Craig Horner has had quite a year.

It wasn’t a year ago that he flew to New Zealand to star in his own show, Legend of the Seeker, the latest fantasy romp from the visionaries behind Xena: Warrior Princess, Rob Tapert and Sam Raimi.

And since then, his life had been turned upside down. The show has broken out as a solid hit and made plenty of fans (including yours truly; read my latest recaps of the show here and here).

Craig, an Australian native, has been at the center of a media storm.

But that doesn’t mean he has been a total trooper. Craig, 25, spoke to me by phone from New Zealand. According to a publicist, to determine the time there compared to the U.S., “You just subtract four hours and move forward one day.”

My math is terrible, but I think that means was up very early, and squeezing me in before a grueling day’s shoot.

But you never would’ve known it during our chat. He couldn’t have been more charming:

TheTorchOnline: I know you had a successful film and TV career in Australia before landing this role, but I’m wondering if you can’t relate to the character of Richard in that your life was much simpler a year ago, and then the producers of this show showed up and changed everything, just like with Richard.

Craig Horner: Oh, man, you hit the nail right on the head right there. It was just that big kind of leap into the next level of my career. I was forced to step up into the lead of a show with 22 episodes, move to another country, set myself up, and yeah, you couldn’t be more right. I’ve really grown up.

TTO: There are leads, and there are leads. You are in almost every scene, and it’s a very demanding role. How are you holding up?

CH: I’m holding up, man, I’m still going. I’ve got three weeks to go, and then I’ll probably collapse and vegetate and go into a coma. It’s been pretty full-on. It’s been long hours. There’s not a day when there’s not horse-riding and sliding and just running around. And every episode, almost every scene, it’s like the end of the world. And you can’t just walk through a scene where the whole world is at stake. You can’t just sit around and go, “What’d you have for breakfast?”

But it’s good. I love it.

TTO: Sometimes when I do something in life that I really enjoy, it seems like everything that came before it was leading up to that moment. Does it feel a little like destiny getting this role, a really good fit?

CH: You couldn’t be more right. You can only only live in the moment, and allow whatever the moment’s doing to move through you. But when I do look back on it, I was just being myself by using my imagination as a kid, and running through the house with a sword. And then I got into acting, and then I got into this, and I couldn’t do what I’m doing now without my enthusiasm for acting and sword-fighting and imagination and filmmaking and creativity.

Yeah, you’re right, everything’s led to this moment. Hopefully there will be more roles as well, but it’s a snowball effect.

TTO: I asked my readers to help me with questions to ask you, and I was really surprised by how many responses I got. A lot people asked what it’s like on the set. Who’s the biggest cut-up? Is it serious? Is it funny? What’s the tone?

CH: Well, we’re trying to shoot feature-film quality on TV turnaround schedules, so there’s not a lot of time for goofing around and blooper reels. Me and Bridget can’t come out and start jumping around. We just can’t do that, but we really want to.

There’s an element of pressure, but we try not to let the stress come in. But generally, everyone on the set is pretty chill. They’ve been doing this for ten years, since the Xena days.

TTO: So it is all the Xena crowd?

CH: Yeah, and Lord of the Rings. When you’re the lead of the show, you sort of set the tone of the set, along with the director. If the lead is a brat or a princess, and just a stuck-up idiot, then no one’s going to want to show up to work on that show. No one’s going to want to do his make-up or put his clothes on him.

People won’t care about the show or his character, and it’ll fall part. So I try to show that enthusiasm, but it’s not hard, because I’m genuinely enthusiastic about the show. Sometimes I can be tired, I can be exhausted, but generally I’m being enthusiastic, because I love being here.

TTO: I’ve heard Lucy Lawless say the same thing about her days in Xena, how being the focus of everything, she soon realized she was setting the tone for the whole set. Speaking of which, is there any chance she’ll guest on the show in the second season?

CH: I have no idea, but I can ask Rob [Tapert] and get back to you!

TTO: A lot of people asked me to ask you how you manage to stay in such great shape.

CH: For a year before I did this, I had a job where I played a character who was supposed to be a good shape. I think it’s generally a good idea for people to do some sort of bodybuilding or exercise, just for general well-being.

And I fell in love with it, so I kept with it even after that. Fortunately, when Legend of the Seeker came up, in the books, the character is supposed to be quite muscular and strong. So I had a reason to keep it up and amp it up even more. I love training five times a week, now I’m trying to [get in] two days a week.

You know what I did yesterday? I said to my runner, he drives Bridget and me home, she was running late, and I said to my runner, “Greg, pick me up, matey, I’m running down the road now, I’m getting some exercise!” And he was like, “Are you mad?” And I’m like, “Yup,” and I started running. The crew’s seeing the lead actor running down the road and going, “What the hell? Dude, do you need a lift?” And I’m saying, “No, I’m fine!”

TTO: In researching you, I quickly learned that you’ve becoming something of a sex symbol. How does that make you feel?

CH: I don’t think about it, to be honest. It’s great get to people’s attention, briefly, and then hopefully they can appreciate my acting. And I can bring them something, more than just eye-candy. But it’s all just fun and games, I guess.

TTO: I’ve noticed that the show is shot in HD, and you really see everything. Do you ever wake up with a zit and think, “Oh, God, I can’t go to work!”

CH: You know, I don’t even look in the mirror. I get up and go to work and don’t think about it. I’ve got a make-up artist, and they’re going to do my hair properly, to make me look decent.

And you’re right, for those reasons, once you start thinking, “Oh, I’ve got a zit,” you can’t go there.

