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This week, Galavant returned, and The Shannara Chronicles started on MTV, not to mention Beowulf: Return to the Shadowlands, so all in all, it wasn't a bad week to be a fan of high fantasy TV shows, especially if the Game of Thrones type of approach doesn't appeal to you. (I've posted on my issues with how GoT has influenced fantasy TV and historical dramas the last few years here, and will spare you repetition. I also said a bit here earlier today about my irritation with how every fantasy show must be negatively compared with GoT.)
The Shannara Chronicles is based on The Elfstones of Shannara, the second book in Terry Brook's first Shannara trilogy. Skipping over the first book was wise, as even when I was really into Shannara (and Terry Brooks in general) I thought The Sword of Shannara was pretty dull. The Elf Queen of Shannara was my first non-kids fantasy book way back when it first came out, and when I was young enough to have never read a book series before that didn't have numbers on the spine (all the Shannara books do now, I think, but they didn't 20-odd years ago). I read all the Shannara books religiously even when I started to get a bit tired up them, up through partway through the "High Druid of Shannara" trilogy. Because I found out that my favorite character it that trilogy didn't count as redeemed if she spent decades being the most powerful force of good in the world to make up for her youthful villainy and everyone still thought she was evil anyway and she could only be considered redeemed if she sacrificed herself and turned into a tree. Terry Brooks actually has an odd thing about women turning into trees and women who are trees but we won't dwell on that. Anyway, I watched the first 4 episodes (episodes 3 and 4 are available on MTV's website), and I really like it. The dhort version of the plot is that Shannara is set in a postapocaylptic world where, after the nuclear fallout, different races that just happen to match up with fantasy races emerged, and magic filled the void left by science. Amberle is an elven princess who breaks tradition to become one of the guardians of the Ellcrys, an immortal tree that supposedly keeps demons locked away from the world. When she touches the tress, she has horrible visions that mistakenly make her believe that she'll release demons and kill the people she loves, so she runs. This wakes up Allanon, the last druid, who has been in a magic coma the last 30 years. Because this is high fantasy, Allanon decides that the best person to help him find Amberle and stop the demons is a random half-elf farmboy named Wil Ohmsford who is the last descendant of a legendary king, and is unaware that his father had been a great hero 30 years before. There's also Amberle's grandfather and uncles, who seem incapable of getting their acts together, and Eretria, a Rover (nomad) girl who will win her freedom from slavery is she can steal a magic talisman that Will has.
It's been years since read the book, but the most notable changes are that the structure is reworked to make Amberle the central heroic figure, and Wil the secondary one (I highly approve) and that Wil is now Shea's son, instead of grandson, and a half-elf, instead of a human with elven ancestry. I can't remember if Allanon's Doomed Love Story was in the book or not, but either way, I'm sad we probably won't get flashbacks. It also heavily emphasizes that this is a post-apocalyptic Earth, not a separate fantasy world, which was always hinted at in the books, but not made clear until later on.
The series, I think, is meant to but a series of miniseries with each season adapting a different book, but able to stand alone if someone hasn't seen previous seasons. This will work fine with Elfstones and Wishsongs of Shannara, which are standalone despite technically being part of a trilogy, but might get harder after that, when (if) we get to the later arcs that span multiple books each.
I really enjoyed the episodes, and am not at all surprised that you could have a drinking game with the GoT comparisons, despite having nothing in common save genre.
Beowulf: Return to the Shadowlands is, as the name implies, based on the epic poem, though it doesn't really have much more in common with it than the setting, and being about a man named Beowulf who sometimes fights monsters. Beowulf is returning home after having been banished years earlier, intending to mend things with his surrogate father, Hrothgar. When he arrives, he finds that Hrothgar recently died, and Hrothgar's son, Slean, still reallyreallyreally hates him just as much as when they were children. Not believing Slean was ready to rule, Hrothgar, named his wife, Rheda (JOANNE WHALLEY) as his successor. Rheda doesn't particularly want to be Thane, but agrees that Slean would be a spectacularly bad ruler. Slean's issues seem to stem from the fact that he assumes everyone likes Beowulf more than him, even if they don't mention Beowulf, and that everything Beowulf says or does is an indicator they Beowulf wants to take something of his. (Said "things" including his mother and his lover, both of whom he does seem to regard as possessions) "Subtlety" never crossed the writers' minds when creating Slean. Hopefully they'll get a bit better at that.
The pilot largely involved Beowulf going home, getting falsely accused of murder, then proving he's innocent, while setting up some things for the future, There's also a painfully awful prologue of little!Beowulf and little!Beowulf flashbacks that are mostly painful because the child actor doesn't really react to things. I mean, in the prologue, he sees his father get killed by a troll and then kills the troll and just...has no reaction. He might as well have been waiting for the schoolbus when he was found with the corpses. The promotional materials that I saw heavily emphasized multiple women and PoC in the cast, and they're there, but Rheda is the only one that really got a lot of development or development.
