1 hour ago, Elder_Haman said:

I know GoT is the immediate comparison, but let’s step away from that one. How do you feel it compares to “The Witcher” or “Shadow and Bone” or “His Dark Materials “ or “Carnival Row”?

 

There’s miles of room between Legend of the Seeker and GoT and it is a useless comparison to say, in effect, that anything that isn’t GoT is garbage. 

There have been a ton of fantasy tv shows, and before GOT, all really sucked and had the cheap USA production/budget vibe. LOTR did a great job for movies.  The reason GOT comes to mind, is it changed the fantasy landscape, and the production team did an AMAZING job of controlling costs to get close to what they wanted on the screen. But LOTR would also be a good litmus test, other than a nearly unlimited budget to get there.

If WOT production value falls on the Seeker side of the pendulum, the story and acting will have to be goddamn near perfect or it will be a big fail, if it lands closer to the GOT side, then it will give the show writers and actors the ability to make something great. 

The Witcher had a very good story and good acting, which made up for a lot of the cheesy effects and low budget post-production feel. Let's face it, The Witcher budget post-production neutered season 1. I hope the WOT production is much better than The Witcher.

But if they can't get the production side right, the story may not matter as a poor production could still be unwatchable, which means we'll see an unfinished story when Amazon cancels it. And that would suck.

My concern is the previews make it seem cheap and campy. I have mixed feelings to see Uta Briesewitz directing the first two episodes, after the poor showing for the Defenders and Iron fist (although the budgets were small in her defense). Ciaran Donnelley is the only other of the four directors selected I feel will do a worthy job of telling the story based on past performances.

I really want the show to be great, it seems getting epic fantasy stories "right" is already an uphill battle, and the previews don't instill confidence.

And as a fan of the genre, every "failed" (no offense Faile) closes the door a bit more for studios to bet on other great fantasy stories, which would be unfortunate. I want this story to be told in the way RJ deserves.

1 hour ago, Elder_Haman said:

I don’t understand what you mean by this. What does a USA network show look like? How is it different from GOT (in terms of production style)?

 

I understand the criticism of the Lan/Moiraine entrance looking a little cheesy/tropey. I’d just say two things:

 

(1) This may not be the identical scene from the show. It was meant as an intro for the actors at the NYCC panel.

 

(2) It will feel different when you have the full context of the episode - Rand seeing the Fade on the quarry road and Padan Fain’s troubling stories. 

Understood the production may be different, I hoped the same for Indy 4, which was worse than the previews. ?

As far as the USA, it felt more campy like any USA type series. Acting seemed poor, etc. Leans Seekerish vs GOT.

I hope the show itself is better than the glimpses the previews have shown.

I was a bit neutral after the first teaser, because you only see snippets without seeing a lot of dialogue and corresponding production value.

I expected it from Shannara after MTV picked it up, and Terry Brooks became a sellout long ago, bending to publisher pressure to split stories into 3 books to make more $$$.

I'll still give it a chance, and will be glad if I'm wrong, as I've been excited for the series. The last teaser just seems like unpolished made for tv filming and acting.

After seeing the first trailer and new teaser showing the entrance of Lan and Moraine, I'm guessing this show loses new and casual followers fast, and will ultimately disappoint fans. 

The production style looks more like a USA network fantasy show compared to a film or HBO/GOT show. It just feels cheesy. I recall the same feeling of wrongness when I saw the preview for Indiana Jones 4, and thought that post-production will make it more "Indyesque". I hope my spidy-senses are inaccurate for WOT based on these first two trailer/teasers.

GOT opened the door to how good Fantasy stories could be on screen. Shannara reminded us how bad they can, and have been. WOT may slam the door on many future book adaptions unfortunately.