Legend of the Seeker

If someone compiled every fantasy cliché ever, threw it into a cauldron, added some cheesy acting, terrible special effects, 300-style slow-mo in the action sequences then some horrible editing for some extra flavour, the bubbling and putrid mess that resulted would be Legend of the Seeker, an ABC drama from 2008 based off of some books from a while back which nobody cared about enough to put too much effort into when making the adaptation.

I've been on a binge-watching spree of the series and it's safe to say that despite all its flaws it certainly isn't a bad show - it has some reasonably high production value which gives it some much-needed flair, as otherwise it'd be too clichéd and boring to watch through. But this remains the biggest merit that exists in the show.

The camera is never not moving. I think that I found one shot in the entire of the first 2 episodes that remained stationary and it was less than half a second long. Even the shot-reverse-shots where characters talk are so shaky you could think that an earthquake is happening - it's worse than JJ Abrams with his lens flares.

And the acting gets worse and worse each episode. Episode 1 wasn't too bad, although the old man character Zed is completely wooden, which works when he's unconscious for a small period, but otherwise it looks bad. The main character Richard is at least well-acted, but the supporting cast lets him down entirely. Yet some of the characters don't have their priorities as straight as they probably should be - the token black character seems to believe that his daughter is more important than saving the world.

The fight sequences highlight most of the other problems. The special effects look horribly outdated even for 2008 and when you can see a green outline around the characters as they fight, not to mention fire not lighting up one of the character's faces, it's obvious that not much work was put into this.

And in all of the fight sequences there is unneccessary zooming and slow-motion in the vein of 300's famous battle scenes all of which accomplish nothing except to drag on the fight to excessively long periods of time. In fact I found myself getting bored at the end of the fight sequence in the second episode - then Zed makes a comment about being the mythical Seeker not having "an instruction manual".

Then I stopped watching the show, and waited until I calmed down, then watched it again.

Then I stopped watching the show again, because of a wanted poster with a photographic print of Richard on it. 

Then I watched it again, and managed to keep watching it for one whole episode before the editing of one sequence made me so confused that I had to stop to understand what was going on. Instead of a normal sound bridge from one sequence to another where the evil villain is talking, the camera cuts mid-concersation and while the audio is still playing, it shows Richard, then cuts to a soldier who is in a completely different location, then to the female lead, then to Richard - all the while the villain is talking. It was confusing and didn't work.

But as I've said above the production value and design are very high-standard, with a sequence in a cave in the third episode really standing out with a well-constructed creepy atmosphere BUT STILL SHAKY CAMERA.

Legends of the Seeker is bad, but not awful. Looking past its flaws, I can enjoy it enough to watch on, but the bad writing, special effects and acting could easily deter some.

Why Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM is so good

Because of the broken lead I won't be able to update with the pictures for now, but I'll hopefully be able to do so quite soon. Instead, I decided to jump onto a show I've mentioned a couple of times before - Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM - and consider why it's one of the best kids' TV programs I've seen.

The episode I'll focus on is "Ultra Sonic", considered to be one of the best episodes. The brief story of the episode is that Sonic and the Freedom Fighters, in the middle of an over-arching battle against the industrializing Robotnik, sneak into the Robotnik-controlled city of Robotropolis. Their mission is to decipher the Robotisizer, a machine which turns animals into slave robots, so that thy can build a de-robotisizer. When there, Sonic and his close friend and heir to the throne of the planet Sally bump into Sonic's robotisized Uncle Chuck - the man who acted as Sonic's father during his youth. With the help of a Power Ring, an invention made by Chuck, Sonic and Sally are able to restore Chuck's conscience and they work together to stop Robotnik from harvesting an immense underground power source. Once they have done so, however, Chuck loses control and becomes a mindless slave under Robotnik's power again - meaning Sonic has to leave him behind.

