"Xena" creators roll out cheesy fantasy series

Warrior Princess,'' in this undated file photo. Xena will swing her last sword against the forces of evil March 30, 2001 as filming of the show comes to an end, but Lawless will not say if her character survives the final episode.

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It seems almost quaint that Disney should trot a fantasy drama series, "Legend of the Seeker," into national syndication, in the faint footsteps of the 1990s phenomena "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys."

The days of stations clamoring for product might be largely a thing of the past, but the 22-episode show was apparently cleared in more than 95% of the country and each of the top 50 markets. (Check local listings for the weekend airdate.)

Perhaps this proves that we're all still suckers for witches and warlocks and gargoyles and elaborate visual effects and guys with six-pack abs pretending not to be attracted to hot babes with abundant cleavage.

Mounted by the creators of "Xena" and "Hercules" and based on the best-selling novels of Terry Goodkind, "Seeker" is both endearingly retro and agonizingly humorless, a kind of poor man's "Lord of the Rings" that, like "Rings," was shot in the breathtaking wilds of New Zealand.

The opening two-hour stanza, adapted from Goodkind's "Wizard's First Rule," is rife with spectacular vistas and dazzling visuals from effects supervisors Dean Clarke and Charlie McClellan and overseen by the esteemed partners Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert and their fellow exec producers.

"Seeker" tells the ambiguous tale of a woodsman named Richard Cypher (Aussie actor Craig Horner), whose shirtless attributes are put out on beefcake display in the very first scene. It turns out he has been infused with unwitting magical powers that he's duty-bound to use in halting the evil scheming of your garden variety sinister tyrant (Craig Parker).

Richie is accompanied on this quest by the comely Kahlan Amnell (Bridget Regan), whose very stare can transform men into puddles of pudding, and Zedd (Bruce Spence) the all-wise and powerful wizard who can't believe he's got to save the world from enslavement again.

Simply describing all of this feels like the aftereffects of having ingested acid-laced Kool-Aid. But for those who buy into the fantasy-mystery genre, it's heavy stuff. If you don't, well, these people might as well be speaking Latin.

Big on style but more challenged in terms of substance, "Seeker" demonstrates much production savvy but at the same time too little provocative/evocative interaction aside from the ultra-violent kind.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter