DVD review: Legend of the Seeker Season One
Get ready for the second season of Legend of the Seeker: Watch the first season
I, like a lot of people, never bothered to watch Legend of the Seeker during its first season run despite rampant curiosity. With its release on DVD, viewers can catch up on what they missed and get set for the second season which debuts next month. Be warned, if you watch the first season, you will set the DVR for the second one. Prioritize now.
Legend of the Seeker is a syndicated fantasy series based on The Sword of Truth novels from author Terry Goodkind. It follows the journey of a young guide named Richard (Craig Horner), mysterious woman named Kahlan (Bridget Regan), a wizard named Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander (Bruce Spence) who must stop the evil Darken rahl (Craig Parker) from unleashing an ancient power.
Horror maestro and Spider-Man director Sam Raimi became interested in adapting Goodkind’s novels to screen after his partner and producer Joshua Donen asked him to read the books. At first Raimi wanted to adapt the first book into a movie or a five-part miniseries, but after speaking with Goodkind, settled on making a weekly television series for ABC Studios.
Viewing this first season was enjoyable and briskly paced. The writing is surprisingly strong and the characters are three-dimensional enough to grow an attachment to. When the first DVD was popped in, expectations were kept to a minimum thanks to the stigma of syndicated adventure shows. Legend of the Seeker’s first season shattered my expectations.
The 5-disc set contains all 22 one-hour episodes of Legend of the Seeker and comes packed with exclusive-to-DVD bonus features and behind the scenes interviews with the cast. The featurettes offer intriguing insight into the show, both behind the camera and in front.
Even if you’re not a fantasy-head, you’ll probably enjoy this based purely on its solid storytelling.
Video: Widescreen 1.78:1, enhanced for 16X9 sets. The show is dazzling with visual effects and they all come off quite crisp and clear despite the dark moods.
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound in English. Subtitles in French, Spanish and English along with subtitles for the commentary tracks as well. The mix is very good so tinkering with the volume is kept to a minimum.
The article mentions becoming hooked to the show as an effect of watching the DVD. I watched the DVD, but instead of being hooked, I became nauseated, sad, angry, and then promptly ran, crying, to the bathroom to throw up. It pissed me off how they mixed up and misrepresented the beloved book series I have lived on for almost half my life. If that wasn’t clear, I doubt me watching any more of the show, and since Goodkind’s name is on it, I’m afraid I now have some books to burn.
Ah, having never read Goodkind's novels, I can't compare the two. Thanks for posting that.
thanks for clarifying that. I had guessed that you hadn't read the books because of your review. like sebastian, I was not really pleased. I watched the first few episodes on hulu.com but stopped watching before any episodes nausia, sadness or anger.
the books were amazing, but the portrayal of some key characters in this show simply did not fit my idea of them at all.
thanks for the review though, it was interesting reading what someone thought of the show who had no preconceived notion of the characters or story.
I agree with both Erik and Sebastian. I started first as watching the show last year, which inspired me to read the books. After I started the book series (which I fast became enthralled with) it became clear that (in the first season at least) the similarities are that you have a hero named Richard Cypher, the Sword of Truth, he falls in love with Kahlan Amnell who is a Confessor, there's a Wizard named Zedd, and the bad guy Darken Rahl wants the Boxes of Orden. Oh, and the stuff with Denna was pretty good too. I'd say in general the personalities of the characters are pretty true to the book, but the storylines and some major plot elements are very different. The biggest twist of all from Book 1 was left out of the season finale, so I hope the rectify this in season 2. So there you have it, I'm an avid fan of the books who thinks the adaptation of the story to screen in very unfaithful, yet I still want to watch the second season! Why? Because it's fun and action packed, and I like the actors!