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Legend of the Seeker is action packed, there is romance, magic, stunning locations, great cast and movie quality special effects. This is the best show on TV. If it is given proper promotion and permanent time slot it will be a huge hit!!! So many people are just finding out about the show and are falling in love with it. I just happened to run across it one Saturday afternoon by chance during season 1 and was immediately hooked. It is now the only "must watch" on TV for me. I bought Season 1 as soon as it came out and have ordered Season 2. This show is epic and deserves to go on. I have read the books and love the series. I know it doesn't follow the books exactly, however I have yet to see ANY book brought to the screen (big or small) that does. I am not a fan of the so-called "reality" shows. I have enough reality in my own reality. Give me Fantasy and take me away for awhile. This show is perfect. We need to have Seasons 3,4,5...

Filming of Wizard's First Rule, the first book in Terry Goodkind's popular The Sword of Truth books began this week.

But the 22-episode series has been renamed Legend of the Seeker - apparently to avoid religious concerns among American audiences about scorcery.

Executive producers Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert told a comics and fantasy convention of the name change, and announced the New Zealand actors, Entertainment Weekly reported.

The syndicated series from Disney-ABC Domestic Television and ABC Studios, will premiere in the United States on the weekend of November 1. The series marks ABC Studios' first foray into broadcast syndication, and has already been sold into stations covering 95 percent of the American market, according to TV Week.com.

Each one hour episode will have a New Zealand director and the series will be shot in the Auckland region over 36 months. One of the episodes will be directed by New Zealand actor Michael Hurst who starred in the original Hercules TV series.

The series is based around a backwoods guide, Richard - played by Australian actor Craig Horner - in Westland, the only part of the world which contains no magic. While investigating the mysterious murder of his father he rescues a woman, Kahlan Amnell, (played by American actress Bridget Regan) who has crossed over from the "magic" side of the world, and does battle with an evil dictator.

Raimi said Australian actor Bruce Spence will play Richard's best friend Zedd, Jay Laga'aia will play a boundary warden Chase, and Craig Parker will play the series' villain, Darken Rahl.

Parker spent four years on Shortland Street after being cast as Guy Warner in 1992, and won international attention after being cast as Haldir, one of Lothlorien's elves in the first two parts of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Laga'aia played David Silesi in four series of the television drama Street Legal and Captain Typho, in two Star Wars films, Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.

Tapert, who filmed Hercules and Xena, Warrior Princess in New Zealand and married his star, Lucy Lawless, in 1998 showed people at the convention a clip from the show's filming around Auckland.

...I'm actually really enjoying this series (as of episode 4). I started watching Legend of the Seeker knowing that I was signing up for extreme fantasy, and must say it's very entertaining. It is a huge call to pay off a story of this scale every week without looking embarrassingly cheap, especially with all the special effects required. To the show's credit, it embraces what it is and delivers an unusually high standard for television.

I find the action sequences gripping. They have put a lot of effort into stylizing the fights, and as someone who generally finds hand-to-hand a bit dull because it's all cut-cut-cut to hide inconsistencies and build pace, Legend of the Seeker has some wonderful stunt work and detailed action. The slow-mos are fantastic; it is great to see the detail and be able to understand the complexity of choreography instead of it being hidden under choppy editing.

I will agree that Craig Horner is almost too pretty for this role, but it compliments the style the directors have taken; just look at the effort that's been put into delivering beautiful cinematography. It is not surprising they have chosen to cast equally beautiful leads to give the show a holistically beautiful appeal. And let there be no doubt: this show's cinematography coupled with New Zealand's breathtaking topography makes for a very pretty show.

The angry and negative reactions of the book fans has been pretty overwhelming, and a bit disappointing to read. But on the bright side, this show has encouraged me to pick up the books. So it's not all lose/lose for fans of the books, as the show is garnering new readers for the novels.

So how is the Legend of the Seeker? What do people think so far? Looking at the comments we get a load of onestars from people saying it doesn't follow the books to the letter, people that can't understand how Goodkind could "sell his soul to Hollywood" (really... wow), and people that make untrue claims about inaccuracies in the TV-series apparently without having watched it themselves.

So is the Legend of the Seeker that awful? Nah, not really. It's a fun series, a bit heavy on the comedy on some occasions, and it's taken a while to get the story rolling, but its good fun to watch, beautiful scenery, good main actors that feel believable. It doesn't take itself too seriously and in my opinion, neither should the viewers.

In conclusion: The naysayers say, No! Horrible! Goodkind sells his soul to mammon! But I'm sure after an honest viewing without preconceptions most will agree that its a nice example of a good, old-fashioned fantasy story with all the sword slashing, magicking, and vanilla romance to make it a recurring theme in the rss-downloader.

I for one think it is great to have something like this on television. Good versus evil with the trio cast here is fun to watch. The special effects are terrific, and I like how the episodes are going. I love the wizard, the Seeker is awesome, and the Confessor makes my husband want to watch! Love it! Keep it coming!

It definitely reminds me of the Hercules/Xena type show, and I was always a big fan of those. This show is an update of those with an entertaining new cast, based on great stories by Terry Goodkind - how could it go wrong? The only thing I see wrong is that it isn't in wide enough distribution.