TTO: Down that road lies madness. Do you have any idea what’s going to happen in the next season? Do you have any input, any idea?

CH: No one knows. I think they’re going to take the three months and sit and try to decide the arc. I don’t know, but I’m going to pitch to direct an episode. I’d really like to do that.

[Editor's Clarification: While the producers of the show are moving ahead with a second season and it is likely to come back, it has not yet been "officially" greenlit. It's a syndicated show, which mean commitments must be received from local markets. So far, 48 of the 50 top markets have committed.]

TTO: I know you said you’re going to collapse when the shooting is done, but do you have plans for the hiatus after that?

CH: I’m going to head over to Los Angeles for about two months with a friend or two. My new agency is there, and I’ll scope out what they want me to see, what’s going on.

It’s getting cold here now, so it’ll be good to head to a warm environment like Los Angeles.

TTO: Where’s your posse? Your friends must be back home. Are you single? Do you have a group of friends who travel with you, or do you just make friends wherever you go?

CH: It’s kinda cool. I am single, but I’ve got a lot of good buddies, I’ve got two or three good buddies, two or three really close blokes, really good boys, one from Brisbane as well as me, one from Rock Hampton. We all moved to Sydney to be actors together.

TTO: Have they been cast in the show?

CH: Yeah, I flew ‘em over, and they stayed with me for a month, and I got them on the show. Rory was a soldier, and Glenn was, like, the village idiot. It was nice just to have them on the set.

TTO: My final question. If you, Craig, talked to the Confessor, what do you think she would say you’ve learned in the past year? What wisdom have you gained about yourself and the world?

CH: I guess how to withstand pain. There’s a line from the show, I think from Zed, which is, “Don’t think about the past or what will be. See only what is.” And I’ve learned to do that, because I’ve been through a lot. I’ve learned to accept what is is what is.

Interested in buying The Sword of Truth books (or any other product)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing them through this link.

Special thanks to Eef, Ashley, Dana, Ethan, Stephen, Carmencita, LostinDarkness, Amanda, Caroline, Carrie, Annie, Bethany, Maria, Gina, Omar, and all the others who suggested questions, which I tried to incorporate into my own!

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Four Torches (Out of Five)

What would you do if you had a glimpse of your future, and it was bad? Or what if everyone else had a glimpse of their future, and you didn’t seem to have one?

It’s a good bet you’d do everything you could to try to change that future, to make sure what you saw, or didn’t see, never happened.

But can the future be changed? We all know what the producers of Star Trek think, but is that the truth?

These are the questions that drive the new show Flash Forward, the premiere of which airs this Thursday (ABC, 8 PM/7 C).

The series is based on a (pretty good) book by sci-fi author Robert J. Sawyer, about how the whole world “blacks out” at the same time for just over two minutes. In the TV series, during these black-outs, everyone has a vision of their futures six months ahead.

(Incidentally, those scenes of disaster on that Los Angeles freeway after everyone blacks out? That’s not all CGI — they actually shut down that freeway in order to film it. There were apparently lots of angry commuters!)

Anyway, will the solution to the central mystery of how these visions came to be end up being the same as in the book? It’s hard to imagine how they could come with any other explanation.

But honestly, this series isn’t really about the solution to that mystery — not any more than Lost is about how they got on the island.

No, it’s more about the individual characters and how they deal with the fact that their futures are not necessarily what they expected. Some of the characters are looking forward to their futures. Some are confused and frightened by what they’ve seen. And some — those who see nothing but blackness during their black-out — are downright terrified.

The pilot, screened for critics by the network, is gripping and fast-paced. But because the show has a large Lost-like ensemble, it’s hard to get a sense of any of the characters, so it’s difficult to know just how engaging this show will be over the long-term.

(Truthfully, I’d just finished watching the pilot for the remake of V and, as single episodes go, I’d found that a lot more intriguing.)

Still, the show is obviously well-done, and there is a plot-twist toward the end of the first hour that’s not part of the book, and it will definitely get everyone to sit up and take notice. It did me.

Better still, the producers promise that, unlike with Lost, almost all of the mysteries introduced in the pilot, including the intriguing plot-twist I just mentioned, will be wrapped up by the end of the first season.

Does that mean that if the show has a second season, the whole world will have another “flash forward”? I think it’s more likely that individual characters will have such visions.

Now I’m getting way ahead of myself.

Flash Forward didn’t strike me as the zeitgeist-y, must-see show that the network is clearly hoping it will be. But it’s worth watching.

Looking to buy Flash Forward, the book (or any other media)? Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing it through this link.

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Two and Half Torches (Out of Five)

The broadcast television networks are in a heap of trouble, facing everything from falling ratings to intense competition for advertisers from cable and online networks. As a result, they’re desperately looking for ways to cut costs.

This month, NBC is trying a particularly creative experiment where they’re airing two shows, both fantasy-themed, that originated in other English-speaking countries: The Listener, a Canadian program, and Merlin, which aired last fall in the U.K. as The Adventures of Merlin.

First up is The Listener, debuting Thursday, June 4, at 10 PM.

It’s the story of Toby (Craig Olejnik), a Toronto paramedic with the ability to read people’s minds.

The idea definitely has perk-up-your-ears potential. Who hasn’t imagined what it would be like to have ESP?

But the show, at least in the first two episodes made available by the network for preview, doesn’t fully deliver on the interesting premise.

To be clear: it sounds like a supernatural show, but it’s not really. It’s basically just yet another crime drama with the no-longer-novel twist that the main character uses a supernatural ability to solve the mysteries.

