An epic fantasy that only the CW could bring us!
All kidding aside, you just know I’ll be watching. It’s based on The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Anyone ever read them? I haven’t. Oh, and his name is Craig Horner. You’re welcome.
UPDATE: It’s aired now. HERE IS MY REVIEW!
I start to ask myself, did Goodkind watch any of these episodes? If so, how did he feel? I’ll bet that if he watched even the first episode, you know, the one that was at least slightly like part of a book, that he probably had the same feeling as someone that just got a really bad tatoo. If he is worth the books he wrote. The simple fact is that if you take away all the sword of truth referances, all you have is a bad scifi fantacy series. The horrible truth is that when the “creators” of this show handed T Goodkind a check they werent buying his ideas, they were buying his fans. We all became a quick buck. To answer Selena’s question above; No, I have never witnessed a true translation of novel to screen but I’ve never been left so cheated as by this.
Well then, Ju-ustin, why don’t you author an episode?
Well….. ok, here goes. A confessor, a wizard and a seeker are walking in the woods. We dont know where but they really hate evil lord rahl. The confessor and the seeker meet glances, blush, giggle and look away. Seeing this exchange, the wizard rolls his eyes and mutters a word under his breath. We cant hear what he says but we know it isnt “bags”. As they walk on, they discuss the trouble of the land (rahl). The seeker sighs and almost says: “I’m just a woods guide.” but instead says” so, um, how about that barrier guys? I mean, if only we knew all we needed to do was throw a couple rocks at the underworld for it to give way, I wou…” The seeker stopped suddenly, looking alarmed. “What is it?” the confessor whispers. The wizards eyes grew wide with awe and almost to himself he says:” …his seeker senses are tingling- he IS the true seeker!” No sooner than the wizard made this exclaimation (again) they all heard the shrill scream of a little girl echo through the woods. The three looked at eachother with alarm and broke into a sprint twards the scream’s origin. They run and run and then a commercial (ford, Twilight the movie and 5, 5 dala, 5 dala foot longs) more running. Finally they enter a clearing to find a young blond girl cornered by a black panther against a rocky clif face. The wizards face twists into an angry grimace and he yells ” does rahl’s evil know no bounds?!” Seeing what the wizard was about to do, the seeker yells “NO! Please no more wizard’s fire, not again! there has to be another way!”
“what do you suggest I do then?!” the wizard exclaimed. “I dont think there is anything we can do now,” observed the confessor, “the beast is almost upon her!” The panther crouched to spring and the little girl wimpered. All became still.the confessor covered her eyes as the creature was about to leap. Suddenly, from out of no where a deep booming voice said “Down Simba, leave that girl be.” The panther eased its stance and retreated twards where the voice had come from. All eyes followed to see who had comanded this wild beast and saved the little girl. The wizard gasped out his next words: “My word! It’s my old friend Dar, the Beast Master!” “Yes,it is I, old man.” The scantly clad and chisled gentleman said with a dashing grin. “and I see that my wife is with you.” The seeker whipped around to face the confessor only to see her sprint off into the woods. The seeker turned back just as the little girl wrapped her arms around his waist. “Daddy” she wimpered “you’ve found me at last!”
Trying to wriggle free of the little girl, the seeker turns to the wizard with a look of pleading confusion. The wizard just shrugs at him, turns to the studio audiance grins and winks.
TO BE CONTINUED, not.
Guest starring Kevin Sorbo
Omg. If that was the episode on T.V. I would tune in every week to see what happened next! Lmao. But he does have a point. The series does NOT follow the book in any way after the 2nd episode. It’s very dissappointing when all of us who followed Goodkind and waited for the releases of the books to have a television show that just trashes his books. Who’s going to want to read them when the series is soo crappy. And why would Goodkind have spent so many hours writing the series to just hand it over to somone? Why didn’t he oversee the series being made? Why didn’t he just try to make each book into movies? Then they could be made like the books, violence and all. I had high expectations for this and he let me down! I could have been waaay more creative than whoever is the screenwriter. The series plot doesn’t make sense. I guess he never really read the books, just opened each book to a page and said “Hey that’s the plot for today! Let’s take some girl and give her a stick and say she’s a mordsith…. Then have her get sucked into some goo and travel different places. Until next time….. the plot never thickens. Damn it Goodkind, you sold out!
