The Shannara Chronicles provided stellar costuming and setting. The visual effects engaged the viewer into the world. The characters were interesting, leaving the viewer wanting to know more. While the writers expected the viewer to absorb a large amount of world building in a short amount of time, the fast pace of the action didn’t allow us to turn away from the television.
The dialogue is a bit campy and the delivery of lines could be more realistically executed. Hard core fantasy fans may have a difficult time accepting the characters that are developed to attract a more diverse audience. While Will Ohmsford is very easy on the eyes, his naivety makes it difficult to see him as a hero.
Magic always have a price: The world building in the Shannara Chronicles is a fast paced whirlwind of magic, rules, and lost traditions.
The Shannara Chronicles takes the high fantasy approach to world building, challenging us to open our minds to a land, variety of creatures, and rules that are drastically different from our own, and accept it in a relatively short period of time. The world is fairly complicated with the factions of races, the re-introduction of magic into a time where it hasn’t existed for 300 years, understanding the reasoning and meaning behind the actions unfolding, and deciphering the roles and lineage of all the characters. The writers are asking the viewers to absorb a LOTR size world into a two-hour premiere (they combined episode one and two).
We’re going to attempt to give you the elevator speech version of the world. Take a deep breath…no…wait. That’s for us, not you. Here we go. The elves run a race to pick the seven they call The Chosen. These seven elves are responsible for caring for an ancient tree called the Ellcrys. Right. You run this brutal race filled with obstacles to win a chance to help water a tree. The Ellcrys is a tree planted at the end of the last war in which the elves, with the help of others, used magic to banish the demons to a realm called the Forbidding. They must keep the tree alive and well or the demons will come back and destroy the world. The only problem is most of the elves only believe this to be some sort of fairy tale. Yet, they’re willing to battle each other for a spot to water the tree. Yeah…
It’s now about 300 years after the War of the Race, which ended magic and locked the demons in the Forbidding. Arborlon, the Elfin kingdom, has its first female Chosen. The Ellcrys has begun communicating with those who are able to save the world again. The tree is dying, which means the demons trapped in the Forbidding are being released. The Ellcrys awakens Allanon (Manu Bennett), the last Druid. The Druids were the keepers of the Codex, the book of magic. Allanon visits the tree then seeks out the son of Shannara. Shannara was a great Elfin king. Magic runs through the Shannara bloodline. But Allanon wasn’t expecting the Shannara that he ended up with. He has a lot of work on his hands to get Wil Ohmsford (Austin Butler) battle ready.
“If Allanon is here, there are dark days ahead.” -King Eventine Elessediln (John Rhys-Davies)
The tree and the world can only be saved by one of the Chosen. When the tree dies, a Chosen must take the seed to be washed in the Blood Fire. It’s never as easy as buy a pack of seeds from the nursery and replant the tree. To make things worse, only one Chosen is left to carry out the task, but they ran away due to the visions the Ellcrys was giving them. Now, demons are being born and the Druid and Wil must go and retrieve the Chosen and bring them back to Arborlon to keep them safe.
Whew. There’s probably a lot more that needs to be relayed, but you’ll just have to watch the show for yourself. It’s like taking a roller coaster ride through a cave filled with information that you need for a test at the end. While it’s a bit of information overload, it’s necessary and provided in a way that makes sense. As the action unfolds, the writers give us more and more insight into this world filled with forgotten troubles and strong magic.
Rules are meant to be broken…We learn this from everyone in this episode.
We meet Princess Amberle Elessedil (Poppy Drayton) practicing to run the Gauntlet, a race to become one of the Chosen. Of course, she’s the first female to participate and takes everyone by surprise. Well…except probably those of us watching. There are seven positions decided by the first seven to finish the Gauntlet. Yes. We shouldn’t have to tell you what happens and who gets, at least, one of those positions. Amberle tries hard to define her identity, find her place in the world. She’s tough yet vulnerable and open to breaking a few rule to figure out where she belongs. Writers, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, developed Amberle into a strong, smart, and likeable heroine. Not sure how much the princess in the TV show compares to the character in Terry Brooks’ books the show is based on, but she’s a heroine young women will identify with and guys won’t mind rescuing.
