The Legend of the Seeker

I have to start off by saying that I L O V E  Terry Goodkind.  I own all of his books, and I've read the "Sword of Truth" series at least 6-7 times.  That's no small task considering the shortest book is like 730 pages (if you don't count "Debt of Bones"), and there are 11 books just in the first series.  Having said that, I was really disappointed by this T.V. adaptation.  I will probably review every one of Goodkind's books, so I won't go into them too much in this review other than to state that the series was awful about following the story line of the books.

If you have not read the books, you may love this series.  It has a very Xena-esque feel to it.  There is a fight scene in every episode, and super-silly sound effects for the punches, falls, and other combat sounds.  Bridget Regan makes a beautiful Kahlan, and is probably the most believable character in the series.  Craig Horner is a bit small in stature to be the Richard described in the books, but his action sequences are decent. Tabrett Bethall is a stunning woman, and matches the description of a flawlessly beautiful Cara, except, for some strange reason, they decided to have her cut her hair instead of having it in the long braid of a Mord Sith.

In "The Sword of Truth" series, Richard (the main character) is a simple woods guide that gets pulled into an epic adventure when Kahlan (the love interest) comes looking for a great wizard to free her people from and invading hoard of D'harans.  I don't want to give away too much of the book in a movie review, so we will keep it as simple as that.  The series doesn't seem to follow this line of reasoning very well.  The general idea is there, but the way Goodkind sets up the plot is completely lost in the series.  It seemed to me that the writers were in such a hurry to get to the action, that they forgot to build a story.

There are more inconsistencies as the series progresses.  They kill of major characters, like Nicci, and latter resurrect them as if that were normal.  Most the characters do not match the descriptions of book.  They downplay major characters from the book series, and up-play characters who play a smaller part, namely Darken Rahl played by Craig Parker.  I loved Parker's performance, but one of the most distinguishable traits of Darken Rahl is his long blonde hair.  A little dye, or a wig would have made all the difference.

Many times, it felt as if the writers of the show did not read the books.  They would do something which totally undermined the book series, and then it seemed as though the read the next book or chapter then tried to fix their errors in the show.  If they were going to follow the books, they should have followed the books.  If they wanted to spin off and do something different, but with the base characters and plot, they should have done so.  The mistakes, then trying to make up for the mistakes, are what killed the series.  There is such a following for Mr. Goodkind's work that people petitioned (and won) to get the series back on air for another season.  But ultimately, the series flopped because of the inconsistencies.

In short, If you want to see some stunningly beautiful actresses, and cheesy action sequences, this series is awesome.  If you are expecting it to deliver the incomprehensible genius of Mr. Goodkind's writing, lower your expectations.  It is entertaining, but pales in comparison to the wealth of character development Mr. Goodkind lays out in ink.

I give it.