Selena: Lmao at you, that would be the first time i think i’ve ever been described as a dork. Just because i have an opinion different to yours it doesn’t mean that i’m a dork or have to “lighten up”. You have your opinion, i have mine. You think it’s great tv, I think it’s shockingly bad.
You say Goodkind is involved in it all? I’d heard they jacked him off the job not long after it started so it looks like the old rumour mill doesn’t know what it’s on about.
I’m not going to bother going into further detail of explaining myself as no point debating with brick walls. Original post pretty much said what i think. Never fail to understand why people have to be insulting just because other people’s opinions vary.
Did Goodkind sell out or was he just fooled by Disney, kind of both I guess.
Bad thing about Goodkind is that he is not complaining (might be in the contract) but he is telling you have to judge the series apart from the books.
Well I do now and it’s a mediocre B-Serries so far.
Casting could be beter, script writing much beter special effects are not impressive, acting mediocre to poor but thats also partly due to script writing.
End verdict so far nice to watch for a raining afternoon or after a few beers.
Hi Midlander, I agree with much of what you said, even though you are a dork
The story is not well-developed and confusing; modified to fit a 44 minute program. I think a greater effort should have been made to incorporate the book. They could have experimented with 2, even 3 part episodes. Why not? There are 22 in all, no reason why each one has to have a conclusion. Not even all the books “conclude.”
I don’t agree with all your casting critiques. Darken Rahl is not badly cast, though he should have blond hair. I don’t think Craig Horner is sexy at all, not even boy cute. NOt ugly, but I wouldn’t look twice at him. I thought Chase was a good match. Kahlan is fine, not as “sublimely beautiful” as I had imagined, but my imagination is generally better than any tv show image. Zedd, I was expecting him to be funnier and zanier; for me it’s more of a script problem than a casting one.
Three cheers for the 1st amendment
Lol, not a dork honest. Maybe it’s because Dork is an American word and as a Brit i’m afraid it doesn’t apply
Maybe that’s why I don’t appreciate the series. It’s just all a bit too cheesy for my stiff British humour 
I think Craig Horner is sexy, remember Haldir in LotR? Craig Horner looks fantastic a a blonde!! He would be a better Darken Rahl if he just read the first book.
Karen Haldir was suposed to be a Elf as legolas so slender, actors playing Boromir or Aragon where human and more fleshed out
in that case they put some tought in the casting it seems.
Have read the book….it was really an amazing experience…just loved it
Ne of you guys have an idea if this show is telecasted in canada ??
Does nobody bother to consult Terry Goodkind’s website and/or myspace? He has stated in both areas that the stories and the show will have BASIC similarities. “Based on the book” means just that, based off of, not copied from. Yes there are fundamental differences, but who’s to know what will happen later in the season. Terry Goodkind has, and will read the scripts of each episode, and has obviously judged the ones done so far as something he wants. Enjoy the show for what it is, and if you want realism, dust the books off and open them up.
Midlander – laugh all you want, I apologize for the Dork comment, I thought it was you poking fun at yourself and I was playing along (it was my first time on this site). If you knew me you wouldn’t say I was a brick wall … a brick house maybe … but I digress. I think it’s great people have different opinions and we can agree to disagree. I never claimed it to be great tv, but it does the job for me.
Ju-ustin – kudos on your episode. I would definately tune in.
I’ve read a bunch of comments about the show and all I can say is wow you people sound like a bunch of pricks so what you don’t like the show obviously it has enough fans to keep on air you don’t have to like it, just because it sucks compared to the books does not mean the show sucks all that bad, if you take away the books the series is fine yeah it doesn’t have the greatest effects what did you expect from a brand new show. Also if so many of you think you could do so much better why don’t you have a TV show, not to mention that books will always be better than a tv show or movie because you get to form your own pictures instead of having them drawn out for you.
Also I agree with Bad Karma you like the books so much read ‘em again stop talking about something you hate it’s just going to make it so much worse I learned that with the HP series. I’ll admit I’m a fan of the show and have yet to read the books, I find the episodes enticing because of their action and lets face it, if these were made into a movie more stuff would be right on spot because they can do that they have atleast two hours to get you hooked and most stories based on books are rarely two hours, When they first aired the episodes they had to play two of them just to get people excited about it meaning they had to cut anything that people that hadn’t read the book wouldn’t know to make it more exciting and catch more people’s attention.
