It's On! Rainshadow ponders the LotS premier.

Well, that fateful day has come… and now gone.

At long last, Legend of the Seeker, or at least the two-hour premier, has finally aired. Two long years in the making—and many more in the minds of those of us who dream of such things—and the creation is finally ours to embrace. In retrospect, those years seem all too short. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

Before diving into the nitty-gritty, there seems to be a great boundary standing between the fans of the books who loved the show’s premier—rainshadow included—and those who are unable to forgive the many deviations that the series creators have taken from the author’s original vision. I’d personally be curious to hear Mr. Goodkind’s take. Of course, the show will never touch the mastery of Terry’s written word—nigh impossible even had the creators copied directly from the script of Wizard’s First Rule (WFR).

The fact of the matter is that Sam Raimi and Co. are using the blueprint of Terry’s marvelous tale. However, a blueprint is much like a skeleton, which must have the tendons and muscles and flesh and blood and all the organs therein, all capable of the routine biological processes, to sustain life, or it collapses. There are a number of reasons why the creators aren’t binding the blueprint to the same materials Terry used to breathe life into WFR.

Foremost, not every detail within Terry’s book translates very well to the screen. Indeed Terry’s written word is magnificent to behold. However, prose is boundless to all but the writer’s imagination, whereas television has its limitations. The screen allows only a portion of the whole to be revealed with each shot. The development of characters, for instance, is great for a novel because the use of narration is but one way to seamlessly bind events through a character’s thoughts. It gets tricky in television, especially when creators are hesitant to focus on details of the past in flashbacks. Flashbacks have a tendency to pause the flow of a story, and in an hour-long episode of a series that uses each episode to tell an independent story, they are a serious time killer. Therefore, when they are used in LotS, they will be used sparingly at most. After all… life is the future, not the past.

Another reason the creators are taking such liberties is that, while they want to remain true to the spirit of the books, they also want to give us a unique story. I was always a bit envious of the viewers LotS would attract who had not actually read the books—fans of Xena and Hercules spring instantly to mind, as they will be interested in what Raimi and his team have up their sleeves this time around. I want to see something new, as well, and while LotS isn’t the same WFR I once read and fell in love with back in high school, the balance is met in that I am seeing something, while familiar to me, wholly new as well. The idea that something so dear to me can bring a brand new excitement is an exhilarating realization. I love the idea of not knowing, even if I bear the burden of knowledge somewhere in between.

The third reason for the changes is a lot less story related, and perhaps a bit easier pill to swallow to some of those who have been uninterested in the generic medication of apples and oranges—heh… you PI nuts will understand that… the rest of you will have to wait for a future post.

The reason might ease your disgust at Terry for letting them touch his book, or vice versa. Perhaps it will strengthen your anger at the creators who in turn touched the story, or vice versa. For me, however, it was all too clear and acceptable a reason when a member of PI—who exactly I do not recall—pointed out that the writers are actually rewarded for their inventiveness. The more change, the more they breathe their own interpretations into the story, the more benefits they reap.

Who am I to argue with the reaping of benefits? As long as I remain as intrigued as I have been to the point, I will continue not to bitch.

Now we get to the meat of it. Like the alpha in a ravenous pack of bloodthirsty heart hounds, rainshadow descended on the remote a few minutes before 5 p.m. Central. And it turns out the fury before the storm was every bit as intense, if not more so, than the storm itself.

I turned on the tube to discover, horror of horrors, that on WGN, LotS actually aired at 4 p.m.

After a mega-hissy I soothed my fury (managing somehow not to kill the cat or destroy the house in a furious blood rage) when Zedd calmly reminded me that another channel was also scheduled to air the show at what I thought to be 5. Luckily enough, this time the info was spot on, and all was right in the world of rainshadow’s television viewing. Zedd was a happy pussycat, too.

Terror averted—though barely—rainshadow was able to watch the show, and within moments his fury was completely washed away in a mire of unabated bliss as I began to meet Kahlan, Richard, Zedd, and Chase all over again, with a touch of hatred for the villain who has been shed in a new light. It was the best two hours of my week, maybe the best in a great many weeks. The story was much more in tune to the books than many had feared as the time diminished from two years, to months, to weeks and even days and hours prior to the premier. The tone was deliciously accurate to the tone of WFR, even if many of the circumstances were often different.

I’ve seen some comments in regard to the “excessive” use of slow motion during the premier, and that is one of the things that strike me as perfect for this brand of series, especially considering Terry’s use of the perception of time within his novels. Elements are described in great detail as an event that would appear to happen in the blink of the eye go through a considerably in-depth telling in Terry’s novels… Richard cutting at bad guys with the Sword of Truth and Kahlan’s use of her power are key examples.

We are also beginning to see the edges of character development on the horizon… not an easy thing to accomplish in a show’s premier. A premier needs to draw viewers in by leaning heavily on the raw aspects of such a show. In this case, the raw aspects of LotS… the action and the plot take center stage while things such as character development, which will eventually begin to drive the series, must take a backseat for at least the premier. The creators will have time to tell us who these people are, but without intensity of the premier the average viewer would turn away much too quickly if they are bored.

I relished in homages aplenty toward the books; what they meant by some elements of future books being sprinkled into the storyline was true as toasted toads. I won’t name any of those situations here, for the sake of my readers who have yet to see the show, and for those who have yet to read the books. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

It pleased me greatly to see the creators had such respect for Terry and his works that even some of those scenes they couldn’t maintain in the flow of the show, they managed to honor in some small way.

By the way, if you’re a member of either party—or worse, both—what the hell are you doing here?! Go remedy!

Yes, yes, that’s not too easy for those of you who can’t watch the show to remedy. I’m truly sorry about that.

Some things do indeed suck.

One of these days (with any luck sooner rather than later), I hope everyone has a chance to enjoy the moment as I did. And I hope, when that day comes, that you find it as pleasing a time as me. I was a kid in a candy store, or at the very least, a gar on a fresh kill. A delicious feast it was, to be sure.

I’m ravenous for the next installment.

Until next time, may the good spirits be with you!