I mostly enjoyed it but didn't love it, and will watch more.
And, finally, there's the second season of Galavant, aka "the season that almost didn't happen," something the show makes sure we know in the opening musical number.
I thought the opening episodes were strong-and, honestly, much better than the first two episodes of the first season. The Big Misunderstanding in the romantic plotline is annoying, but I honestly expect that to sort itself out without too much trouble, and it'll probably be overshadowed by other things soon. The first season mostly poked at 80s and 90s fantasy movies (if you missed out on Madalena being the anti-Buttercup, I kinda feel bad for you, because her stuff is so much fun when you notice the lines deliberately delivered the way Robin Wright did) and old school fantasy and medieval romance tropes, and this season continues the trend, but also takes on current fantasy shows. I suspected in season one that the Galavant creative team didn't think that much of GoT, and 2.1 pretty much solidified that. The musical numbers are good so far, and I fully expect fanvidders to go to town with "Off With his Shirt".
One thing about the episodes is that they pretty much made "knights in shining armor riding to the rescue just get in the way of the damsel in distress" a theme. In the pilot, Galavant makes a big show of dramatically coming to Madalena's rescue, only to find out that he's actually just being a nuisance as far as she's concerned, because while she might not be into Richard, she's very, very much into the wealth and power that come with him. In season 2, Isabella actually does want to be rescued. She's been having a pretty good go at escaping on her own for months, but escaping is HARD when an entire kingdom (including your parents) keep getting in your way, and your quasi-friends are willing to help you to a degree because they don't think you should be forced into marriage, but their own lives are actually a lot better than before, so they're not going to go TOO far with that. Then she does seem to have a plan that will work and is in the middle of escaping when Galavant discovers magical medieval facetime, and because of the bad reception, her plan ends up being tosses and she's right back where she started. Based on promotional pictures and trailers, it looks like she'll be taking care of things herself, though.
One fun thing about Galavant airing at the same time as other fantasy shows is imagining the characters watching them. Galavant and co would probably like Shannara, but the shipping wars would get intense. They'd make fun of the CGI trolls and Slean's whining in Beowulf, but secretly like it. GoT isn't currently airing (I think?) but I assume the characters would have about as much regard for it as the shows seems to, though i'd really like to hear what Madalena would have to say to GoT characters about taking over a kingdom.
The Shannara Chronicles is based on The Elfstones of Shannara, the second book in Terry Brook's first Shannara trilogy. Skipping over the first book was wise, as even when I was really into Shannara (and Terry Brooks in general) I thought The Sword of Shannara was pretty dull. The Elf Queen of Shannara was my first non-kids fantasy book way back when it first came out, and when I was young enough to have never read a book series before that didn't have numbers on the spine (all the Shannara books do now, I think, but they didn't 20-odd years ago). I read all the Shannara books religiously even when I started to get a bit tired up them, up through partway through the "High Druid of Shannara" trilogy. Because I found out that my favorite character it that trilogy didn't count as redeemed if she spent decades being the most powerful force of good in the world to make up for her youthful villainy and everyone still thought she was evil anyway and she could only be considered redeemed if she sacrificed herself and turned into a tree. Terry Brooks actually has an odd thing about women turning into trees and women who are trees but we won't dwell on that. Anyway, I watched the first 4 episodes (episodes 3 and 4 are available on MTV's website), and I really like it. The dhort version of the plot is that Shannara is set in a postapocaylptic world where, after the nuclear fallout, different races that just happen to match up with fantasy races emerged, and magic filled the void left by science. Amberle is an elven princess who breaks tradition to become one of the guardians of the Ellcrys, an immortal tree that supposedly keeps demons locked away from the world. When she touches the tress, she has horrible visions that mistakenly make her believe that she'll release demons and kill the people she loves, so she runs. This wakes up Allanon, the last druid, who has been in a magic coma the last 30 years. Because this is high fantasy, Allanon decides that the best person to help him find Amberle and stop the demons is a random half-elf farmboy named Wil Ohmsford who is the last descendant of a legendary king, and is unaware that his father had been a great hero 30 years before. There's also Amberle's grandfather and uncles, who seem incapable of getting their acts together, and Eretria, a Rover (nomad) girl who will win her freedom from slavery is she can steal a magic talisman that Will has.