This series as it seems was made for people that haven’t read the books so if they put in half of the details they left out it wouldn’t have attracted much from the people that didn’t know about the books. Also you people that are sitting their saying how the acting was poor and the actikon scenes were bad, you’re not critics so don’t act like it. So what you’ve watched a lot of movies, oh you read the books doesn’t give you any right to bash anothers work you don’t like it don’t watch do us and yourself a favor and stop complaining and watching the show kudos to you taht still want to give it a chance, and the only person you’re insulting by saying how crappy it is, taht person would be Terry Goodkind the person who’s books you’re all in love with.
Well, I just saw Episode 7.. funny thing about it is that they are FINALLY getting close to the true storyline of WFR: Demmin Nass is there, as are the Boxes of Orden. It is actually a surprisingly good episode, and makes a fair bit of sense. Hell, even Shota and Sammuel appeared in the episode.
If anything, it seems like the series is getting better over time, not worse. I’m actually looking forward to the next episode (and that’s a first, given how the series started).
I’m going to advise everyone not to give up on this show yet – it is getting better, and frankly, it is pretty entertaining at times, I’m not gonna lie. And if Wikipedia is to be believed, the next episode is called ‘Denna.’
This could be… interesting.
This show is terrible. If you actually read the books which are great, you should have any affinity for this crap. I’ not sure if the directer and writers even read the book. It is complete murder. And despite the severe differences, the show is not all that high quality. It copied the slow motion battle scenes from 300 and plus some of these stories are just stupid (the mind reading child?). the only episodes that retain a small amount of merit are those that somewhat follow it.
oh and its impossible to have the same ending because richard never memorized the book of counted shadows so yes it doesn’t follow the book but immediately it has plot lupe holes
Well I watched episode 7 and my opinion is still about the same its slowly improving.
Most obvious is that if they read the books they have very bad memory, I guess the Identity is a try to get the impersonation off Zedd in.
Visions can be avoided prophecy not what a cheap part was that.
In the books interpretation of any prophecy is the key which makes more sense and how easy it is to misinterpretate due to your own ideas/basic vieuw on what is .
Warren the boxes of Orden have a different role in the series, I agree the good parts are gone (them beeing the reason for the Great Wizard to leave the midlands for example)
Well a Seeker is a assasin with special powers and a single goal so far.
A wizard a guy which can summon fire and light a few things.
A confessor a fainting girl whith ninja fighting powers.
How can you be surprised Boxes of Orden can be something else
I watched the first couple of episodes before I started reading the books. I enjoyed the episodes, even though they did remind me of Xena or Beastmaster. I have to say, now that I have read the first book and part of the second, I think they are treating the first book as if it is the only book. It sort of makes sense. Most likely, a show like this will not last long enough to encompass the later books, so it looks like they have chosen to only borrow random things from them. If you pretend the later books don’t exist, it opens up a lot of area for the creators to use their “creative license”, like Kahlan’s past and the Sisters of the Light. That way they can pay homage to certain things, but change them around to suit whatever endgame they have.
I have to admit to being surprised at some of the changes, like the Book of Counted Shadows and Richard’s mother. Also, now he is supposed to kill Darken Rahl with the sword, instead of not being able to and having to find another way. It seems that by making the whole “world” of the Sword of Truth smaller, they have also diminished the importance of all three main characters. Zedd is clearly not the only wizard left; is Kahlan the only confessor left. Have they even mentioned that she is the Mother Confessor, not just a confessor. They have invented some sidequests to lengthen the story without having to venture into the later books. They have invented a quest for Richard’s mother (Zedd’s daughter), which wasn’t in the book and have apparently started with Rahl’s acquisition of the first Box of Orden. In the book, he already had 2 before the story started.
All of the characters and situations seem to be less important, less charismatic, less intense, and certainly less dark than in the book. I chalk that up to an effort to appeal to the masses. Obviously, the larger audience they are going for isn’t going to be the super fan of the books, as that probably isn’t enough to keep it on the air, despite the popularity of the books. I will likely continue on to read all of the books, as I really am enjoying them, but have already found many similarities between them and Robert Jordan’s wheel of time series. I will likely continue watching the series as it is a nice diversion.
*sob sob sob* i am so heart broken. Terry Goodkind series is my favorite book series ever and i have dreamed of them becoming a movie set or tv series for so long and was OVERJOYED when i found out this was happening.
