Agonies of a Young Author

I decided to explore today, and watched ABC's new television series "The Legend of the Seeker", based off Terry Goodkind's best-selling series of novels. Now, I love Goodkind's work, and have followed his series for years. I truly believe that one of the later books changed my perspective and my life. I even wrote my college application essay on that particular book (but that's another blog post). So I was really hesitant going into this show. Everyone knows that books rarely translate well into movies (although I can list a few that are actually better than the book in my opinion, but that is also another blog post), and a TV series seems doomed to rank even lower than a movie. The opportunity for greater detail due to the expanded time-line is a definite plus, but the acting and accuracy seems to suffer.

Which I find to be the case for "The Legend of the Seeker."

My main caveat is the actor playing Richard Cypher. In first book, Wizard's First Rule, it was acknowledged that Richard was a simple woods guide, therefore naive and innocent. But nowhere was it mentioned that Richard was immature, but rather a very self-controlled character despite his naivety. In the TV series, the actor playing Richard looks to be around 18 years old, and acts around 15. He is angsty, prone to shouting cliches and cringe-worthy vows of justice that he can't back up. Think Harry Potter #5.

The other issue I have is the major re-structuring of the plot. In the TV series, the Book of Counted Shadows was not in the possession of Richard Cypher from the beginning, but delivered to him by Kahlan. I'm not sure what the ramifications for the ending are, but major changes will be a necessity. I don't want to give too much away, to avoid spoilers, but it's a major change for the ending. Think Harry Potter #7. Then take out all the build-up details. Oh, WAIT, they did. But that's another blog post.

The last issue I have is that Richard's right to the position of Seeker in the TV series is hereditary. In the book, they emphasized right of personality (hereditary might have been there, but I don't remember well enough for negate it for sure).

The only redeeming point was the scene where Zed stood on his cloud watching rock. But after that even Zed fell into contrite stereotypes.

Conclusion: If you can suspend your attachment to the real book and it's details, you might get away with enjoying the series. Maybe. Otherwise, I would recommend only for really bored days.

RATING:
2 out of 5 stars
Watchable for another episode or two
Don't follow on a regular basis

Right Now:
What I'm listening to: "Last Night" by Skillet
What I want most: sleep.