New Zealand is pretty! I’m pretty sure that I’ve seem too many shows and movies filmed there, though – I’m starting to recognize landmarks.
For the first real scene – two girls on horseback are being pursued by a bunch of soldier types in medieval armor. One girl can dodge arrows, but the other can’t, so she gets shot. I’m rather curious as to how they managed to shake the soldiers after she was shot, but hey – this show is made by a bunch of ex-Xena people, so asking for that kind of continuity is probably kind of silly!
The girl who got shot dies, and we find out that they are sisters. Now, I’m not a big fan of big dramatic death scenes early in a show, so I might be biased, but I really didn’t care at this point. Mostly, I was just wondering “why should we care?” It was a pretty obvious use of the sledgehammer method of exposition, along the lines of: THEIR MISSION IS VERY IMPORTANT! NO, REALLY! BELIEVE US!
Not great so far. Subtlety is pretty important.
The girl who can dodge arrows can also run really, really fast, apparently. (That makes sense, I suppose). She’s also fond of dramatic poses in dangerous situations… but there’s a big green wall in the way, so I suppose she can be forgiven.
A Random Thought:
Why did the entire wall suddenly appear when she ran into it? And then not disappear? Surely stuff must run into it all of the time!
I like Kahlan. Okay, okay, I’d probably like any female character who beats people up, but I really do like Kahlan. She’s rather like… Summer Glau’s Cameron (from T:SCC) + Eowyn (Lord of the Rings, but from the book, not the movie) + Emily Deschanel (or maybe her character in Bones, I’m not sure). In other words, she’s single-minded, hides her emotions, isn’t afraid to do what she needs to, and yet can still be soft and kind underneath – and she has quirky facial expressions and speech patterns.
Another Random Thought: (Which is going to return again and again…)
Kahlan is participating in a rather large range of athletic activities, riding a horse for miles, stabbing people, running for miles, too. Why on earth is she wearing that huge flowing dress? We always thought that Xena’s outfit was impractical, but this is ridiculous! Maybe she had to flee in a hurry, and she was wearing that thing already – but I rather think that somebody simply thought it would look cool.
Next Scene:
Whee! Dude with no shirt chopping logs! Complete with slow motion! Sure, I think it’s gross, but I imagine that straight women and gay men everywhere love it. Bonus points for equal opportunity objectification.
Random thought:
Lady (the cow) is the smartest character I’ve seen in a while, anywhere.
My impression of Richard was of a goody two shoes. The stereotypical perfect kid. I didn’t really like him here – thank goodness this is only the pilot!
Richard seeing Kahlan for the first time was really, really cheesy. I thought that modern TV had gotten over that kind of thing!
Anyway, after she dodges another arrow, the soldiers run Kahlan up against a cliff, and Richard (tapping into his chivalrous instincts) tries to save her. Which is a bit stupid. But Kahlan’s facial expression while Richard is arguing with the soldiers are worth it: “Who the hell is this guy, and what does he think he’s doing?”
Then she screws up and makes herself (and the writers) look stupid… but I’ll come back to this later.
In any case, Richard saves her tail, she’s ungrateful, and it’s obvious that Richard is the big damn hero. It looked to me like they did it together, with Kahlan doing most of the work, but – whatever. There’s more silliness, with them staring into each other’s eyes while romantic music plays.
Why didn’t Kahlan make sure that all of the soldiers were dead? It would have saved a lot of trouble…
I did like that Richard didn’t follow her when she told him not too. That was a nice (and unusual) touch. I expected him to chase after her, somehow.
Anyway, the plot after this is all one big stereotype after another, for a while. So Richard has a destiny, he’s a reluctant hero, his father isn’t his real father, he won’t accept aforementioned destiny, he changes his mind after his dad gets killed and his (adopted) brother rejects him, he’s going to save the world at some unspecified time. Blah, blah, blah.
In fact, this looks rather like a canned D&D plot. Hell, there’s a Gandalf style wizard (Zedd) – there’s a ranger (Richard) – and a paladin (Kahlan). A RPG adventure party. Lovely. And stupid.
I liked Zedd without reservation from his first appearance, which is more than I can say about the other characters! Nudism for the win! Also, he’s cranky, slightly insane, and plays the part of the old guy who’s usually right about stuff. I suppose he’s a stereotype, but he’s an entertaining stereotype.
Finally, the plot recovers..
After Richard’s buddy’s daughter gets kidnapped, the show start to improve. I really liked the angry peasant mob for, some reason, and the fairy saving Richard’s head was a nice touch. The evil bad guy attacking the ‘boundary’ with catapult was interesting. I expected chanting priests, or something, and was pleasantly surprised by the practicality of it all.
The evil bad guy, whose name escapes me, was so boring I’m not going to even bother to look his name up.
Richard screws up and falls for the clichéd voices, putting Zedd into a coma. This is the first time he actually makes a mistake, and I’m starting to like him a bit.
They catch up with Minor Bad Guy, and there’s a big slo-mo fight, in which Kahlan kills two bad guys easily, while Richard only beats the one by a hair. Chalk up one more cheesy “You’re the seeker!” moment. And here’s my gripe from earlier: We now see Kahlan’s combat prowess – earlier, she could have easily tossed that soldier over the cliff instead of mind-warping him. Why did she use her power so soon in the fight? It’s as if the writers hadn’t decided what she was going to be like when they filmed that scene, and really, really wanted to show us her Pinch-like Powers. Or something.
Another big fight, and more cheese for the end – I certainly hope they stop the lovey-dovey moments after this episode. It’s getting ridiculous.
In the End
The pilot was pretty silly, plot wise, but the characters are interesting and have potential. (This sounds familiar…)
That, and Kahlan’s cool (and hot!).
More Random Thoughts:
I liked what they did with the shadow book. I didn’t expect them to trash it, as it seemed like such a big deal at first! Bravo.
The Sword of Truth imparts amazing fighting and acrobatic abilities? Or is that just part of being the Seeker, along with those amazing instant leadership skills.
Kahlan needs a new weapon. Those knives just aren’t going to cut it. She needs to get some new clothes, too (No, I’m not going to drop this…)