Think The Ghost Whisperer or Medium, definitely not Fringe or Heroes.

I don’t know if this is because it was produced in another country or not, but the show seems decidedly dated, like something from the 1980s — and not in a hip, “retro” way. Everything about it is safe and simplistic.

In the best fantasy and fantasy-esque television shows of recent years, the characters don’t live in the unquestioned black-and-white world of 1940s Superman; no, they exist in the complex, morally ambiguous universes that modern audiences recognize — and the characters have the modern angst to go along with it. The title character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer had a complicated relationship with her supernatural abilities and her “destiny” right from the start — just as did the two brothers in the gritty world of Supernatural.

The Listener, in contrast, has the vague characterization of most crime dramas. Toby seems like a complete Average Joe. Yes, he’s “haunted” by a childhood past of which he has no memory of (and that he will surely explore as the series goes on).

But he’s not really haunted. He’s the happiest, most well-adjusted (read: boring) fantasy-esque TV character I’ve seen in ages.

The Listener’s straightforward plots are just as simplistic — again, like something out of the 1980s. The sequence in the pilot when the villain is vanquished is downright laughable.

Worse, Toby’s “listening” ability seems weirdly inconsistent: sometimes he hears everyone’s thoughts, but most of the time, he hears people only when the plot calls for it — and then he hears exactly what he needs to know.

In other words, exactly as in The Ghost Whisperer, Toby’s ability is basically a plot device — an exposition delivery system, nothing more.

So far, The Listener has been a big hit with international audiences. It’s possible that the show has some appealing element that I’m missing that’s driving this popularity. But I find it difficult to believe that relatively sophisticated American audiences are going to put up with a show with such lackluster scripts and obviously low production values.

That said, the second episode, about Toby’s efforts to help a young runaway (played by The United States of Tara’s terrific Keir Gilchrist in a fearless performance) is considerably better than the pilot. Perhaps subsequent episodes will get better too.

The show isn’t terrible. But these days, who has time to watch a show that’s just average?

The Listener debuts Thursday at 10 PM on NBC.

Preview of The Listener:

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Wonder Woman sings!

No, seriously. In the third season “Amazon Hot Wax” episode of the campy 70s series Wonder Woman, the title character, famously played by Lynda Carter, sang several songs from an album that the actress was releasing at the time.

Flash forward thirty or so years, and the iconic beauty has finally found her way back into the recording studio with a new CD, the appropriately-titled At Last.

Recently, we got a chance to chat with Lynda, who truly seems to have spent a few of the past decades on ageless Paradise Island, about her passion for music, her time in those very famous tights, and a possible role for her in a new Wonder Woman movie.

TheTorchOnline: So it sounds like you’ve been in touch with the producers of the Wonder Woman movie, and it sounds like there is some progress. Is there a role for you?

Lynda Carter: I have a lot of friends over at Warner Brothers, and I get updates now and again, but it really depends on the director and the script. I hope it’s a blockbuster. If there’s a place for me, great, but if there isn’t, that’s okay, too. I don’t think I would do a cameo. Unless there was a real part where there was something more than just a little, bitty thing, I’d just let them bask in the glory. It needs to be done and done well. I wish them the best.

TTO: Has there been any talk of a specific role for you?

LC: Yeah, there has been. Off and on, but then they switch gears, and they’re not happy with the script. It’s fairly simple. Everything has to be character driven. It has to be a good story. It’s not about the effects. Those will all take care of themselves. There’ll be some great things, but if they have a good story, just the story itself, it doesn’t even have to be very complicated, you know?

TTO: I’m not the first to say this, but you’re so associated with the role. They really need to get the casting right. It needs to be someone who can really reinvent the character.

LC: Sometimes that’s a problem. I don’t think it’s as much reinventing as not playing Wonder Woman. You can’t play “Wonder Woman.” You play a person who happens to have these powers, these skills. You have to play her as just a woman. You have all the opportunity in the world, because this is a dual role. I would never dumb her down. I wanted people to know Wonder Woman through Diana Prince.

TTO: When did you become aware that you were a feminist icon? Were you aware at the time when you were filming Wonder Woman?

LC: Oh, absolutely. Yes. I was very aware of it. As a matter of fact, I also felt that my personal character had to be non-predatory in any way. I would be the first person if some woman’s guy was looking at me wrong, I’d pop him upside the head and say, “Get a grip!” Wonder Woman would expect that. She was never against men, she was just for women. I was very deliberate in my approach.

TTO: I’m curious if you’re friends with any of the other female action icons: Lindsay Wagner, Charlie’s Angels, or even Lucy Lawless who plays Xena? Have you met any of them?

LC: I’ve met Lucy Lawless, and she couldn’t have been nicer. We had a nice conversation. I think how she approached her character, how the show approached her, was great. Lindsay Wagner was a friend of mine a million years ago, I just don’t have the opportunity to see her, but whenever I meet a mutual friend, I always send her my best. Same with Jaclyn Smith. I never knew Kate Jackson, but Farrah, we used to all go on the same interviews for the same one part. [laughs]

TTO: What do you think when you look back on your years in tights? You were one of the most famous people in the world.

LC: You know what? It’s very isolating. It’s about your work. That’s not a boohoo or anything, I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for anyone, but by virtue of the fact that you are so popular, you lose a piece of your everyday stuff, of a certain kind of interaction that is important to keep.

TTO: I suppose you have people telling you you’re great, exactly what you want to hear.

