Legend of the Seeker Sucks Ass

What really bothers me about Legend of the Seeker is that its relationship with the Sword of Truth books is a microcosm of American culture in general.

One of the reasons the books were amazing is the style in which they were written. Every scene is laid out like a screenplay. The general information given is basic when needed, but every aspect that is integral to the story is described in a very basic, Human way. You understand each event in a linear fashion, but at the same time you understand the deeper implications alongside the aesthetic representation. It feels as if you are watching events unfold, but in a way that is as exhaustive as is possible without being boring. The war that goes on throughout the books; each character's personality and relationship with other characters; the feelings conveyed through simple dialogue and actions; these things educate the reader on Human nature in the context of the story. You learn a lot from each story arc.

The main theme of the books is very complex, but at the same time very basic. It's a story about all of the negative aspects of civilization and contemporary society, and how they are overcome. The problems that aren't overcome, though, serve to describe the sorrow and frustration of being a part of Human culture. The main protagonist is someone whose being is grounded in logic, and who has a very analytical mind. Through him, you learn what irrationality and immoral fervor do to people, and the love that grows between Richard and Kahlan is a very realistic one, but still has elements of a purity that exist only rarely in life.

While there is a main villain, the story is never really about good vs. evil. It's about the Human struggle and triumph over itself, and how deeply ingrained beliefs and destructive qualities can be defeated in a moral framework. It is as much a novel as it is a basic philosophical work.

The TV show is nothing more than a sub-par situational drama. It has the same banal humor, the overly dramatic conflicts, all of the annoying qualities of a poorly written TV show. It uses sex as a selling point instead of how it is portrayed in the books, by using as many opportunities as it can find to show the same pseudo-sexual softcore porn that most TV dramas have. All of these parts are put in because they appeal to the general viewerbase, like everything else in the show.

This is why the story is completely different. In the books, every facet of the storyline was interwoven with the main theme and the rest of the story, whereas in the show, it is an episodic, climax-based, ridiculously undeveloped story. The kind of people who watch shows like Xena, Hercules, and all of the terrible dramas on TV like this kind of story progression, with just enough development to make the viewers feel sophisticated, when all they are watching is trash from a pre-formulated mold.

It is a travesty to someone like me, someone who has an intellect and who appreciated the books on a very deep and personal level. I've seen a lot of people who have read the books and who still like the show, and these people must be too stupid to realize just how pointless the comparison is. Or, they dismiss the comparison alltogether, insisting that they are two different things, and should be appreciated separately. Regardless of this, I can never appreciate the show in any way because of how badly it has forsaken all of the attractive qualities of the books. And, even if I took the show on its merits alone, I would still be disappointed because it's a shitty show with a shitty, TV-grade cast, with a plot so idiotic that it defies logic as to why Terry Goodkind would have any part in it.

What really makes me angry about it, though, is that it seems like most people don't realize things like this. They don't realize just how dumbed-down TV is, and how all aspects of cultural media in America are so abhorrently reductive and bland that it insults the intelligence of anyone who sits through it. Unless, of course, they don't have an intelligence to insult.

The saddest part of watching enough of the show to analyze is understanding the formulae that is used to make American TV shows. It's all so basic that it should only appeal to slow children, and yet adults are just as entranced, if not moreso. There isn't any real depth to literature and media anymore, if there ever was. All of the things that are great are underappreciated and unknown, and when they do become mainstream, they either have to be dumbed down so much that they become worthless, or they are appreciated for the wrong reasons.

I've seen at least two or three episodes that involve Richard and Kahlan almost having sex. The way that these scenes are done is one of the things that -really- pisses me off about the show. They both paw at each other like horny teenagers, with nothing but lust and hormones in their eyes, and the scene is done in a way that is supposed to exude these things: Hormones, lust and not really 'sex'... but 'fucking'.

The characters from the books did not have the kind of personality that they were horny adolescents who wanted to get it on so badly when given the opportunity. They were adults, with sophisticated emotions and lusts. When they did have sex, it was not just... bad porn. They made love, in the corniest sense of the term, but it was special because of that, because they connected on a deeper level. But, since American sexuality is perpetually frozen in the late teenage years, and because that primal kind of lust is what is easy to sell in media, that is how it is done on the show. It seems like there is almost nothing in American culture anymore that suggests we have any sophisticated emotions, or sense of self, or sexuality. Apparently, we are all just adolescent children, slavishly guided by immature, pseudo-emotional desires. This is probably why the show is successful with a short, prepubescent-looking, brainless protagonist and why his love interest is the kind of girl you want to fuck in high school. She's not beautiful, she's 'hot'. Somehow, everyone eats it up.

All of the other parts of the story that they get wrong and change to the point of not being recognizeable at all just show how that isn't their aim; they have no interest in telling a story. They just want to reiterate the formula that will make them money. And since people are so undeveloped and mindless, they'll like the show, they'll think it has a great story and great characters, great humor, great action and great climaxes. In the end, the real problem isn't the people making the show; it's all of the idiots that genuinely like it.