Now after watching 5 episodes i am disgusted and disappointed beyond belief!
the first one loosely related to the books, but that was it, the next 4 were about some random stuff that never occurs in the books at all.
the mother confessor is this touchy feely girl who even hugged zedd?? um hello she is not supposed to touch anyone because of her powers let alone hug some random wizard she just meet! i realise they are trying to show that she likes richard but really come on now, it is an important part of her role that she is not touchy feely.
chase is a boundry warden, he is not part of Micheals homeguard and where are all his weapons? his main part of his role is that he is a walking arsenal!
there are so many things wrong it would take me hours to point them all out, and then the actual special effects such as zedd’s magic and fighting scenes is rubbish! so so lame and cheap
if i was Terry Goodkind i would be mortified at how they have butchered such a great series with this crappy tv show.
A substandard Hercules the Legendary Journeys with a sword.
This is to those of you who OBVIOUSLY don’t go to the official Terry Goodkind site. On Terry’s site he said, “Take the books for what they are and take the show for what it’s going to be.” Though I will admit that I had to keep telling myself that the show wasn’t going to follow the books exactly. Based upon means that you have the foundation of something. So beings that the show is BASED upon the books… I think this show is freakin awesome. And I appreciate that it will give way to let other things happen as well. It will be almost like a rewrite.Terry has his hand in every bit of this and if you don’t put the expectation of it following the book exactly then you will come to love the show as I do. And as a side note the directors that were part of the Herc and Xena series are the ones doing Legend of the Seeker. I think that is what also maks this a great show as well.
Opinionated – we’re allowed to be critical, the viewing public are what makes these series or movies into hits so i guess we’re allowed an opinion on whether we think they’re rubbish or not? You’re right though on one thing – the books are better as they do allow you to formulate your own ideas, guess that’s why a lot of do prefer the books.
And you’re right, if we don’t think it’s good, don’t watch it. That’s why at episode 4 i switched off 
So i guess if you take away the books and watch the tv show for what it is then it’s just cheesy fluff really. Great if you like that sort of thing, bad if you don’t
I am so sad! I loved the books. I am totaly in love with Richard! If I ever get married again, it will be to a man like him.
Why oh why did they ruin such a wonderful story and life changing lessons. They had so many great actors to choose from, why cast a pre pubesent teen as the Seeker of Truth? There are so many things wrong with it all, people that never existed and the time line so messed up, I will not watch it! I do not want this to ruin my outlook on such inspiring books!
SHAME ON ALL THAT RUINED IT !!!
I have read all of the books in the series and am a huge fan.. Iwas really excited to see a series coming out.. I have watched every episode and have enjoyed them all. I was not disappointed at all. Yeah some things are different. But isn;t that the way it is with all made for tv or big screen productions???What did you expect???
I was disappointed that none of the D;haran soldiers had noticed that Kahlan Mord-sith struck with her hand rather than an Aiegel. What about the time lapse of the the birth of the baby? So how long has this journey lasted? 3, 4 months already? Some changes must be endured, but a little more attention to detail would be appreciated.
I would also like to point out the slip in storyline this past episode of the lying moon. Richard claimed to have buried the box of O. under a tree, but hadn’t Zedd taken it to a safe place?
I’m not sure about what happened to the box, but this past episode was like a lame clip show. I thought we left clip shows back in the 90′s where they belonged.
well, in these times of economic hardship, recycling should be at the fore of all industries. I’ll bet this will bring back flashback episodes…
LOL. Thanks Montella. Green TV is the wave of the future!
I’ve been a MAJOR critic of this show. Some have even said that I am a dork. I feel that a clip show has indeed validated my point of view. This also comes as a bit of a suprise as I didn’t think they would run out of material so soon. Maybe they felt they needed to bring all of the “new audiance” up to speed (even though one episode has nothing to do with the rest). I think if they were going to stoop this low they should have at least played some clips from some good shows or movies like: “Hey Zed remember when Richard found my head in that box at the end of Seven?” Then they could play that clip. “What’s in the box- whats in the f***ing box?”
I dont know what’s in the f***ing box but its probably not a f***ing Emmy.
Were they supposed to figure out that Richard was immune or somehow able to overcome Kahlen’s power when she touched him during her “blood rage,” since he was fine? Or is that Zedd’s job?
The series is crap!…acting and story..crap! the books were better.
absolutely.
i simply don’t understand why they have changed so many things from the original series. They changed what made it so interesting. I’m not talking about reducing sex and violence for a prime time national network; I mean other stuff, and you all know what I mean. Why these ridiculous reworkings of the original plot: Richards’ mother disappearing, only to re-emerge as the mother of a pristinely gifted (pillar of creation), and mother of 2 darken rahl children? So, if she hid richard the first time, how was it she was raped a second time, only to bear this ungifted daughter, and why was the daughter allowed to live for so long (since they are apparently killed b4 5)?
