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Seek out this entertaining sword-and-sorcery series.

Sam Raimi & Co., producers of the wildly popular Xena and Hercules franchises of yore, head back to the lush hills and green valleys of New Zealand for a more straight-faced fantasy adventure series, with plenty of swords, magic, and good-looking folk who still look good no matter how many people they’ve just bested in battle. Legend of the Seeker won’t change anybody’s worldview, but it’s a colorful, entertaining series with its own mythology, decent special effects, and characters that are ultimately pretty endearing. It’s junk food, but a pretty tasty concoction nonetheless.

Loosely based on a set of novels by Terry Goodkind, collectively known as the Sword of Truth series, Legend of the Seeker is a set in a familiar Lord of the Rings-ish fantasy landscape of verdant forests, creepy castles, and quasi-medieval style villages, with the major difference being the relative lack of magical-type creatures (elves, unicorns, etc.) in favor of a more economical human population.

The story begins with two beautiful women on horseback being chased by obvious Bad Guys; one of the women is killed, while the other, Kahlan (Bridget Regan) makes her way to the “great barrier” – a bright green energy wall that has stood for hundreds of years, dividing the lands of this world. The barrier is supposedly impenetrable, but Kahlan has magical assistance, and makes her way through, in search of the “Seeker,” a figure of prophecy who is foretold to fight and kill the evil tyrant Darken Rahl (Craig Parker). Kahlan seeks out the once-great wizard Zeddicus Zu’l Zorander (Bruce Spence) who has been in “retirement” for twenty-odd years, keeping watch over the young Seeker, a young man named Richard Cypher (Craig Horner), who is, as yet, oblivious of his destiny. Kahlan carries with her The Book of Counted Shadows, an ancient tome that the Seeker will use to defeat Darken Rahl, but which holds great power, and cannot be allowed to fall into evil hands. The team of Richard, Kahlan, and Zedd set off on many colorful adventures, fighting Rahl’s evil forces as they go.

Seeker, of course, features many familiar tropes, and there are moments in the two-hour pilot especially where it can’t help but feel like warmed-over Star Wars as well. But the show quickly forges its own identity, and some of its concepts are quite neat. Kahlan is a “Confessor,” part of a mystic order of women that can bend people to their will with only a touch, and command them even unto their deaths if need be. The series also quickly introduces an evil sect of women called Mord-Sith who wear quasi-bondage outfits and are adept at inducing pain. One of the overriding story arcs concerns the mystical “Boxes of Orden,” magical objects of great power, which will assist the Seeker in fulfilling his destiny. Also, Kahlan’s powers make it impossible to, ahem, “get it on” with the Seeker without destroying his mind, so their burgeoning love affair is doomed to remain unrequited – until the storytellers figure out a workaround, of course. None of this is stunningly original, but it’s been crafted with enough care and vitality that the resulting blend is surprisingly appealing.

And a lot of that is down to the performances. Although a bit bland in a pretty-boy sort of way, Aussie Craig Horner is decent as the brash-but-earnest padawan, and handles all the physical stuff very well. He’s believable as a warrior, and, to give the kid credit, his American accent is pretty convincing as well. Better is Bridget Regan, a classically trained New York actress and dancer who brings a singular grace to the tricky role of Kahlan; Regan is gorgeous, of course (and usually dressed in some ridiculously impractical-for-fighting dresses, most with plunging necklines), but also a fairly subtle actress, and makes Kahlan easily the richest of the three main characters. And it’s always a delight to see Bruce Spence getting work – we’ve loved this guy ever since The Road Warrior, and he’s well-cast and typically delightful as the world-weary wizard. Craig Parker has a bit of an uphill battle as a rather generic baddie, but brings a nice sense of British decorum to the sadistic, evil Rahl, managing to avoid the mustache-twirling cliches.

The show also scores points with great production values, including well-rendered sets, costumes, and special effects. It’s all apparently done on quite a limited budget, but it doesn’t really show, and the series has quite a lush appearance. And of course the New Zealand scenery speaks for itself.

As with most shows, the quality level varies from episode to episode, but for the most part Legend of the Seeker doesn’t suck, and remains action-packed and fairly consistently entertaining. Some of my favorites during this first year include “Denna,” the first real Mord-Sith episode, in which Richard is captured, and Kahlan confronts her Confessor-gone-bad sister; “Revenant,” a creepy episode set in a tomb, where the ghosts of a legendary Seeker and his true love haunt Richard, Kahlan and Zedd; “Mirror,” an amusing episode in which a pair of petty thieves use magic to disguise themselves as Richard and Kahlan (anyone doubting that Bridget Regan is more than just a pretty face need only consult her funny performance in this episode); “Sanctuary,” in which an artist has the power to whisk those he paints to an alternate reality; and “Cursed,” a nifty werewolf-type story in which a kindly ruler finds the magic he’s using to hold off Rahl’s forces has gotten out of hand. In general, the series gets more interesting as the season progresses, although the finale, “Reckoning,” seems a bit rushed – and also seems to end a bit too conclusively, although that may have been intentional, in case the show was not renewed. (It has been, with Season Two beginning in November).

Special features on this 5-disc set are fairly light, actually. Forging the Sword: Crafting a Legend is a slightly above-average EPK-type “making of” featurette, built around a set tour given by Craig Horner and Bridget Regan. Centering mostly on the pilot, this is an adequate outline of how the show came to be. Words of Truth: A Conversation with Terry Goodkind centers on the author of the original novels, a ridiculously talented renaissance man who lives in the woods with a beautiful wife, builds his own houses, and paints fantasy artwork, as well as writing novels. Goodkind doesn’t really expound much on the differences between his books and the show, but does indicate that he put his trust in Raimi & Co. because of their commitment to the subject matter and the ideals of heroism. 

There are also a handful of Deleted Scenes, none of them particularly revelatory, and better off snipped. The two-part Pilot episode (originally aired as a two-hour movie, but oddly left chopped into episodes here) has a pretty charming Audio Commentary featuring actors Horner, Regan, and producers/co-writers Ken Biller and Stephen Tolkin. This is a very amiable yack-track, with lots of good behind-the-scenes info, and it’s obvious these folk all get along very well. Commentaries are also provided on the episodes “Denna” (Craig Parker and actress Jessica Marias) and “Puppeteer” (Parker and Bruce Spence).

Although I’m not particularly disposed to the sword-and-sorcery genre, I like Legend of the Seeker quite a bit. Maybe because it seems unpretentious and fun, with no ambitions beyond entertaining an audience, and features likeable characters doing heroic things. It’s not quite a classic, but more than simple eye-candy, and if you haven’t gotten around to checking it out yet, make it your quest to give these discs a spin.

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