Even the synopsis shows that the show is taking itself seriously. The relationship between Sonic and Chuck is the complete opposite of superficial and unneccesary, neither does it feel like it was thrown in to add some extra drama - the scene where Sonic has to leave his Uncle behind is very well-handled and Jaleel White's normally annoying voice acting has really stepped up from the horrific Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, giving Sonic (who is typically a headstrong, arrogant superhero) a down-to-earth characterisation that other shows never bothered with.

Maybe one of the reasons that the show was aired is because of a similar theme in the pilot episode. Despite being much weaker in terms of quality, there is a mention to the robotisized Uncle Chuck and Sonic and Chuck's dog Muttski (all the protagonists are animals but they have domesticated animal pets? Bit weird). Muttski is encountered during a raid in Robotropolis and Sonic is almost driven to tears because of it - the emotional aspect of this war is heavily shown throughout the series and despite the main characters' optimism Robotnik always has another way to get back at them.

But a brilliant relationship always on display in the entire series is that between Robotnik and his nephew/'assistant', Snively. Robotnik has some of the most intimidating voice acting in the entirety of children's TV ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUa8DLg1TCE ... 3:07 is a particularly brilliant moment) and is massively obese, whereas Snively is a sniveling coward who is short in stature and always stuttering his words. It's not the most in-depth relationship until the second series where Snively begins to insult Robotnik under his breath every time he's given an order, but either way the relationship is presented in a darkly comic way (7:10 in the video above is my favourite moment in the entire series) which gives both characters a similar sense of evil despite their radical differences.

Something that always stood out to me as fantastic is the backgrounds of each individual shot. Excepting the pilot and the occasional one here or there each shot has a unique and beautifully drawn background with a huge attention to detail. This episode in particular has some very good examples of this, such as the shot revealing the underground power source (an enormous crystal, but oil is normally used) or the various extreme-long shots of Robotropolis.

Sonic and Sally are the main characters and appear in every episode but the supporting cast have more vibrant personalities - the other three supporting characters in this episode are: Bunnie Rabbot, a partially-robotisized rabbit girl with a southern US accent who does the heavy lifting and beating up; Rotor, a nerdy walrus mechanic who builds most of the inventions for the Freedom Fighters; and my favourite Antoine D'Coolette, an ignorant and self-idolizing French Canadian coyote with a stupidly over-the-top accent and over-stereotyped behaviour. Antoine is the most cowardly of the lot (which could be seen as offensive to French people as some stereotypes see the French as people who run from fights) and his English is hilariously broken, leading Rotor to correct him often. "Gringo!" he says once after watching Sally and Rotor do all the work, which leads to Rotor rolling his eyes and saying "Not Gringo, Antoine, BINGO." Of course, Antoine simply says, "Yes, that is what I am saying," which almost becomes a catchphrase of his.

The supporting characters may not be as serious as Sonic or Sally but without them the show wouldn't be able to hit the perfect balance of comedy and drama. One of the least entertaining episodes, "Warp Sonic", is all drama and no comedy - even Sonic's uncle in this episode makes jokes with him even after he's just regained conciousness: "Still good-looking and always cooking, eh?", referring to Sonic's annoying love of chili dogs.

In fact, one of the show's very few faults is such a minor thing that it could be passed off almost entirely, and that is the running gag of Sonic's chili dog love. The only reason that this is on here is because the terrible Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog constantly referred to it and now chili dogs have been burnt into my brain as a mark of evil. At one point, Sonic even prioritises chili dogs over the mission he's on occasionally - which leads to the death/robotisization of two allies.

Death is a constant threat being faced by the Freedom Fighters. In many episodes Robotnik builds machines that serve to kill or entrap animals - one of the darkest lines Robotnik has is when he interrogates a captured Freedom Fighter.

"I have machines of all kinds, marvelous machines. They can do things you would not believe."

This is the point during the first episode I watched that I sat forward and began to pay attention - I genuinely thought that I had misheard the show so I re-wound it and played it again to the same result. 'Torture?' I thought. 'No way.' At the end of the episode, Sonic returns to Robotropolis quickly to rescue the captured Freedom Fighter and rescue him, but the cell he was kept it in empty - there is no sign that he was ever returned to the cell after the meeting with Robotnik and his 'machines'.