LC: People aren’t going to come up to you and say, “Oh, I think you’re just so mediocre!” Unless somebody is just a jerk, they wouldn’t. It is what it is. It’s not easy.

TTO: I can only imagine how busy you were.

LC: I was pretty busy, yeah, but I didn’t have a family then, and that was what I’d worked toward all my life. But it was still isolating. I didn’t have a lot of opportunity to learn how to be in a relationship, really. We moved around a lot at first as a kid, and then I was on the road at 17, and new in town by the time I got to LA, and then famous again with that whirlwind. I did really want substance in my life, and when I stopped with the road for my children, it was really because I didn’t want to miss out. It wasn’t just selflessness. I didn’t want to miss out on that.

TTO:  But where do you go once you’ve been on top of the world?

LC: Substance? [laughs] I’m going through substance, baby!

TTO: I confess, I was very pleasantly surprised by how good your new CD was.

LC: I get that a lot. I did music all my life, it’s kind of what I did, but it wasn’t something anybody knew me for. I started singing professionally at 14. That’s how I earned enough money to move to California and study acting, and get into that. That’s what I started with.

Lynda Carter singing a song she co-wrote, on Wonder Woman

TTO: Listening to the CD, it certainly seems like this project was a labor of love in the best possible sense, and you don’t have anybody to please except yourself. I think maybe that’s why the CD is so good.

LC: It’s also that I’ve sort of moved on with my performance. The more that I work with these great musicians, it’s very inspiring. I work very closely with my musical director back in the day, and we came up with a lot of things together. I may bring ten songs to this group of musicians I work with, and they might do a track for me so I can see how it feels, and then, I take it down to Tennessee and we work on it, so it ends up being something I’m having fun with because it’s irreverent, or I always wanted to do, or I like the message, I like the way it makes me feel. I’m not so much doing my parent’s old standards that have been done so much. It’s a lot of songs that growing up I knew. I’m gearing more toward that kind of thing, as well as writing some. I don’t know what’s going to end up in the show the next time. I don’t know what I’m going to end up with. It’ll just present itself. I’m not really a genre. I’m more of an iPod shuffle — surprising things. I don’t really have a bag.

Looking to buy past seasons of Wonder Woman or Lynda’s new CD, At Last. Support TheTorchOnline.com by purchasing through these links.

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Sleestak are, of course, the curiously slow-moving reptilian humanoid inhabitants of the lost dimension where Rick Marshall and his children Will and Holly found themselves trapped in the 1970s Saturday morning children’s show Land of the Lost (now adapted as a feature film starring Will Farrell, opening this Friday).

But who are they? Where did they come from?

The Sleekstak actually descended from a much more advanced race, the Altrusians, who were also trapped in the Land of the Lost, but whose civilization fell a millennium prior to the Marshall’s arrival. The Altrusians built the Lost City, the vast complex of surprisingly similar-looking underground tunnels in which the Sleestak now reside. The Altrusians looked similar to Sleestak, except they were yellow, not green, and possessed an extra finger on each hand; the Altrusians also wore clothing.

Two different theories exist to explain the transformation of the thoughtful, if emotionless Altrusians into the evil, unspeaking Sleestak:

• According to Enik, a time-traveling survivor of the Altrusian civilization, the species fell due to their inability to contain their hate and anger.

• But according to Land of the Lost’s resident know-it-all Rick Marshall, it wasn’t the Altrusian’s hate and anger that led to their turning into Sleestak, but rather their absence of compassion.

See? Two completely different theories.

The Sleestak enjoy sacrificing the Land of the Lost’s semi-frequent human visitors to their mysterious god, a beast of some sort that lives in a pit filled with what looks to be dry ice. But the Sleestak are not mere animals themselves; they have a system of government that includes both a Sleestak council and an overall leader — which is pretty impressive given not just that they are incapable of speech, but that they seem to have difficulty even moving their mouths.

Sleestak also wield crude weapons such as nets and crossbows, though their aim usually leaves something seriously to be desired.

According to the Library of Skulls, a collection of talking part-Atrusian heads located in the Lost City, the Sleestak currently number about 7000, though they are rarely seen in numbers greater than three. Explanations vary as to why this is, though one outlandish theory posits that the Sleestak are actually human actors in costumes, and only three such costumes existed at the time the television series was filmed.

While Sleestak are a violent, angry race, they are, in many ways, as much victims of the Land of the Lost as are its human visitors. For example, they aren’t just nocturnal; they seem to be caused physical pain by the harsh Land of the Lost sun and rarely, if ever, venture beyond the chasm that separates the Lost City from the rest of the Land.

How a colony of 7000 subsists in an underground cavern with no obvious food source is unknown, but it’s possible that Sleestak eat rocks.

There is no explanation as to why the Sleestak are so curiously slow-moving, capable of being out-run even by a young girl, although a combination of an inner ear imbalance and a species-wide prevalence of early-onset osteoporosis is thought to be one explanation.

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Editor’s Note: In honor of this week’s season finale of Legend of the Seeker, we offer not the usual snarky recap, but a review of both the last episode, and of the entire season.

Rating of the finale:

Five Torches (Out of Five)

Rating of the entire season:

Four Torches (Out of Five)

And so it ends. The first season of the syndicated fantasy series Legend of the Seeker has come to a close.

The entire season was good, but the finale episode was downright fantastic.

If the first season of Seeker had a flaw, it was that it was a little too true to its source material, the novels of Terry Goodkind upon which the show is based: it’s not that they aren’t fine books, and it’s not that the show hewed religiously close to them (it didn’t).