“The Gauntlet is dangerous. These guys will do anything to win.” -Lorin (Mattias Inwood)
“So will I.” -Amberle
Our hero is introduced at his mother’s deathbed. Why must we kill off all the parents? Wil Ohmsford is distraught by his mother’s passing, especially since he feels responsible, not being able to find a cure for his mother’s ailment. Wil is half elf and half human. As with a lot of children from mixed backgrounds, Wil struggles to find a place that he feels a part of. Before his mother dies, she gives him his father’s elf stones, which are supposed to have magical powers, and tells him to find the Druid. Cryptic much? Why do people wait until their deathbeds to provide revelations and reveal secrets? Wouldn’t it be more helpful if they give us the information at a time they can provide some guidance and insight? Naw. That’ll make things way to easy! Wil disregards his mother’s words. He doesn’t heed his uncle’s plea to stay in the village as there are too many dangers in the world. Wil heads out on his own adventure to become a healer to help people. As we learn more about Wil, we begin to wonder whether he’ll ever be able to fill the big shoes of a hero. We’re still a little concerned. The boy is gullible and naive to the world. While we want to root for him, in the back of our minds a little voice says, “He better smarten up soon or…”
“Same as your father. Never happy with your place in the world.” -Flick Ohmsford
Like most other high fantasy tales, this show is filled with a multitude of characters. Each bringing in their own storyline or further developing our major characters. We could spend the next few months talking about all the characters. These episodes focus around another of our young rule breakers, Eretria (Ivana Baquero). Her whole lifestyle is about breaking the rules. As a Rover, she lives with a band of humans who survive by robbing and stealing from others. Eretria is an intriguing character, but the bad guy wanting or forced to be good is always interesting character development. She also completes our romantic triangle. Yes. In order to attract the young adult female, it’s always good to have romantic elements. Our writers didn’t miss this point. We find Eretria weaving herself into the storyline with both Wil and Amberle, Wil the easy mark and Amberle the suspicious and a little jealous rival.
The battle has begun and your destiny awaits: The show jumps head first into the deep end and propels us and the characters into action.
So many things happen so quickly. The director, Jonathan Liesbesman, manages several storylines intersecting at several differing points. Amberle is in Wing Hove with her aunt Pyria (Sarah Peirse) when Allanon and Wil come for her. When they arrive, a fury, a winged demon, attacks. Her aunt is killed and Allanon is injured. Amberle also learns she’s the last Chosen alive. Wil is true to form and doesn’t follow Allanon’s direction.
This lands him and Amberle with the Rovers. Eretria is then tested by her “adopted” father to kill Amberle. This is the first time we really see into the true character of Eretria, the need to be wanted battling wanting her freedom. Another fury attacks. Wil has his first experience of using magic and the ramifications of drawing on that power. Hopefully, Wil will soon learn to listen to his elders and stay out of trouble. Luckily, the Druid healed himself and came to the rescue.
We also get introduced to The Dagda Mor (Jed Brophy), an evil human druid banished to the Forbidding, and the Changling (Shushila Takao). The Dagda Mor is trapped in the Forbidding until the Ellcrys is dead. Until then, he dispatches his demons to do his dirty work. The make-up crew deserve a round of applause for their work on the demons.
Final Verdict: The Shannara Chronicles is a show worth watching again.
This show was surprisingly pleasant to watch. Why? Well…most don’t expect to find a quality high fantasy show on MTV. You know you were thinking the same thing. The show kept the viewer engaged with character driven storylines and action-packed plot. The characters were well cast and the acting was strong in most cases. The scenery and costuming were excellent.
The concern for the show would be the target audience. It might be a bit too much fantasy for your average MTV viewer, but they might have enough hotness factor for people to overlook it if they are not a fan of the genre. It might be a little loose with the world building and character formation for the hardcore high fantasy reader. There’s no way to do the level of detail needed for a serious fantasy in an hour or two in the setup of a television show. But for the middle of the road people, who can forgive some of the genres faux pas, it’ll be an entertaining jaunt into a world filled with interesting characters.
Big props to the creators and writers, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, for creating a show to introduce high fantasy to a diverse group of viewers. The balance of fantasy elements to young, attractive, and strong characters may bridge the gap to some new fans. Outside of some dialogue issues, which are easy to overlook, The Shannara Chronicles have an excellent start to the series.
Questions, Comments, and Concerns:
- Why must everyone die all the time?
- Will Wil learn quickly enough to not get on our nerves?
- That dress Amberle wore to the party!
- Wil might not be the brightest bulb in the pack but he sure is easy on the eye!!
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