What's on the idiot box?

[Oerwinde]

I heard a rumor that they may can the Iron Fist series or give it just a few episodes to set him up and have the character be like the Hulk of the Defenders, no movies or continuing series of his own but appearing in the shared universe.

Realistically his and Luke Cage's series should just get one season each then combine into Heroes For Hire. Then move forward with the rumored Punisher and Moon Knight series'

[Fighter]

Watched the first couple of Shannara episodes, pretty good overall. Can't comment on how well the books are followed as I've never read them but it was enjoyable, not atrociously acted (well, mostly) and the CGI was... better than you'd see on some full network shows.

 

The flawless glamorous make up and perfectly applied shiny modern looking lipstick of the women in that show drives me nuts. It's like they made no effort to make them look less like characters who should be on gossip girl or something.

[Zoraptor]

It's an MTV show, immaculately pretty girls were inevitable. So long as they can act decently enough (jury is out for that) I can't say that I mind.

 

Raithe's comparison to a typical CW show is pretty apt really. Maybe Arrow would be more appropriate than a high school drama though, given two of the cast have been on that.

[Nonek]

Yes I thought back on my impressions of the Shannara books and they were pretty much teen adventure / boys own mixed with classic fantasy, ocassionally they rose above the formula and later dipped far below. I'd recommend the second book "Elfstones of -" as probably the best of the first trilogy and "The Druid of -" as the best of the Scions quartet. There are some excellent ideas and settings used throughout, though any Englishman whose travelled the Isles will recognise most of the names Mr Brooks uses, but all told it is mainly just quite good fun.

 

Have to have a watch, thanks for the notification chaps.

 

Edit: Garret Jax was a marvellously strong though one dimensional character from the "Wishsong of -," indeed the whole company of Jair in that game was fantastically characterised. I much preferred his quite clever questline to the main protagonists, she was a touch too mary Sue-ish, purposefully so I believe.

[Oerwinde]

I got bored about a third of the way though Sword of Shanarra and gave up. The wife has them all though, should I give them another try? (I was like 16 and had just finished reading the first Wheel of Time book when I read it)

[Nonek]

It's quite difficult to say because as you probably remember the prose is quite cumbersome and that book is where Mr Brooks is learning his craft and form, there are some good points later on but it does tend to drag, its certainly not a classic of the genre but neither is it without high points. Personally I believe that reading of any literature is never wasted time, however i'd read up to the Hadeshorn and the Tomb of Kings beyond if in doubt, or maybe even Paranor, the pace quickens at that point and arcs begin to be resolved.

 

Edit: I've got to wonder whether they found an actor capable of portraying the immense, cowled brooding presence of Allanon, the seven foot Druid who defines the first trilogy, must be hard to find someone of such physicality and yet the appropriate acting chops.

Edited January 9, 2016 by Nonek

[HoonDing]

Wishsong is best book of the trilogy by far imho.

[Leferd]

Deadwood is coming back! Albeit in movie form.

 

One of the best things to come out of HBO along with Rome, The Larry Sanders Show, and Band of Brothers.

 

Oozes character.

 

Wild Bill Hickok

Al Swearingen

Seth Bullock

Calamity Jane

The Pinkerton's

Charlie Utter

General George Crook

George Hearst

Sol Star

Wyatt Earp

That coward, Jack McCall

Wu

Wu's pigs.

[Nonek]

Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands: Utter dreck, filled with the usual cliches and anachronistic elements, do yourself a favour and watch the Beowulf and Grendel film with Gerard Butler from a few years back instead. This cheap Game of Thrones knock off is not even remotely entertaining, and butchers the source material unmercifully.

[Hiro Protagonist]

Watched the Shannara episodes and thought they were good. Never read the books. Is there an ending to this series?

[Nonek]

From what i've read the TV series is adapting the second book "Elfstones of Shannara." This is part of the original trilogy and I believe Mr Brooks writing on this world is still ongoing, though the quality of his content has deteriorated in the last twenty years or so. I'd just read the original trilogy personally, and perhaps use the library or a second hand book shop if the second quartet of books and beyond interest you.

[kgambit]

From what i've read the TV series is adapting the second book "Elfstones of Shannara." This is part of the original trilogy and I believe Mr Brooks writing on this world is still ongoing, though the quality of his content has deteriorated in the last twenty years or so. I'd just read the original trilogy personally, and perhaps use the library or a second hand book shop if the second quartet of books and beyond interest you.

 

The complete series (excluding the graphic novel and short stories) spans over 2 dozen novels (28 total iirc?).     

 

You can catch the first four episodes here:

 

http://www.mtv.com/shows/shannara

[Rosbjerg]

I think the description I heard was "It's like someone shot Lord of the Rings with the cast from one of the CW's high school dramas.. and it somehow works regardless."

That's exactly how I would describe it too, except I just could'nt stand the All American High cast. Too 'plastic' for my taste and the show was a little too saturated with tired fantasy tropes.

