Legend of the Seeker

America loves procedurals right now, but I'm apparently obsessed with action/adventure shows, preferably set in medieval times and involving fantasy.

Legend of the Seeker is based on a book series by Terry Goodkind which are apparently disturbing and which I don't care about. It's got a pretty formulaic adventure set-up: prophesy, chosen one, destiny, etc., etc., etc.

The show is great, mainly because it has one of these excellent doooomed romances involving attractive young people.



It starts out with Kahlan, a pretty lady with a pretty dress and dark pretty hair. So that we don't risk loving her for just her looks, she is introduced through a hip action sequence with Matrixesque speed-ramping, and then she has a touching scene where she cries.



Then we meet Richard, this super-sexy man who's building a bridge, shirtless, chopping and hammering and carrying big logs and planks and things. It is terribly shocking. So that we don't risk loving him for just his looks, a little boy approaches with a dog and a cow that kind of looks like a dog, and the manly shirtless man has endearing interaction with the boy and pets the cow.



The Kahlan and Richard meet and become best friends. Sometimes Richard looks at Kahlan and sighs. It is adorable, and the show is worth watching just for them. Because they aren't allowed to get married and have a million babies (it's complicated), they spend a lot of time playing mommy and daddy to disenfranchised youths they've rescued from various circumstances.

There's a little boy who makes fun of their love, a little girl who doesn't really give them the time of day despite their hasty efforts to become her parents, and in the most recent episode, a tiny baby!



You can't see the baby here, but Kahlan's holding it and Richard's feeding it and cooing over it like you wouldn't believe. It's unbearably cute.

It's kind of amazing that they manage to coincidentally break away from the third main character to play house with all these kids, but they do. And it's pretty alarming that they find the time to do this so often when they're on their big destiny mission or whatever, but they do.

Merlin: Taking Away All My Street Cred

I think I'll feel better once I get this out in the open, and I don't care if I have to drag Danielle down with me a little bit.

Last week, I watched all of BBC's recent series, Merlin. It was really good.



It's a bit like Arthurian legends, in that there's magic and various people and places have the same names. I think that's it for similarities, though. Partially it's just cute and fun, but overall it's clever. I don't know. It's very good. I'm telling you.

Anyway, a few points of how this show has made me an unlikeable person:

1. While watching the first series, I sent Danielle like 20 emails about Merlin and Arthur's EPIC LOVE. She only responded when she had something completely unrelated to say, and once to tell me, "idc."



2. I went to the website and became kind of obsessed with this Camelot Defence game, although it has little to do with the series. I sent the link to Danielle and now we play it every so often and talk about strategy. At length.



3. Also--and this part doesn't really reflect poorly on Danielle (although it should, because she hangs out with me)--but when I'm cold in my house, instead of putting on a sweater, I tie this big red blanket around my neck and wear it like a cape. Like a knight of Camelot. (Or Superman, but to be honest, I'm thinking of Camelot.)
   
   At best, this happens when I'm alone, and then it's still equal parts embarrassing and awesome.