First Thoughts On 'The Shannara Chronicles' (Episodes 1-3)

'The Shannara Chronicles' is based on a long-running fantasy book series written by Terry Brooks - a writer of whom I've never heard of and a book series which from the looks of things is just another 'Lord of the Rings'-esque fantasy epic which obviously didn't stick well in mainstream media. For all intents and purposes though, this works in the TV series' favour, being able to stand on its own two feet and aim for a more mainstream audience. Does it succeed though? I'm not actually too sure. It's very 'Lord of the Rings'-esque, which I'm sure will make it stick out to fans of that franchise (it certainly stood out to me when I saw it advertised), but at the same time it's going for more of a young adult target audience with it's two lead characters. It all seems a little odd in that respect, but as long as it can keep the rubbish young adult stuff to the background and bring some cool and badass fantasy stuff to the forefront, I have no problems. After all, 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' is a young adult fantasy series and manages to appeal to a very wide target audience, so why can't 'The Shannara Chronicles'?

You'd think with a brand-new world of characters and exciting settings to explore that we'd start off with an opening narration explaining the context behind everything...but no. We get dropped into the start of a big race sequence, which as far as I could tell was basically the Hunger Games for Daredevil with a load of blokes running through a forest blindfolded. Joining this race, however, is Princess Amberle - the first woman to ever take part. I should also add that these people are all elves - something the show takes a good five minutes to properly say, though I guess the pointy ears are a dead giveaway. It turns out that the race selects several elves to protect a sacred tree, which Elf legends say locks in ancient demons. If the tree dies, the demons will break free and...well, if you haven't gathered already, the tree ends up being very ill and slowly dying, meaning that ancient demons are going to break free. Hmmm...subtle exposition that. In all fairness, it's done quite well, as part of a ceremony, and doesn't feel too forced. Neither does the explanation that in this world the Elves have become recluses after a war between the races - consisting of Elves, men, trolls and other beings. When Amberle touches the magic tree-thing though, she sees visions of some kind of apocalypse where the demons have destroyed the elves and everyone's covered in blood, mainly because this show has got to keep the gore to a TV 15 level.

Meanwhile, Wil - a suitably bland and blonde protagonist - is given magic Elf stones by his mother shortly before she dies. Wil is half-human and half-elf and is possibly the most unoriginal protagonist I've seen in a TV series in a long while. Oh, and of course he never grows a beard for some reason and goes to a gym that doesn't exist in this world... Also, are they really just called "Elf stones"? Apparently so.

Of course, Amberle is scared by her visions and runs away, but Allanon (played by super-badass Manu Bennett) re-awakens and seeks her out, realizing that only she can save the world before the magic tree-thing dies. Oh, and Amberle's boring boyfriend casually dies, along with a load of characters we have no time to get to know. Don't worry though, Amberle will make one sad reference to it and then the plot can carry on. Allanon teams up with Wil to find Amberle, and together they take her back to her kingdom to save the world by going inside the magic tree-thing. Oh, and Gimili from 'Lord of the Rings' is her granddad. Because, well, of course he is.

Along the way we meet a rogue highway-woman who's basically labelled "I will be important later", sometimes good, sometimes bad CGI creatures and one of the Dwarves from The Hobbit plays what looks like an Orc but apparently is an evil messed-up Druid Elf. Wow, this show isn't doing well to avoid the 'Lord of the Rings' comparisons.

And, well, that's the first three episodes summed up as best as I can. The cast is actually pretty good, even if our three leads are very generic - the boring blonde man, the rebellious princess and the rebellious supposed-to-be evil supporting character who'll possibly be important later. The actors themselves are pretty good, although I was surprised to learn that the lead actress Poppy Drayton (Amberle) is actually a British actress (according to IMDB). So...why is she and everyone except Manu Bennett and John Rhys-Davies American in this? Of course, those two are awesome as you'd expect and do add some credibility to a pretty dull cast overall. The show is greatly helped by its high production values, great orchestral incidental music and some excellent direction. While yes, there is a lot of shaky-cam used, when CGI is needed, thankfully the camera stays still - which is most of the time thanks to the high-concept fantasy world. And, while I would criticize the lack of actual context for the events of this story (very much like 'The Hunger Games' film), the show does actually introduce everything...just very, very slowly. It is intriguing that they hint at humans who lived years before, and we do see some destroyed helicopters, cars and some familiar landmarks in there too. Perhaps the show is a strange dystopian future? Hmmm....

Oh, and why is there so much pop music in this show? That's right, cos it's for a young adult audience...that makes perfect sense.

Overall, 'The Shannara Chronicles' is off to a fairly average start. I like the lead actress playing Amberle, Manu Bennett is a main character so at least he's there being his usual awesome self and I am intrigued by some of the ideas present. Also, it's only ten episodes long, so even if it's not that great at least it's short. Maybe give it a watch yourself if you're interested.