Mestre das Feras

I really enjoy this show. As an Environmental Studies major I enjoy the nature aspect of the show. The location is so beautiful and when the animals are used for a scene you can't help but smile because the animals work so well with the actors. Daniel Goddard and Jackson Raine are great actors who play their characters perfectly. If you are looking for a show to make you laugh and with enough action to satisfy you, this is it.

I watch this show most of the time. It's erratic, but I like it a lot anyway.

The producers seem to have relatively little idea of what kind of show they want to do. It's now in its third season, and it appears to have gone to heroic fantasy. (Any episodes you see Dar having a sword, they're all third season. And he puts up quite a protest around it, but you'd have to actually watch the show to see it.) Last season would be better characterized as a sort of low-level high fantasy, where most of the emphasis was on complex relationships between all the different characters. And a lot of the first season was a (tragic) love story.

The acting is great, but it's very much in a particular style. It's an understated style that shows up a lot in Canadian productions (it's a Canada-Australia joint production).

But the best part is: They kill characters. Major characters. Not many of them, but people actually die. The storyline moves on. I get really tired of watching adventure shows with no threat of death. It's pretty much a given that Dar won't die (or they'd have to rename the show) but everybody else, except for gods (none of which have made appearances, unlike in a show like Xena) and some of the demigod-level characters (I'm thinking of The Ancient One) has been fair game. It helps make the show exciting, which is the whole point of adventure, right?

The acting style's not for everyone, but if you like it, watch the show. The stories are generally pretty well-written, and the show's got guts.

It seems from watching that the producers of this series didn't take the time to plan their "bible" before beginning the series. The basic story, handed down from Andre Norton through the series of films, was fine, but this kind of high-concept fantasy series requires an established mythology to guide the storytelling. This one seemed to flounder around without much dramatic impetus. The leads were highly appealing, if inexperienced at the beginning of the series, and individual episodes were often entertaining. The final story arc over the last half of the final season was too slapdash and amateurish to redeem the series as a whole. While it did draw the story to a finish, it wasn't a particularly compelling finish; the appearance of Marc Singer (the star of the Beastmaster films) was a silly stunt. One can only hope that Daniel Goddard and Jackson Raine move on to better projects--both are appealing enough to merit it.

My son, Simon Burnett, is the stunt double for Daniel, so we have been watching every episode. It comes across as at least two shows in one. The out of doors, walking in the woods and fighting. And the other, the mystical- fairy one, with special effects and clothing. It would work better if the mystical world was only at night, a dream scape for the characters and story line.

As some might think this Beastmaster version not dark as or enough considering the original movie it comes from I must disagree feeling it has very good and thought provoking points in relation to the movie and that the movie could not explore.

Daniel Goddard is perfectly cast as a new model Beastmaster a little more officially muscled while Marc Singer muscled enough the original and movie Beastmaster was also just plain imposing in such a way you might feel he could defend the toughest tiger or lion. Daniel Goddard makes up for this in the muscle of his build in relation to the animals he cares for and tries to save from harm avoiding conflict if possible.

Beastmaster, the series, is worthy to be called so in relation to the movie and Marc Singer if for no other reason than the complimentary to each other comparison and the exploration of love, care, and issues of animals and man in the resistance of evil for the cause of good. The series is also well filmed and looks great too, a style all its' own. I for one am sorry it could not get a couple of more seasons into the can much is missing those seasons might have included.