a nitpicker, but it seems to me you are picking nits on things that, in my opinion (minus the Richard quote) aren't worth mentioning and ignoring some of the main themes in the book that don't seem to be anywhere in the show. For example, Richard and kahlan's relationship seems a bit strained to me, seeing as they didn't really have arguments, and Richard depended on kahlan a lot more, as she was his guide throughout the Midlands. It seems that the show is skipping the Mud People (only God knows why), which was the main character development and relationship development for Richard and kahlan. Any comments on that?
1. The end scene where Zedd talks about additive magic. It wasn't done exactly the same way, and it cut the scene short
2. Well, first off all, the relationships changed from the start when they wandered into the Midlands because Zedd was with them in the show.
I think the Richard/Kahlan characterization is closer than you think. Later in the books there are many times when Kahlan questions Richard for whatever the reason, when it turns out that Richard had made the right decision from the start. This is what they were shooting at in episode three, but the line Richard uses mucked it up. The action was right, Richard's reasoning was flawed.
As for the mud people... stay tuned. I have reason to believe we'll be seeing them. What is the main reason Richard and Kahlan go to the mud people? To find the last Box of Orden.
The Boxes have not been mentioned in the show to date... but, as I said... stay tuned.
Keep in mind that because the show is doing things out of sequence when compared to the books, that doesn't mean when those things happen you won't see a similar effect as in the books. A season of 22 episodes has a lot of time to blend in the themes you feel are missing. Yes, at this time many of them are... but there are still 18 episodes to go.
The change in Richard and Zedd's relationship, for example, was so that they could build around the characters from the start of the series rather than having much of the relationship established before the first episode takes place.
Of course, I'm not really here to do a comparison of the books. I will on occasion, but very seldom. The show is not the books. What more can I say than that? I might discuss a detail here or there that catches my eye, but I'm not going to dig in deep just to find/prove something that isn't there.
I brought up Richard's altruistic comment because drew my attention, and so it got mentioned.
I blog about the show as a fan, not as a critic. I don't expect people to come along and read my blog just to decide if they really want to tune in or not. Most of the people who come here are going to be members of PI. A good majority know the problems here or there. I don't have my link posted anywhere else on the web, save the mother site that hosts this blog, and wherever my readers may have taken the link to.
I think it important that I point out that this genre appeals to me. I never watched much Hercules or Xena, but the show to me feels old-school in the style of the Tom Cruise movie Legend. Because I like the style it's going to be difficult for me to ever rate the show very low, and even more difficult when you consider the source material.
Ah, I see your point of view now. I am a new member of the PI forums, and am a die-hard fan of the books. In fact, watching the first three episodes (the show airs on Wednesdays where I live for some reason) made me want to reread the series, which I am now into Blood of the Fold. Had a great laugh at the reference to boiled peas in the forums, I had completely forgotten about that scene with Berdine.
But back to the show. I remember someone mentioning that the Boxes of Orden will be in the show, which I am glad for, as well as the Mud People. I will be looking for that. Having episode eight be "Denna" kinda threw me for a loop. I'm not really angry at most of the changes since TV is such a different media than books, and the show is focusing on the main theme of Richard's growth into a hero. I do think that they should play up the more mysterious aspects, like how magic works, but like you said, there are many more episodes to go in the season, but at this point, I still can't see where this show is going to go, and it kinda scares me. Personally, I am kinda fed up with the episodic plot that American TV beats into the ground, and I was sort of hoping that LotS might break out of that, but so far, as evidenced by 'Bounty', no dice.
Here's to hoping that the show will turn out to be great in the end, and that it gets more than one season. :D
Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it.
Rainshadow, Let me say I truely enjoy reading your critiques on the show. As you probably could guess from my PI posts I agree with most of what you have to say. I enjoy the TV show for the most part but as you've said there are scenes that make me go"What the heck was that?" One of those was in Elixure when they were able to stop Zed from using his magic by binding his hands. Since when was using your hands needed to conjure magic? It's more of a bringing forth an inner power. I know that's a book/show comparison but you see what I mean. I'm hoping ep8, Denna will turn out well. The stills that I've seen are quite convincing. Also Queen Melina looks spot on and Darken Rahl will be back. All these things give me hope of a decent episode. Bring it on!
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