Legend of the Seeker

Its been on the air for a couple of years but I finally got around to watching the first episode of the Legend of the Seeker, based on the Terry Goodkind Sword of Truth series. Actually I am currently watching episode one and I am less than 25 minutes in. I really enjoyed the book series, reading most of the books in a matter of days. Lets just say so far....I am not impressed and actually disappointed in several things.

1. The casting is HORRIBLE! So far none of the characters fit the casting. Well Zedd works okay but the rest aren't. Richard, the main character, reminds me of Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man, always with a stupid look on his face and trying to be something that doesn't fit his acting ability or the character itself. Second you have Chase. My favorite character in the book is being played by Jay Laga'aia, better known as Capt. Typho from those horrible HORRIBLE Star Wars sequels. I am not against Jay, he was one of the few bright spots of those horrible movies, but that he isn't close to what I envisioned for Chase. Chase needed to be a bigger man than Jay. Just now I got my first look at the Gar in the series. Again not what I saw in my head. I could go on but I think you get the picture. I went to the IMDB page and there are two future characters that fit the bill including Jolene Blalock of Enterprise fame. Ted Raimi is in the series as well and I think he fits the character he is playing. Overall the series gets a big fat F for casting.

2. The story. I'll admit its been years since I read Wizards First Rule but so far not how I remember a lot of it. It could be a case of me making the book better than it was (it isn't what most people would call a well written book). However it feels rushed to me. Too much too quick with no character development.

All of that aside I actually find myself wanting to continue watching the series. I have to compare it to how Star Wars fan felt when they saw those prequels. The hoping the next movie (or episode in this case) will be better. Hopefully I won't be crushed like they were (those movies were HORRIBLE). However I get the same feeling I get when I hear news of the Transformers movies, dread.

"People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything. Because people are stupid, they will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid it might be true. People’s heads are full of knowledge, facts, and beliefs, and most of it is false, yet they think it all true. People are stupid; they can only rarely tell the difference between a lie and the truth, and yet they are confident they can, and so are all the easier to fool."