The Shannara Chronicles - The Complete First Season - Blu-ray

Content: Many thousands of years after our civilization was destroyed by nuclear wars, magic has returned to the world. Now elves, dwarves, trolls, gnomes and humans live together in what is known as the Four Lands. There used to be demons as well. But these were banished to the Verfemung, a realm between ours and the Underworld. The magical Ellcrys Tree represents the border between the Four Lands and the Verfemung. As long as the tree stands, the demons cannot leave their prison. But then the Ellcrys Tree becomes diseased and threatens to die. The only way to keep the magical boundary standing is to take a seed from the tree to a very special place. This important and dangerous task is given to Will (Austen Butler), the elf princess Amberle (Poppy Drayton), and the mysterious human girl Eretria (Ivana Baquero). With the help of Allanon (Manu Bennett), the last druid of Paranor, the three are tasked with saving the Ellcrys. But the worse off the tree is, the more demons are able to escape the outlawry. A deadly race against time has begun.

The Shannara Chronicles is a lavish series production from the erstwhile music channel MTV. Based primarily on the (in Germany consisting of three books) second part of The Sword of Shannara trilogy from the now 26-volume Shannara series by Terry Brooks. Filmed against the breathtaking backdrop of New Zealand, the series is aimed primarily at a teenage audience. Anyone who loved the Twilight adaptations or is a fan of the Panem series is among the intended target audience here. The clearest sign of this is the romantic triangle between Will, Amberle and Eretria. Their target group cast actors and their look (fortunately there is still lip gloss in the magical world of the distant future!) will then also appeal mainly viewers (inside) between 14 and 18 years.

But one would do the series wrong if you would write it off as flat teen stuff. After all, the execution is sometimes pleasingly spectacular, the story is very excitingly realised apart from a few lengths, and a lot of effort has clearly been put into the designs and set. Certainly, this magical journey to the Four Lands cannot compete with the much more expensive and adult Game of Thrones. Nor can the Shannara Chronicles really stand up to the ever-present comparison to the world of the Hobbits - which was a major source of inspiration for Brooks, at least in the beginning. But as a visually engaging fantasy adventure, this first season works very well.

Familiar fantasy actors like Manu Bennett (The Hobbit, Arrow), Jed Brophy (The Hobbit) and John Rhys-Davies (The Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones) support the young actors, who are convincing despite quite a few clichés. Especially Poppy Drayton and Ivana Baquero can convince quickly, while Austin Butler (Switched at Birth) remains a bit pale especially at the beginning. Only from about halfway through the first season his character becomes a bit more interesting, which can then be expressed in his acting. Overall, the series doesn't offer any award-worthy actor performances, but neither does it offer any too wooden, unintentionally comical performances, as you unfortunately see far too often in this genre.

Some scenes are extremely gritty and surprisingly brutal, which helps to shed the impression that The Shannara Chronicles would only be something for teenagers. The ten very entertaining episodes are solid TV entertainment for all fantasy fans who can overlook minor clichés or inconsistencies. And for this there is then absolutely deserved a clear: worth seeing!!

Picture + Sound: The technical implementation of the Blu-ray is on a good to very good TV level. The picture is clean, has powerful colors and reveals good overall sharpness. Only in some dark scenes does the image appear very grainy, which also results in significant drops in overall sharpness as well as detail. The sound comes in the form of a pleasingly vibrant DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix in places, though it's generally the dialogue that dominates the proceedings. For a current fantasy series, this isn't overwhelming, but on balance it's still good enough for a more than satisfactory Good.

Extras: As a bonus, the second disc contains a fairly short making of (approx. 14:26 min.), which offers an overview of the season, the cast, and the adaptation of the book. There is also a shorter promo featurette (approx. 3:49 min.) and a trailer for the series.

Conclusion: The Shannara Chronicles is a successful start to a great fantasy saga. True, the obligatory love triangle is only partially convincing and some scenes are too obviously designed for the target teenage audience. But overall, the ten episodes of the first season offer exciting entertainment, decent effects and a good basis for later adventures - for which the 26-part book offers enough material. The Blu-ray presents the series in decent picture and sound quality. The bonus material could have been a bit more extensive. Nevertheless, there is as a conclusion a very clear: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp