Legend of the Episodic Epic

I recently watched the first 7 episodes of Legend of the Seeker (heart!).  Now, in my inglorious youth I was kinda ridiculously obssessed with Xena and Hercules. I was around 12 when that started, but even then the camp kinda got to me.  I prefer my mythology to be of the more, how should I say, emo norse variety, the more epic tragedy the better.  Give me a little Nibelungenlied remorse and I’m a happy camper.  My favorite episodes always involved overcoming their own mistakes and weaknesses, not the random warlord of the week, “let’s throw in more boobs and pop culture winks” variety.

The great/dangerous thing about Seeker, to me at least, is that it’s the same people.  Only this time there is a road map, an end game that prevents it from turning to the convulted character narrative that Xena became in later seasons.  However, because it is episodic it also has the danger of turning into the character stagnation of Hercules.

This is what frustrates me.  After watching the first 7 episodes I read the first book in the series.  Both are awesome, both are different.  (Don’t worry, I’m not going to start a “x > y cause it’s a book” debate).  I think the show runners are doing an excellent job, the only parts of the story that make me go ehhh is when the epic gets abruptly interrupted by awkward cuts to commercials or when relationships and events are weaving together to the point that they  are just getting somewhere and then all of the sudden the episode has to get wrapped up and put into reset mode the last 5 minutes.

Now this might be nitpicky, but I wouldn’t nitpick unless it was something that I see great potential for.  Fantasy is so often done sooooo poorly that it’s really heartening for good stuff to be on.  I just wish it would learn from what the current sci fi epics like Battlestar and Sarah Connor Chronicles, and finesse the episodes a little so the interruptions in the story caused by commercial breaks or episode ends leave me agonizing for more, and not just reminding me that I’m watching tv.