The Shannara Chronicles - Season 1 (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Creators: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
	Actors: Austin Butler, Ivana Baquero (Pan's Labyrinth), Manu Bennett, Poppy Drayton
	Country: USA
	Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: May-June 2017, VOD, 32" TV screen & 10" tablet
Synopsis: In the Elvish city of Arborlon, the princess Amberle races to become a Chosen One. Soon after the sacred tree known as the Ellcrys starts fading, releasing Deamons that were emprisoned since the end of the last War on the Four Lands.
Review: Such a Fantasy series could probably not have been produced before the times of The Lord of the Rings, to which it borrows John Rhys-Davies (Gimli then) also know as Sallah in the Indiana Jones movies, or the professor in the Sliders TV-series. Also helping a lot is the existence of the Game of Thrones TV-series to which it borrows the bloody deaths (often quite uselessly), including the surprise ones of the major cast, but replaces the sex by teenage love stories. The sets, the special effects and especially the costumes are very well-done, but the one thing that makes the series interesting is the fact that in the background of every episode you see relics of our contemporary world, underlying that this world of Elves, Trolls, Magicians and Gnomes was born from the ashes of our own. The opening credits sequence confirms that, as well as some clues given throughout the season, and the location of the last two episodes. The purpose of the series is not (yet?) to find out how it came to that, but it certainly adds some depth to it and surely probes the interest of the audience. My personal theory to explain everything we see on screen: nanobots left over from a global war. Unfortunately all those things do not suffice to make a good TV-series, and in fact to me the problem of this one is that it feels too much like a TV-series: good vs. evil, the love triangle, obstacles that appear always at the same point in the episodes, even if they don't bring anything to the quest you need the same amount of Action and Drama and Romance and Adventure per episode. I do not know if this comes from the original novel but I find the story weak, not thought-through enough. The characters are not consistent (the druid can be all-powerful or very stupidly defeated) and neither are the distances (the same one can be traveled in a week with many obstacles or in a few hours with none). Even if the images look good I didn't end the season with a feeling of completed adventure like a good Fantasy show should leave me. Finally my favorite character in the series, in addition to Rhys-Davies, is not even one of the three main ones but the druid played by the very fitting Kiwi Manu Bennett. Also note the presence of Ivana Baquero who was playing the little girl in Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth. How she has grown...
Rating: 4 /10