The Shannara Chronicles
Anybody watch this? I never read the books, even though I am a huge fantasy fan (just wasn't crazy about Terry Brooks' writing style, though I think he's a great world-builder). Watched the first two episodes and quite enjoyed it. Thought it might be aimed at too young an audience but while the target audience is clearly in the 18 - 25 range (as you would expect from MTV) I didn't find myself bored.
Decent acting (some well-known names), decent action, decent story-telling and obviously a lot of money spent on camera work, sets and costumes. Will definitely watch a few more episodes.
And of course - Manu Bennett!
http://nerdist.com/shannara-chronicles-series-premiere-review-mtv/
"The long, long, long wait to see Terry Brooks’ words come to life is over.
MTV has finally figured out a way to adapt the legendary author’s best selling Shannara book series into a TV show after its years-long stint in film development purgatory—this is great news, since The Shannara Chronicles is a story that is meant to be told over the course of 10 hours rather than crammed into two-and-a-half.
The epic adventure for good to triumph over evil, the large cast of main and supporting characters who each bring something unique to the story, the sweeping history of all the wars that shaped the world we know into the post-apocalyptic future landscape populated with fantasy creatures … if this was made into a movie, most of the meat that makes the Shannara series so juicy would get left on the kitchen floor."