The Shannara Chronicles

The show is pretty much your classic MTV show, piled on top of Terry Brooks' novels. Female empowerment angle? Check. Lazy exposition where a character says things for no reason other than to inform the audience? Check. Teenagers being super moody, irrational, all while doing cool things? Check. It's far from the worst thing I have ever watched, but also far from what could have been done with these novels. The show is largely targeted at the young teen crowd, and you can see elements of twilight all over it.

Short breakdown: Costumes: 3/10 For the most part looking like kids in costumes (there are a few exceptions). Stitching and materials all looking modern. Elf ears look plastic.

Plot: 6/10 The plot isn't complex, but is consistent and followable.

Dialogue/acting: 4/10 Again, more modern teenage angst than appropriate for the world it is set in.

Worldbuilding: 8/10 Terry left them a good world. They only messed it up a little. Hopefully we will see some more in future episodes.

Synopsis: I'll probably watch another few episodes, and I will probably regret doing so.

I waited for this expecting a new fantasy show, an interesting world, fantastic characters with different traits and magic and... all I got was a stupid teenage soap opera. What a garbage. But then I read "MTV", great, stupid me expecting quality when all they produce is quantity. So so sad...

Before I started wacthing this, I saw a lot of negative reviews, so I was expecting a poor show, but since I like fantasy genre, I've decided to give it a try and can't say I'm dissapointed. On the contrary, I've enjoyed this series greatly. This is a simple, entertaining fantasy series and it should be in my opinion reviewed and rated based on what it tries to be. And it delivers quite exactly what it promises.

The plot is simple and pretty much linear: there is a bad guy, there is a need to perform a quest to defeat him and there are twists and obstacles in the way that have to be overcomed to achieve the goal. I saw people laughing at the simplicity of a plotline. Well, I don't expect multi-layer plot in heroic fantasy like Lord of the Rings or many other movies that belong to this genre, this is just not a place for it. So I was not at all dissapointed by plotline.

The characters are also rather typical for the genre, mostly black & white with an interesting shades of grey in the middle (like Eritrea) that stir things a bit. Actors are mostly young so you won't probably see some tremendous acting in Shannara Chronicles, but James Remar stands out greatly among them, his Cephelo is tremendously played character, even if he's a cliche of a rogue.

The world portrayed in the series is interesting, it's not a typical fantasy setting, but a world that arose on the ruins and ashes of our world, with riuns scattering the landscape and remnants of an old technology here and there. It convinced me to read the books upon which the series is based.

Overall, I think most bad reviews come from putting Shannara Chronicles on the wrong shelf, as for simple fantasy which is meant to entertain, it is a very good show.

I'm extremely picky when it comes to watching shows. I have to care. I'm glad to admit that I care! It's not perfect, it has it's downfalls, but this show is very special. There are reasons why it's not a perfect 10, and I'll eloborate about it below. I'll also address some of the criticism this show gets here.

The bad -

The show is aimed at a younger audience, as in teens to young adults, but it has a mature theme. Some might call it a bit "edgy" (very slightly though in my taste) but not to the point where it seems too strained, and it really depends if you're bothered by that or not.

Character arcs and especially character development only really happen to the supporting roles. Whether it's the Elves or the Rovers. Some of the time to finish the arc the character has to die. But we'll come back to that below.

The good -

The show isn't afraid of killing characters, even ones you were introduced to from the start, which what sets it apart from Twilight, and especially Shadowhunters (both books and the tv show) and what gives it even more purpose, sense of danger goes well with the other mature themes that it has. More shows should do this, honestly.

Arcs are well planned out. You really get what motives the character to act like it does and what makes it do the things that it does and say. I never felt like a character died before it needed to do what it's supposed to do.

World building is the greatest quality this show has. They really did an excellent job on this, perhaps it's even on par with Stargate.

Eretria might be my favorite female character ever.

The middle -

Because the show has a strong complex female lead, it get a lot of unwarranted criticism about it's "women empowerment" and I beg to differ! Women are not acting masculine and men are not disempowered in this show, unlike many other stories in recent media (comics, book, other TV shows). It also doesn't do the opposite, where the female lead just waits for her hot vampire boyfriend. I honestly believe it's men and women, working together for a better cause. As much as it has it's female lead, it also has an equal amount of male lead.

If you have any doubts, give this show a try. It's one of the only worthwhile fantasy shows that going on at the moment.

I have not read the source books (never even knew they exist), so I do not have any reference to how much the TV version deviates from it. But I found the world presentation pretty good, all the overgrown technology etc. I would welcome a bit more of the other races (Gnomes/Dwarves), but it might be too soon for that.

However, I think that the "eyes up here" scene at river in Episode 3 was a bit pointless, but probably had to be due to it being on MTV. Also, Wil in few scenes sounds like Hayden Christensen in SW prequels, which is to say, awful, but it is just few scenes, so it is bearable.

But, the special effects are pretty good or a TV show and most actors are pretty good as well.

I would give the series a chance, see how it develops.