It's very Divergence, Maze Runner, Hunger Games teenage-drama/angst.

[Oerwinde]

 

This actually kind of excites me.

[Raithe]

 

I think the description I heard was "It's like someone shot Lord of the Rings with the cast from one of the CW's high school dramas.. and it somehow works regardless."

That's exactly how I would describe it too, except I just could'nt stand the All American High cast. Too 'plastic' for my taste and the show was a little too saturated with tired fantasy tropes.

It's very Divergence, Maze Runner, Hunger Games teenage-drama/angst.

 

 

It's interesting how you can look back at it really.  When the first Shannara book came out it was the early 70's and you had that big resurgence of new fantasy authors coming out with their variants of Lord of the Rings. Brooks was rough around the edges with the first few, but he did have that slight twist that what appeared to be your standard fantasy world developed over time and turned out to be a post-apocalyptic far future Earth. Humanity having evolved into the different species (elf, dwarf, troll, etc) but still all having that background connection. It's been a decade or so since I actually read them, but the magic system itself was that touch skewed from the normal as well.

 

The first trilogy as such was more wrapped around your standard fantasy style but at heart was a lot of coming of age adventures for teenagers. So it makes sense that a lot of the cast in the show fit into that kind of casting group. Plus, the heavy focus of elves in the 2nd book (which they're using as the basis for the series) tends to go with the "lots of pretty people" to play them. It's rare for any version of elves not to be considered more attractive than human norm.

 

Heh, if you look back at it, Brooks wrote a lot of those standard YA dystopian future tropes before they became a thing and got hammered into us with the recent book-to-film adaptions.  So while you can look at it and see all those "tired tropes", he was actually sort of there first (if you don't get bogged in the LoTR inspirations).

[Nonek]

Humanity having evolved into the different species (elf, dwarf, troll, etc) but still all having that background connection.

 

 

Elves were seperate and apart all the time weren't they, hiding in the manner of the King of the Silver River, and chose to emerge when the new world came to be? Which makes me wonder if the Magic Kingdom For Sale world is a part of the same continuum?

[Raithe]

 

Humanity having evolved into the different species (elf, dwarf, troll, etc) but still all having that background connection.

 

 

Elves were seperate and apart all the time weren't they, hiding in the manner of the King of the Silver River, and chose to emerge when the new world came to be? Which makes me wonder if the Magic Kingdom For Sale world is a part of the same continuum?

 

 

Possibly. As I said, it has been about 10 or 20 years since I sat down and read through the series. I think I got through the first 9 or so of the Shannara series and related books.

[Nonek]

I've read a few of the later ones and you're not missing anything Mr Raithe, though he does narrate the transition of our Old World into Shannaras New World. He began from a series which was set in the Old World and featured proto Druid Characters, named Knights of the Word, implying an Old Testament connection it seemed.

[Tale]

I finally went to watching Arrested Development over Prime this weekend. Got to season 4 and saw that cost money, but I liked the previous ones enough, so I just did a Netflix trial.

 

What have I been doing without Netflix all this time? Good gosh.

[Hurlshort]

I finally went to watching Arrested Development over Prime this weekend. Got to season 4 and saw that cost money, but I liked the previous ones enough, so I just did a Netflix trial.

 

What have I been doing without Netflix all this time? Good gosh.

 

Uh yeah, Netflix is pretty amazing right now.  I don't even watch movies on it anymore, it's all original programming or documentaries.  

[GhostofAnakin]

Does anyone else find Heroes Reborn kind of boring?  I can't put my finger on exactly the biggest issue (maybe it's the writing or the confused script that's all over the place), but it's nowhere as interesting (to me) as the other "super hero" TV shows out there.

[Gfted1]

I lost interest in it 3-4 episodes in but my wife is soldiering on. Never grabbed me like the first one did.

[Tale]

Does anyone else find Heroes Reborn kind of boring?  I can't put my finger on exactly the biggest issue (maybe it's the writing or the confused script that's all over the place), but it's nowhere as interesting (to me) as the other "super hero" TV shows out there.

I actually liked it.

 

But I think the main thing that kept me going was the mystery about what happened to Claire. I was positive it was just faked, but the true reveal was a big let down.`

[Amentep]

I haven't watched Heroes since the end of the first season.  Didn't see any reason to return on the reboot but I hoped it'd be good for the people who had liked the show.

[Zoraptor]

The Heroes reboot had largely the same flaws the latter seasons had. Incoherent plot made more disjointed by lots of different groups with little to no reason to care about any of them- with the exception of Noah Bennett- which consequently made it very difficult to follow the plot or care about the characters. It even has the exact same super power problems (inflation/ deflation depending on plot requirement) and to an extent at least the same senseless heel/ face turns as the original series, albeit not to the contortionate extremes they went to with Sylar.

 

I've actually still found it fairly enjoyable despite its flaws, but it should have been far far better than what we got and I cannot blame anyone for rolling their eyes at it.