It's been years since read the book, but the most notable changes are that the structure is reworked to make Amberle the central heroic figure, and Wil the secondary one (I highly approve) and that Wil is now Shea's son, instead of grandson, and a half-elf, instead of a human with elven ancestry. I can't remember if Allanon's Doomed Love Story was in the book or not, but either way, I'm sad we probably won't get flashbacks. It also heavily emphasizes that this is a post-apocalyptic Earth, not a separate fantasy world, which was always hinted at in the books, but not made clear until later on.
The series, I think, is meant to but a series of miniseries with each season adapting a different book, but able to stand alone if someone hasn't seen previous seasons. This will work fine with Elfstones and Wishsongs of Shannara, which are standalone despite technically being part of a trilogy, but might get harder after that, when (if) we get to the later arcs that span multiple books each.
I really enjoyed the episodes, and am not at all surprised that you could have a drinking game with the GoT comparisons, despite having nothing in common save genre.
Beowulf: Return to the Shadowlands is, as the name implies, based on the epic poem, though it doesn't really have much more in common with it than the setting, and being about a man named Beowulf who sometimes fights monsters. Beowulf is returning home after having been banished years earlier, intending to mend things with his surrogate father, Hrothgar. When he arrives, he finds that Hrothgar recently died, and Hrothgar's son, Slean, still reallyreallyreally hates him just as much as when they were children. Not believing Slean was ready to rule, Hrothgar, named his wife, Rheda (JOANNE WHALLEY) as his successor. Rheda doesn't particularly want to be Thane, but agrees that Slean would be a spectacularly bad ruler. Slean's issues seem to stem from the fact that he assumes everyone likes Beowulf more than him, even if they don't mention Beowulf, and that everything Beowulf says or does is an indicator they Beowulf wants to take something of his. (Said "things" including his mother and his lover, both of whom he does seem to regard as possessions) "Subtlety" never crossed the writers' minds when creating Slean. Hopefully they'll get a bit better at that.
The pilot largely involved Beowulf going home, getting falsely accused of murder, then proving he's innocent, while setting up some things for the future, There's also a painfully awful prologue of little!Beowulf and little!Beowulf flashbacks that are mostly painful because the child actor doesn't really react to things. I mean, in the prologue, he sees his father get killed by a troll and then kills the troll and just...has no reaction. He might as well have been waiting for the schoolbus when he was found with the corpses. The promotional materials that I saw heavily emphasized multiple women and PoC in the cast, and they're there, but Rheda is the only one that really got a lot of development or development.
I mostly enjoyed it but didn't love it, and will watch more.
And, finally, there's the second season of Galavant, aka "the season that almost didn't happen," something the show makes sure we know in the opening musical number.
I thought the opening episodes were strong-and, honestly, much better than the first two episodes of the first season. The Big Misunderstanding in the romantic plotline is annoying, but I honestly expect that to sort itself out without too much trouble, and it'll probably be overshadowed by other things soon. The first season mostly poked at 80s and 90s fantasy movies (if you missed out on Madalena being the anti-Buttercup, I kinda feel bad for you, because her stuff is so much fun when you notice the lines deliberately delivered the way Robin Wright did) and old school fantasy and medieval romance tropes, and this season continues the trend, but also takes on current fantasy shows. I suspected in season one that the Galavant creative team didn't think that much of GoT, and 2.1 pretty much solidified that. The musical numbers are good so far, and I fully expect fanvidders to go to town with "Off With his Shirt".
One thing about the episodes is that they pretty much made "knights in shining armor riding to the rescue just get in the way of the damsel in distress" a theme. In the pilot, Galavant makes a big show of dramatically coming to Madalena's rescue, only to find out that he's actually just being a nuisance as far as she's concerned, because while she might not be into Richard, she's very, very much into the wealth and power that come with him. In season 2, Isabella actually does want to be rescued. She's been having a pretty good go at escaping on her own for months, but escaping is HARD when an entire kingdom (including your parents) keep getting in your way, and your quasi-friends are willing to help you to a degree because they don't think you should be forced into marriage, but their own lives are actually a lot better than before, so they're not going to go TOO far with that. Then she does seem to have a plan that will work and is in the middle of escaping when Galavant discovers magical medieval facetime, and because of the bad reception, her plan ends up being tosses and she's right back where she started. Based on promotional pictures and trailers, it looks like she'll be taking care of things herself, though.
One fun thing about Galavant airing at the same time as other fantasy shows is imagining the characters watching them. Galavant and co would probably like Shannara, but the shipping wars would get intense. They'd make fun of the CGI trolls and Slean's whining in Beowulf, but secretly like it. GoT isn't currently airing (I think?) but I assume the characters would have about as much regard for it as the shows seems to, though i'd really like to hear what Madalena would have to say to GoT characters about taking over a kingdom.
