Friday Night is Movie Night - Legend of the Seeker

For the longest time, My hubby and I would make Friday night Movie Night.  I was absurd about it.  I would keep a pocket planner and every season would buy the Entertainment's seasonal movie line-up.  I would log all the movies I wanted to see in my planner so I knew exactly what was coming out when.  And just about every Friday, we would go to the movies.

What happened? you ask?  Well, I'm really not too sure.  Perhaps we bought a house and found there was too much to do to take the time for a movie.  Perhaps it was that he was out of work for over a year once he was discharged from the army and we didn't have a lot of excess cash.  Perhaps it was that nothing worth seeing was coming out.  Perhaps it was just the clientele at the local theaters around here, people yapping all through the movie and not being able to keep their trap shut.  Perhaps we just got out of practice.  Perhaps it is all these things.

Never the less, we now rarely go to the movies.  I work from home on Fridays in my pajamas and by the time he gets home from work I really don't feel like getting dressed to go out.

But sometimes we see a movie.  And sometimes we watch a movie or series on TV, although our tastes are not quite so similar these days.  He's really all about the horror and I'm really all not about the horror.

So, I thought, even if we no longer go out and have a Movie Night, there's no reason I can't make one here.  So I decided, if appropriate, that I would showcase films here on Fridays.  Well, that is if I've seen something that week.

So I may not post something every week, but I will post as I can.

And what I really wanted to talk about today was Legend of the Seeker, Season One. This is a miniseries, can't remember which premium channel it aired on, but I picked up the DVD of Season 1 some time ago. It is a TV adaptation of Terry Goodkind's Wizards First Rule, for those of you who are unaware.

Oddly enough, he was at the NY Renaissance Faire some years back promoting the first book. Didn't pick it up then, though. Actually, I never picked the book up. Please don't judge me, or at least not harshly, when I tell you that there are some things I would rather just watch, but I will never read the books, like the Bourne books. Although, I didn't see the last movie. Where was I? Oh yeah, Legends if the Seeker.

I hate going on the elliptical at home, but find that I need to get the exercise in. Generally I flip channels on cable and can find something to hold my attention through the grueling exercise. Sadly, there really was nothing on a couple nights ago, so I looked through my myriad of DVDs to find something to watch. Yes, I own a lot of DVDs. I've got all my anime locked in the closet, TV series under the coffee table, stuffy artsy films and romantic movies under the one book case, all Cam's movies are in the Chinese cabinet, the family films and romantic comedies are upstairs, Christmas in the attic and at least a couple of boxes of DVDs to get rid of in the basement. I don't buy movies so much anymore.

Anyway, I was sifting through my DVDs and saw Legend of the Seeker. Nothing else caught my fancy, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Now, this story seems awfully familiar. What is it? Where have I seen something like this before? Let me outline it for you.

A princess witch makes off with something valuable that could destroy the dark lord of the sith.  She travels to the other side of the galaxy country which is on the other side of a barrier.  She has come to find the seeker (Help me, Zed.  You're my only hope.), but is being chased by imperial storm troopers soldiers of the dark lord.

A farmer witnesses her flight and decides to rescue her from the storm troopers soldiers.  She is ungrateful for his help and threatens his life if he tries to follow her.  He follows her anyway, but looses her along the way.  He goes back to the farm and the Sandcrawler appears over the horizon.  One of the soldiers survives and comes knocking on his door.  His father tells him he must leave immediately and head for the hills, that he is to find a crazy old hermit wizard named Zed.  Zed is strong in the ways of the force of magic.

The farm boy, who's name is Richard, finds the wizard, but also the princess witch.  She has come seeking the knight's wizard's assistance to find the seeker.  Then wizard Zed lays some heavy stuff on him.  His father is not really his father.  His mother died when he was an infant and Hagrid Wizard Zed took the baby across the barricade. (Hey now!  Which story is this?)

Apparently there is a prophecy about the birth of a true seeker bring doom to the ultimate evil.  So the dark lord had all the first born killed, but not before Richard is taken away to be kept safe.  Zed gives Richard a magic sword that seeks out truth and when it glows when something heroic is going to happen.

In predictable fashion, Richard says Zed's got the wrong guy and he can take him as far as Anchorhead but they come across some slaughtered jawas and goes running back home where he finds his father has been killed and his home is burning.  As luck would have it, his father is not quite dead yet and with his dying breath tells Richard that he is not his biological father and everything wizard Zed said is true.

Then Richard goes seeking out the wizard and tells him he wants to learn the ways of the force and become a jedi of the seeker and stop the dark lord from subjugating the land.  He hooks up with a smuggler local soldier who shows up at the last second to save the day.       

His sacred book gets stolen, there's a chase, a bridge cut down, a family dinner, warm and fuzzy feelings, some pyrotechnics against the barrier and some overacting on the part of the dark lord.  And that's about where I am right now.        

What is the seeker?  I really have no idea, but I'll keep watching to find out.  Stay tuned!