Review: Legend of the Seeker premiere episode

Sam Raimi’s Legend of the Seeker makes for a couple hours of entertaining television. Is it earth-shatteringly refreshing television? By no means.

Based on Terry Goodkind’s epic Sword of Truth series, Legend of the Seeker tells how farmboy Richard Cypher meets Lady Confessor Kahlan Annell. Kahlan is fleeing the troops of power-hungry Lord Darken Rahl when she breaks through the boundary between the war-torn Midlands and the idyllic Westland where Richard lives his life of quietude. In short order, they meet up with wizard Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander, who entrusts Richard with a quest of the utmost importance.

As you can tell, a lot of well-worn fantasy tropes are at work here: a farmboy unaware of his heritage, a dark lord bent on world domination, and a wise and eccentric old wizard devoted to helping the hero. Still, the pacing and storytelling in Legend of the Seeker is such that these clichés aren’t such a big problem for the show. Filmed in New Zeland with the help of many who worked on the Lord of the Rings films, the production values on this show are pretty impressive. The action and visual effects, while not on par with feature films, certainly more than hold their own.

For a TV series premiere, this episode reveals a whole lot of information. By the end of the two-hour premiere, the viewer will know, roughly, who Richard is and what he must do, though readers of the books will know there are a few more surprises in store. If my favorite TV show LOST revealed information an plot points at this rate, it wouldn’t have made it past its third season.

The real problem with Legend of the Seeker lies in its uneven acting. The standout performance is Craig Parker, who played the ill-fated elf Haldir in the Lord of the Rings films, as the villain Darken Rahl. He’s the only character who really feels like he belongs in this world. The female performances in particular are rather weak; the unabashedly American accets make some of the female-centric scenes feel like a dressed-up version of Desperate Housewives. The male actors don’t fare much better, sounding as if they belong on the set of a modern action flick rather than an epic fantasy.

I’m not necessarily espousing the notion that all actors in fantasy movies and television should speak with an English accent–Oxford English for the nobility, Cockney for the vile henchmen. I’m simply arguing that whatever maner of speech is chosen should fit the world and the story being told. In this case, it doesn’t. For some, this could be a deal-breaker. For me, it was simply an annoyance.

The show has been picked up for an entire first season. My hunch is that it won’t be renewed for a second run next year. The show is off to a rocky start, but there’s enough promising potential to make for an admirable adventure of swords and sorcery.

I may not review every week’s episode, but I’ll keep readers abreast of how I feel the show is developing.