It’s just that many of the elements that didn’t quite gel on screen seemed to have been taken directly from the books: the mythology of the Mord Sith, the lame-ish reason why Richard and Kahlan can’t ever express their love for each other, and, quite frankly, the Confessor’s powers in general (especially the blood-rage).

It’s not that these things didn’t made sense; it’s simply that their explanation required complicated exposition that might work fine in a book, but that interrupted the flow of a TV story.

In other words, these elements weren’t seamless.

The finale, on the other hand, was practically perfect in every way.

The overall arc of the season was, of course, about the fact that Richard was destined to kill Darken Rahl.

But by the end of the last episode before the finale, it was all looking a little too destined. Richard had assembled all three of the Boxes of Orden, not to mention the Book of Counted Shadows, and he and his companions had come up with a pretty good plan to take on Rahl: have Kahlan “confess” Richard, enabling him to use the power of the boxes without having them turn him evil.

In other words, there wasn’t much tension. I was happy for Richard, but when it comes to a gripping adventure, the last you want is for your “all-powerful” villain to be the decided underdog.

Then came the opening sequence of “Reckoning,” the finale, where Richard and Kahlan finally try to put their plan into effect — only to immediately see it completely screwed up as one of the Mord Sith interrupts them mid-spell, and then Rahl suddenly appears (in a particularly cool special effect) to kill Richard.

The inevitable showdown that we’d long expected — and, frankly, was getting a little boring to hear about — was suddenly completely shaken up. The story went off in a completely unexpected direction (where, it turns out, a rare combination of the magic of the Confessor, the Mord Sith, and the Boxes of Orden had propelled Richard many years into the future).

Frankly, that opening sequence was so great I’m a little confused why it wasn’t the last scene in the episode before. Talk about a great would-be cliff-hanger!

Richard and Kahlan’s plan thwarted, the story veered off into a truly terrific episode where both Richard and Kahlan had to confront their greatest challenge yet: their loss of each other. Better still, Kahlan had to do it without her Confessor powers, and Richard had to do it without any prophecy (or Zeddicus) to guide him.

The inevitable show-down between Richard and Rahl, when it did finally come, was both unexpected and thoroughly satisfying — which is really saying something, given all the build-up. And the reunion between Richard and Kahlan was pretty much the best moment the two of them had all season long — which is exactly as it should have been.

“Reckoning” was, quite simply, the best episode of the season.

What of the entire season? The strong episodes (e.g. “Puppeteer,” “Mirror,” “Cursed”) were excellent, the weaker ones (e.g. “Deception,” “Sanctuary”) were borderline unwatchable.

But the season was unquestionably better, and more consistently “good,” than the first season of the producers’ previous TV project, Xena: Warrior Princess. (Then again, maybe it should have been better, given that the producers of Legend had the experience of six seasons of Xena, not to mention several other series, enabling them to hone their game. But it’s very fair to say that they have broken some seriously new ground on Seeker, and are not simply revisiting past successes.)

Some special mention must be made of Bruce Spence, the actor who plays Zeddicus. While Craig Horner and (even more so) Bridget Regan are fine in their respective roles, Spence is a revelation — by turns, commanding, touching, and funny. He has the smallest part of the three leads, but he easily makes the strongest impression. He’s clearly an old pro.

All in all, Legend of the Seeker is extremely well-done fantasy.

Contrary to many previous press reports, as of last week, Disney had apparently still not officially renewed the show for a second season (though as before, things look very good). But if there was ever a show that deserved another season, it’s this one.

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Legend of the Seeker star Bridget Regan made a very charming appearance today on Live with Regis & Kelly. Here’s the clip:

Craig Horner appeared on the show before Legend premiered. Here’s the clip of his prior appearance:

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Last week, the Hollywood Reporter reported that the rights holders to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the original 1992 movie, were pursuing a “relaunch” of the property as a potential movie franchise — although so far without the involvement of Joss Whedon, the movie’s screenwriter and the creator of the much more successful television series that followed.

But at least one cast member from the classic series thinks it’s a bad idea.

“The notion of doing anything to do with Buffy without Joss Whedon’s involvement is wrong,” said Anthony Stewart Head, the actor who played Rupert Giles, in a phone interview with TheTorchOnline.com.

Fran Rubel Kuzui, who directed the 1992 movie, and her husband, Kaz Kuzui, who co-produced, reportedly don’t plan to tamper with the storyline mapped out in the television series, but instead see the movie series going in a different direction, much like the recent Star Trek reboot. Characters from the television series such as Willow, Xander, Spike, and Giles will not be part of the project.

“It was [Joss Whedon's] baby,” Head said. “He created it at the age of 19. He couldn’t get the film made — no one would make it. He couldn’t get arrested with it, then the Kuzuis picked it up and said, ‘All right we’ll make a movie.’ They said, ‘Stick with us, we’ll show you how to do it,’ but they changed the tone of it. It became more camp, slightly schlocky humor.”

Head said that Joss received a rare second chance to fulfill his original vision with the subsequent television series.

“Around that time, people started to get the idea of introducing wit, real sardonic humor into horror, so that it ceased to be the campy thing that was everyone was used to up to this point,” he said. “He could make much, much stronger points, he could go into the underbelly of it. Joss could turn the audience on a dime. The classic, brilliant stroke of having a genius episode, a really funny episode, and then at the end of it, Buffy walks in and her mother’s dead on the sofa.

“Stuff like that really, really screws with your mind,” Head said. “That’s Joss Whedon.”

