The Shannara Chronicles: Chosen   Show Only 
January 6, 2016 4:17 PM - Season 1, Episode 1 - Subscribe

Thousands of years after the fall of Humankind as we know it the Four Lands is in grave danger. The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of an unlikely trio: an Elvin Princess, a Human Rover & a Half-Elf.
posted by oh yeah! (17 comments total)
 
Well I think this is the thread for me, I'd been amused by Brooks other fantasy novel where a banker(?) inherited a fantasy kingdom, so I'd had Shannara on a background list to get to sometime. So when I saw the trailer the other day I grabbed a copy. Whoa, I don't think it's something I can get through, kinda a little too "on the nose" post-tolkein-ish.

So part way through the pilot and it's got a bit of the "OTN" dialog, perhaps too many "pretty" folk but heck, elves right! The baddie preview vision was suitably bad, the big tree was cool, why don't they build a treehouse?

Now if they'll slip in just a bit of Tom Bombadil, I'll be sold!
posted by sammyo at 5:28 PM on January 6, 2016


Manu Bennett is Tom Bombadil in this, right? He just needs to jump up on a table in a tavern and juggle the elfstones, right?

I've never read any of Brooks' novels though I remember them being wildly popular decades ago. I thought this was very by the numbers and fun. A bit too much swooping camerawork and (though I think they are more in the second episode?) the bad guys seem to be just awful cgi.
posted by Catblack at 7:16 PM on January 6, 2016


A bit too much swooping camerawork

Need to show off all that New Zealand, obviously, and remind people that Lord of the Rings was a thing.

Manu Bennett is Tom Bombadil in this, right?

I'm thinking Wil. He's just so useless (moreso in the second episode), and Eretria or Ethopia the Elven Princess can be Goldberry.

I've now watched the first two episodes, and the costuming is bugging me more than it should, like the elven T-shirts for the Chosen nominees in episode one, or Eretria's forehead ornament.

Also, did I completely misread the actor's face, or did John Cho have a cameo? IMBD has nothing, but I would swear it was him or his twin.
posted by Mezentian at 11:02 PM on January 6, 2016 [1 favorite]


Answering my own question, without reviewing the scene it seems to have been Tig Fong, who is the stunt co-ordinator, which might explain why the camera lingered on him.

To be fair, he doesn't seem to look like John Cho at all, but Cho keeps turning up in unexpected places, and I was more focused on the Tree That Bleeds Blood.
posted by Mezentian at 3:18 AM on January 7, 2016


Ugh. Those elf t-shirts with the printed logos also bugged the heck out of me for some reason.
posted by fimbulvetr at 7:02 AM on January 7, 2016


I'm soooo glad I'm not the only one who feels like the costumes are a little too try-hard and distracting.

If I might make a real-world comparison, they look like cheap American Apparel knock-offs of Plastik Wrap clothing (example 1, example 2).
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:28 AM on January 7, 2016


tbh i love how the costuming just DOES NOT give a single fuck. (i just realized that all the examples i was going to list are from eps 3&4 so nvm BUT STILL, no fucks given)
posted by poffin boffin at 11:54 AM on January 7, 2016


also just to clarify this post is for the 2h pilot which constitutes eps 1&2, yes? not sure if the broadcast was the same as the on demand.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:55 AM on January 7, 2016


Yep PB, eps 1 & 2 were the broadcast pilot.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 4:25 PM on January 7, 2016


OMG, then I must say that that crap with the aunt or whomever was utter rubbish. I mean, you knew she was going to die, but that whole "you left me to get old by myself" was just the shittiest thing you could have her character say. She's got a full life living by the seaside thinking druid-dude was dead. I'm sure MTV wants it's audience to think that getting old is the worst thing ever!
posted by Catblack at 5:33 PM on January 7, 2016 [1 favorite]


Yeah, as soon as I saw her I was like "whoa, visibly older grey haired lady? she's dying in the next 5 minutes then" and behold, eaten by a demon.
posted by poffin boffin at 9:53 AM on January 8, 2016 [2 favorites]


Was anyone else disappointed at the poor quality of the elven ear prosthetics and makeup? There was not only a clear color demarcation, but in some cases there was an opening between the ear and the prosthetic. I mean, even Spock's ears were done better back in the 60s. Cosplayers do better than that.

Argh. It annoyed me.
posted by blurker at 6:39 PM on January 8, 2016


I quite liked this in an it's-pretty / it's-silly / it-has-no-shits-to-give way, and will be carrying on with it.

I did find the first 45 minutes or so enormously confusing: who are all these people, especially the elfy ones who all look pretty similar, and which ones are we supposed to care about? Killing off the Chosen dealt with that problem nicely.

The music is terrible.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:53 PM on January 8, 2016


Brooks other fantasy novel where a banker(?) inherited a fantasy kingdom

Magic Kingdom for Saleā€“Sold! although wow, the Wikipedia plot summary makes it sound a lot less fun and a lot more turgid than I remember it being.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:56 PM on January 8, 2016 [1 favorite]


Magic Kingdom (I read the first four books) is about a lawyer buying a Magic Kingdom out of a newspaper advert, and was fun playing of tropes as I recall. I can totally see it being adapted in Shannara is a hit, although the talking dog might be hard to get the SFX correct... from a network that can't do elven ears.

who are all these people, especially the elfy ones who all look pretty similar

In the future, whenever I have one of my "but they all look the same moments", and someone calls me racist, I'm going to force them to watch this, because it's not just me being racist: people can and do look so similar that without signifiers they really all do look similar.

Yeah, as soon as I saw her I was like "whoa, visibly older grey haired lady? she's dying in the next 5 minutes then" and behold, eaten by a demon.

I took her make-up to suggest there will be flashbacks(!), because she looked aged. I'm damned if I can remember how elves age in Shannara (and the first two episodes are no help) and I can't think of any reason they would need to flashback to Sword, but she did seem to be The Oldest Elf in the Elven Kingdom.
posted by Mezentian at 2:41 AM on January 9, 2016


The performance of the actor playing Eritrea's father is unwatchable.
posted by GrapeApiary at 7:29 AM on January 12, 2016


In the future, whenever I have one of my "but they all look the same moments", and someone calls me racist, I'm going to force them to watch this, because it's not just me being racist: people can and do look so similar that without signifiers they really all do look similar.

See also: American Horror Story: Hotel, which has like six or seven brown-haired white guys who I seriously can never tell apart.
posted by tobascodagama at 1:31 PM on January 13, 2016


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