People writing/slapping together story-lines, is it too much to ask for attention to details and consistency?
this lots show rellay is boring at times but the only reason i watch it is when i get to see him without his shirt !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! other then that i rellay don’t like the show
I read all of them, and now the i’m watching it. I love the show
wow what a bunch of shite this series is, another Canadian lookin cliche series with terrible acting given from characters with 1990s haircuts and a clean gillete mach3 shave. Kinda looks like lord of the rings took a shit and this is what came out. Especially the main character he is such a bad actor….
Wow, what complete and utter crap. I loved the first 6 books. the next two were ok and the last 3 were fantastic. best of the series. But this tv show. Come on Terry, you completely sold out. You say you have a hand in this crap? Then I am truly dissapointed in you. I realize that books to tv is not an easy transition. I definately get that some new stuff needs to be added and some existing stuff needs to be expanded. But come on!!! THere are chnages that make no sense. Like why the hell is Darken Rahl not a wizard? He is a wizard iwth both add and sub magic. why would he need Giller as his wizard? Giller is a nobody compared to Darken. Why is the book of counted shadows not destroyed and in Richards head? Why is Giller immune to confessor power? No one is immune. why are all these things changed that make no sense what so ever? and Im sorry, going 57 years into the future and comign back with a combo of powers? Complete rubbish. The spirit of the books has been raped for money. I guess your little philosophies mean nothing to you but selling books Terry? I thought you stood for more. I guess this is your precious “rational self-interest” at work? Objectivism is crap!
Ugh … Sam Raimi is also gonna direct the WoW movie. Seeing what he did to Sword of Truth books I groan in despair. Terry should have picked Pete Jackson for his books. He would also have changed things but at least he would have stayed true to the heart of the story.
Legend of the Seeker is a soggy shit sandwich and both Raimi and Goodkind deserve an Agiel op the rear entrance for making this.
I have only three things to say, firstly I entirely agree with the person who made the comments about spelling, punctuation etc., you have to wonder if some people actually received an education at all, it’s quite scary. Secondly, I totally agree with everyone who hates the series, and Terry Goodkind, as I understand it, is a very unhappy man with regards to the end result, and yes, Sam Raimi should get an agiel up his butt, definately. Thirdly, JULIAN SANDS SHOULD HAVE PLAYED DARKEN RAHL!!!!!!!!!!!!
I caught an episode for the first time tonight. I admit that I didn’t have particularly high expectations; I’m typically pretty good at separating books from their television/movie adaptations. I can’t comment on whether I think Terry sold out, or his hand (or lack thereof) in the making of this series, because I don’t know the truth behind the process that started with someone optioning the books and what has ended up on the screen (similar to Avatar, the Last Airbender, who knows what really went wrong), but I can comment on my complete and utter disappointment, as it was so far below even my low expectations. Like others, I find a lack of simple, cosmetic consistency extremely annoying; hair and eye color are just about the easiest things a person can change about themselves. I won’t go into the story line, except to say that I believe that the first book alone had enough interesting material to be worthy of an entire season, or possibly the first two books together. Maybe their budget just wasn’t big enough to deal with the scope.
As to just taking it for what it is, or fans of books not being able to carry a show, or any of that… I think that’s ridiculous. Have people just grown so used to mediocrity in fantasy shows that they can’t see that a good show based on books will not only have a built in fan base, but will draw new fans? The SoT series had the potential to be really good, and while fantasy shows being made at all is nice, I think the genre would be better served by something other than another cheesy Hercules-type show. Look at Battlestar Galactica. Or Firefly. I wouldn’t have thought science fiction shows could be done that well. Or what about TrueBlood? It CAN be don, so while I’m guess I’m glad the attempt was made for another high fantasy television series, I’m still waiting for the one that sets the standard, the one that, like LoTR did for movies, says “Look. THIS is how you do fantasy t.v.”
Couldn’t agree more with V. True Blood has shown that fantasy tv series can be done properly and in a non-xena way. Haven’t watched the SOT for ages as i just gave up. Whether i’d read the books or not it would have still been a load of fluff like hercules that i switched off as soon as it came on.
bllaaahhh I hate this series :< I still think they should have followed the storyline in the books- I mean its a series, plenty of time to fine tune (unlike films)