Head isn’t completely opposed to the project. “Maybe Kaz will approach Joss, and Joss will say, ‘All right, let’s work together again,’” he said. “But Buffy without Joss wouldn’t make sense to me.”

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Warning: This recap of the Legend of the Seeker episode “Fever” contains plot-spoilers.

The D’harans have discovered that Jensenn (the sister of Richard who naturally inhibits magic) is hiding the magic Boxes of Orden.

Fortunately for her, the D’harans are really loud and spend about five minutes knocking at the door — even though it’s apparently unlocked! — giving her pleeeeenty of time to escape.

She runs all night, but since the D’haran trackers are still being really loud, she knows she’s about to be caught. So she throws the boxes into Lake That We’ve Seen A Thousand Times Before In This Show And Also In Episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess.

Which is actually pretty quick thinking.

Richard and Zeddicus, meanwhile, are still reading The Book of Counted Shadows (from the previous ep), trying to figure out a way to reunite the Boxes of Orden without having the power turn Richard evil, like it did before. But what’s more powerful than the power of Orden?

“The power of love,” Richard suggests. But this strikes me as a terrible plan. I’m all for love being “powerful,” but it seems to me that, in the real world, love turns people into a**holes as often as the Boxes of Orden.

But this line of thinking leads to a more specific plan: Kahlan could “confess” Richard, so the power of the confessor protects Richard from the evil of the boxes, while the power of the box protects Richard from being Kahlan’s mindless slave.

This actually makes sense, in a “fantasy novel” kind of way.

To punish Jensenn’s village, Rahl has placed a “swine flu” fever on her village. Zeddicus says he can cure some of them with his magic by taking the plague into himself — though he has to work on them slowly, one by one, otherwise he might die from the plague too.

Darken Rahl has caught Jensenn, but she has a medical condition called Plot Contrivance Amnesia. It’s good break for her, all thing considered.

Rahl, thinking fast, pretends to be a “friend” — and claims that her brother, Richard, is the real bad guy. Then he gives her the “fair-and-balanced” Fox News treatment — describing Richard and himself in a way that’s almost the exact opposite of reality.

Will she buy this? After all, Richard has better abs, which sort of makes him the “good guy” by default, doesn’t it?

On the other hand, Darken Rahl gives her a cute kitten.

Meanwhile, Richard and company try to con the cure to the swine flu from the D’harans soldiers — but it turns out they’re susceptible to the fever as well.

Richard and Kahlan bring the captain of the guard to Zeddicus so he can cure him of the fever and Kahlan can “confess” him without getting the plague herself. But the rest of the village is really upset that they want to give him “cut-sies” in line.

Back in the castle, Rahl lays it on really thick to Jensen, claiming Richard is the real “villain”. And I thought giving her a kitten was hitting below the belt!

Finally, Jensen remembers and tells Rahl: she threw the boxes into Lake That We’ve Seen A Thousand Times Before In This Show And Also In Episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess. But at the same time, Richard is slowly piecing together Jensenn’s footsteps. Who will get the boxes first?!

Turns out it’s Richard, who immediately strips down (proving what I said before about his having better abs than Darken Rahl). But hey, who swims in their pants?

Richard finds the boxes, even sans SCUBA equipment (which seems a stretch — have you ever dove for anything in a lake?). But unfortunately, the D’harans shoot him with arrows. How come there’s never a good spear-fish spear around when you need one?

Richard slowly sinks into the lake, seemingly dead — creating one hell of a commercial break cliffhanger.

Needless to say, he isn’t dead — he just had, uh, a swimming cramp. Anyway, he takes out the soldiers, which means he now has all three of the boxes. Yah!

Back at the fever camp, the dying villagers swarm Zed, sort of like that scene in Jesus Christ Superstar when the lepers swarm Jesus, singing, “Won’t you touch, won’t you heal me, Christ?” Like Jesus, Zeddicus is all, “Don’t push me! There’s too many of you!”

Kahlan manages to stop it by confessing one of the villagers — but that means she had to touch him, which means she has the fever now too!

Incidentally, that is one fast-acting virus.

Rahl has another clever plan: get Jensenn, to whom he has given a cute kitten and is now his “friend,” to go steal the box from Richard.

Back at the fever camp, both Kahlan and Zeddicus are now dying from the fever. Jensenn does manage to steal the boxes, but Richard catches up with her. She’s all, “Darken Rahl is good, and you’re the evil one!”

Richard says. “Don’t you see, Jensenn? You’ve be watching too much Fox News!”

And at that, she remembers!

Blah, blah, blah, Richard fights, wins, they cure the fever, and they prepare to confront Rahl one last time, using the original plan they came up with at the beginning of the ep, in next week’s finale.

The Bottom Line: This wasn’t a terrible episode, but I admit to being very confused. Richard has all three Boxes of Orden, the Sword of Truth, the Book of Counted Shadows, the Confessor, Zeddicus’ magic, and a really good plan to confront Darken Rahl. And Rahl has…butkus. In short, I’d say Darken Rahl is definitely the underdog in next week’s “finale” showdown. Is this really the way it should be? I mean, I’m happy for Richard and everything, but I’m not exactly sitting on the edge of my seat here. In short, there’s not a lot of tension when the odds so clearly favor the hero. And if anything, this episode made things less tense — which, it seems to me, is kind of the opposite of what you want the week before the season finale. I’m just sayin’.

Three and a Half Torches (Out of Five)

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What’s this? A full-fledged swords-and-sorcery fantasy series on broadcast network television? Have we seen that since The Charmings in 1988? (And I’m not sure that campy, short-lived ABC sitcom even counts.)