The terrifying influence that Robotnik's prescence has on the Freedom Fighters' lives is more than physical. In an episode that otherwise contains no allusion to Robotnik at all (the episode is about the private lives of the Freedom Fighters and how powerless they are to weather and circumstance) Sonic has a nightmare about Robotnik, leading him to trash Antoine's hut, driving Antoine literally insane as he is normally a clean freak.

The series had two seasons and the second season is filled with very small references to an unknown project called "The Doomsday Project". The season also is about Sonic and Sally teaming up with other Freedom Fighter groups which she gets told about by her essentially dead father, the King of Mobius, for a final assault on Robotropolis to end Robotnik's reign once and for all. The build-up to the final two episodes is enormous, and they do not disappoint - Spyhog is the tale of Uncle Chuck, now able to control his robotic body, being discovered as a spy by Robotnik and revealing the location of the Freedom Fighter's hideout (which also includes a scene where Snively tortures Antoine by making Escargots (or snails) with margarine instead of butter). Pressured by time but scared of failure, the Freedom Fighters deliberate too long and The Doomsday Project begins in the following episode, which leads to the hideout being destroyed and the Freedom Fighters being forced to assault despite not being prepared. It is implied that many lives are lost in the ensuing battle and Sonic and Sally have to use a last resort in the Deep Power Stones, two incredibly powerful sources of energy, to destroy The Doomsday Project, and with it, Robotnik, in an amazing sequence with jump cuts, video distortion and frantic audio giving the impression that Robotnik has definitely been finished.

But with The Doomsday Project's destruction, the entirety of Robotropolis is destroyed also. Every robotisized animal that existed there is presumed dead - something that was supposed to be lamented on later. But before the end credits roll a mysterious capsule appears in the wreckage of Robotropolis, and out climbs Snively. He relishes in Robotnik's death and swears revenge on Sonic for killing him messily, leaving him to clean up Robotropolis and restore it. "But this time... I'm not alone!" he exclaims hysterically, and two Sonic-like red eyes appear in the darkness of the capsule.

Then the series was cancelled and never seen again. One of the writers for the series claimed that the third series was going to feature a character from the comics that was never shown, but apparently the show was cancelled because the third season's writing was "too dark and depressing" with a large focus on the lives lost in the Battle of Doomsday.

There's no doubt that Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM was quite more adult than other children's shows at the time and it had something rather unique in the  fact that it was a drama in a time where comedy was ruling the children's market with Ren and Stimpy and later Spongebob dominating the scene - but shows like Avatar: The Legend of Aang may even have drawn inspirations from this show with its memorable set of characters but deep and intruiging themes which to this day are still shunned for children's TV. Sonic Underground was the spiritual successor to Sonic SatAM and it captured some nicely dark moments in it but it tried too hard to be 'cool' and 'down with the kids' with increasingly awful songs each episode (each with the most vomit-inducing music videos ever) so it flopped.

Will there ever be a real heir to the throne of Sonic SatAM? Possibly - but it's unlikely. Avatar's sequel series The Legend of Korra has been unsuccessful in capturing the essence of The Legend of Aang, and Sonic's last attempt at a TV show was the Sonic X show based on the Sonic Adventure games on the Dreamcast. While the show wasn't bad, it wasn't good either and was very different to the three Sonic series that preceded it, similar to how the Sonic Adventure games were a radical change from the side-scrolling platforming seen in previous games.

Sonic the Hedgehog SatAM is a fantastic show with a nice variety of well-acted characters (as racist as they might seem) and well-thought-out storylines that not only engage the viewer but also invites them to think - a rarity in children's TV. If I was going to recommend a kid's TV show that wasn't Avatar or Tom & Jerry this would be it. I love this show and there needs to be a third season.

A DELAYED UPDATE

My new blog post was intended to involve some of the preliminary research and photos from the early stages of production of my new short film "We Are Free", but because the USB lead for my iPod has broken I have not been able to do the planned update - therefore I shall update instead this evening.