It might be an indication of just how desperate NBC is for a hit that the network is willing to take a chance on swords and sorcery, with Merlin, a British import that tells the story of Merlin and Arthur and Camelot “before they were legends,” premiering Sunday, June 21st at 8/7c.

Before-they-were-legends stories — basically, the Smallville treatment — can, of course, be hit or miss, especially when the story in question is as well-known and endlessly-rehashed as that of Camelot. And Merlin has departed dramatically from the traditional telling of the story: Merlin is younger, the same age as Arthur; Camelot pre-dates the would-be king; Morgana is a “good guy”; and Lancelot shows up about ten years early.

Then again, maybe all this isn’t such a bad thing. Despite the never-ending parade of faithful, earnest Arthurian retellings, how long has it been since we’ve had a truly interesting one — one that was worth retelling? Since The Mists of Avalon?

Let’s face it: Camelot has gone stale. If any story deserves to be shaken up, it might be this one.

In Britain, where the first thirteen episodes of Merlin aired last fall, the show has been a critical and popular hit. NBC too liked what it saw, committing to a partnership with the BBC early in the production (no doubt increasing the budget and improving the production values for finicky U.S. sensibilities).

Meanwhile, the online buzz from the U.K. has been positive — though NBC seems to have done a pretty good job of geoblocking online postings of the show’s episodes, to preserve some sense of mysery, and to protect their investment.

Two aspects of this retelling seem unambiguously positive. One is the color-blind casting of Guinevere, or Gwen, played by Angel Coulby. How nice to get a break from the all-white, all-the-time Arthur stories.

In addition, the role of Uther is played by none other than Buffy: The Vampire Slayer’s beloved Giles, Anthony Stewart Head.

Will Merlin work? We’ll know soon enough if this will be the summer that made Camelot cool again.

A preview of NBC’s Merlin (Sunday, June 21st at 8/7c)

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Four and a Half Torches (Out of Five)

I’ll be the one to finally say it: Supernatural, which wraps up its fourth season this Thursday night, is a great and wildly underrated show.

The CW series about two monster-fighting brothers has probably always been better than it’s been given credit for, with solid scripts and good acting, impressive thrills, and cinematography that rivals many feature films.

But this last season, with its backdrop of the battle between the angels and demons and an inner conflict between Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles), it’s gone from being “pretty good” to “great.” When measured against the best fantasy-themed television of all time, it might even be approaching Buffy or Xena territory.

And yet, despite an enthusiastic fan base, Supernatural has gone mostly unappreciated in the industry and in the wider pop culture landscape.

Some of this is, no doubt, due to the genre. With a few exceptions (such as The Lord of the Rings), even the most sublime genre projects almost never get the respect they deserve.

And let’s face it: monster or horror-themed projects are often considered the lowest of the low-brow, necessarily exploitative, even within genre circles.

But part of the problem is Supernatural’s own damn fault. The show has always been “good,” but it’s gotten so much better this last season that it’s probably taking some time for the deserved respect and accolades to catch up with it.

From the start, Supernatural was obviously a quality show. But it sure didn’t seem to be breaking any new ground: it was a buffed-off Buffy retread, or a TV knock-off of the recent movie trend of “auteur” horror, or maybe just another excuse for the CW to feature more pretty boys.

The first season’s arc, establishing the major themes of the show, was fine, if unexceptional. But the second, all-too-earnest season spent the whole year promising an “apocalypse” if the gate to hell was opened.

Well, the gate was opened, but the apocalypse never really happened. Sure, there were consequences, but this viewer had the definite sense that the writers had bitten off more than they could chew.

The third season, which Dean lived as if he only had a year to live (because he did!), was much better, and ended with the terrific cliffhanger of Dean in hell. But the season also had a rushed, sometimes muddled quality — no doubt due to the writers’ strike, which required that the filmmakers lop off six episodes mid-way through production.

But then came this latest, glorious season.

Sam and Dean’s involvement in the epic battle between angels and demons is everything that season 2 promised, and more. There is a coherency to the dramatic back-drop (as well as a deserved sense of mystery), and there’s a well-earned sense that the stakes are real, and that they’re sky-high.

Most daring of all, the creators of Supernatural have created a primary dramatic conflict that has been dropped right in the middle of the show’s core: the relationship between Sam and Dean.

The world must be saved, but Sam and Dean have very different ideas on how best to do it. And not only do they both think the other is dead-wrong, they think the other guy is too weak to pull it off anyway!

There’s always been tension between Sam and Dean, but nothing like this.

Imagine how this might have gone over when the showrunners pitched this storyline to the network executives at the CW: “We’re going to take the two beloved characters at the center of our show and make them hate each other — and spend the whole season building to a chilling moment where they beat each other up!”

But by choosing to really “go there,” Supernatural has absolutely hit its artistic apogee. And why wouldn’t it? As much as we care about saving “the world,” what viewers care most about is, of course, Sam and Dean. If the creators wanted to get us to sit up and really pay attention, threatening that relationship is exactly the way to do it.

They’re not the first show to discover the artistic benefits of such an “internal” conflict. Ironically, Buffy and Xena also hit their artistic strides (in the fifth and sixth seasons, and third and fourth seasons, respectively) when, after seasons of cataclysmic external obstacles, the main characters finally had to confront the most difficult challenge of all: what happens when you fundamentally disagree with the person you love?

The problem, of course, comes after these ultimate “interior” conflicts are resolved; both Buffy and Xena struggled, not very successfully, to find story arcs that were as engaging as this –  the genre version of “What do we do now that Sam has slept with Diane?”

Will Supernatural be able to avoid these post-artistic-triumph doldrums? Who knows? But for right now, the Golden Age of Supernatural has arrived. Let’s all enjoy.

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Warning: This recap of the Legend of the Seeker episode “Sanctuary” contains plot-spoilers.

Livia the Librarian has discovered clues to a copy of the magical Book of Counted Shadows, the original of which was destroyed by the Seeker, hidden somewhere in her library.

For the record? Livia, a knock-out, looks nothing like your usual prim, stereotypical librarian. They’re definitely breaking the librarian stereotypes in this ep, which is a very good thing!

Darken Rahl, Richard, Kahlan, and Zeddicus also get word that a copy of the Book of Counted Shadows exists, and they all converge on the library. Richard, Kahlan, and Zeddicus get their first, and ask to have a look around.

Um, yeah. There may be a tad too many books and scrolls for them to find the book on their own.

But Livia the Librarian can’t help them, because she’s out looking for her missing son, Aiden, who has apparently gotten difficult to handle since the death of her brilliant scholar-husband.

And can I just say? I really appreciate that this show (and Terry Goodkind, the author of the books on which it is based) gives its fantasy characters ordinary, straight-forward names (for the most part). In most other fantasy series, Livia would be Andrizlip the Librarian along with her son Civulon.

Anyway, just as Livia is about to take Kahlan and Zeddicus to the library to the find the book, she is magically transported into the painting of James, her mild-mannered friend.

It seems that James had checked out some books for the library that gave him magical powers. The Book of Counter Shadows, perhaps?

But no, this doesn’t occur to Livia. In other words, they’re breaking another “librarian” stereotype: despite being a librarian, Livia is kinda slow.

The Daharans take over the library, so James paints the whole library into the painting. Livia may be a little dim, but James is one smart tack (and kinda adorkable too).

Weirdly, not even Richard and Kahlan deduce that he might be getting his magic from having accidentally checked out the Book of Counter Shadows. Which make me think that my theory is wrong. I’d owe Livia an apology for calling her “slow,” except, of course, she’s a fictional character.

There is a small wrinkle to James’ plan, however. By transporting the library into the painting, James has invalidated the magic of Zed — who had just finished teleporting  inside!

Richard steps forward and declares, “Send me into painting!” Which, in the pantheon of bold fantasy declarations, probably wouldn’t even make the top 100, but hey, in the context of the show, it works.

As James paints, Richard, James, and Kahlan discuss a “world without magic.”

“Magic has its uses,” Kahlan says. “But sometimes it keeps people apart.”

Is it just me, or is this is an odd statement? Is that really first thing you think when you think about magic — that it keeps people apart? Yes, it keeps Richard and Kahlan apart. But anyone else? Really?

Inside the painting, Richard kicks some serious oil-based butt, saving Livia, Aiden, and Zed. Then they start searching for the book.

In other words, it still hasn’t occurred to anyone that the “magic book” that James had checked might actually be the missing copy of the Book of Counter Shadows. My theory is definitely wrong. My bad.

Livia has a clue to the book’s location in the form of a riddle. Oo! Oo! I love riddles!

“The book you seek is hidden in a safe place between the world below and the stars above.”

And, incredibly, Livia figures it out!

Okay, she’s not stupid. I definitely owe her character an apology.

Meanwhile, James sends Kahlan into the painting, and then follows her inside. “Why would anyone want to leave here?” he tells the others. “Look at this world I’ve created — it’s a paradise!”

Uh oh. It seems that someone has been sniffing too many modeling paints.

Kahlan — let’s face it: stupidly — orders James to obey her, but he points out — duh! — “you don’t have any magic here.” Wasn’t she just saying this, like, five minutes before?

Darken Rahl gets his hands on the painting and decides to destroy it, hopefully killing Richard in the process.

Kahlan, who is clearly furious that she’ll never be able to take another hot bath, confronts James about his plan to trap them all in the painting. One obvious tact would be to point out: “Um, we exist on a hillside. What are we going to eat? Grass?”

Instead, Kahlan calls him out on his obvious love for Livia.

James doesn’t care: Livia will learn to love him!

But that’s before the flames of Rahl’s fire start to consume the world-within-the-painting.

James has a sudden change of heart: he can’t paint them all back individually, but he can paint the library out of the painting with everyone else inside.

James does just that, painting the library back into the real world, but sacrificing himself in the process.

Livia says, “In his heart, James was a good person.”

This may be true, but in his brain, he was an abusive, controlling kidnapper. In other words, forget about my owing Livia an apology for calling her stupid.

Later, Richard reads the Book of Counted Shadows — but when he discusses it during a book club meeting with Kahlan, he doesn’t have a good review. It tells them they need to reunite the three boxes of Orden.

“But the last time we did that–!” Kahlan says.

“I almost became as evil as Rahl himself,” Richard says ominously, setting us up for the last two episodes of the season.

The Bottom Line: This episode wasn’t just almost as boring as watching paint dry; it was actually about paint drying! A disappointing episode with few interesting plot twists and no real surprises. The idea of a “world without magic” is intriguing, especially in light of Richard and Kahlan’s “situation,” but this theme was not explored with any deftness or in any depth, nor were any of the other possibly interesting themes — the idea that artists create unique new “worlds” and are misunderstood because of it, or the notion that libraries are essential sources of knowledge and must be preserved from the forces of ignorance.

Three Torches (Out of Five)

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