I know a lot of focus has been on the notion that the series is pushing an agenda. I'm trying not to focus on it, though it definitely doesn't follow the traditional heroic action series model. I've also been very disappointed in how the writers, who purported to be huge fans of the original movie--which was, if we're being honest, a pretty juvenile attempt by George Lucas to write a LOTR-style saga--have (or not) used Warwick Davis. He's really just a side character, relegated to tut-tutting the character of Elora Dannen as she consistently ignores him before she inevitably becomes a far greater sorcer than he as if by whim. (She seems to have a similar track as Rey in the recent Star Wars movies, with as little need for Willow as Rey had for Luke.)

Anyhoo..

What bothers me more than anything is just how poor the writing and dialogue are. I've been really working hard to ignore the modern language in a medieval-style setting, with limited success. I've also largely ignored the use of modern music, since I typically exercise while I'm watching and treadmills tend to drown that stuff out. But since I use closed-captioning, I can't ignore the dialogue. Kasdan Jr. has obviously traded on his much more talented father's name to get gigs in Hollywood, if this series is an indication. I've yet to find any fantasy trope they haven't tapped. A rogue with a heart of gold that is much less adept with women than he purports to be. The stern teacher outshone by his young, hip charge. The star-crossed lovers who can't quite get together. The inept, but good-hearted wannabe hero that will inevitably have his moment to shine. The EEEEEEVIL witch with no redeeming qualities and her seemingly inept minions, who threaten, but whom we all know will get their ultimate comeuppance. (And, I'm guessing here, the absent hero about whom all talk and wonder who will inevitably show up in the final episode--you know, the one episode NOT screened for critics to build suspense for the GASP! big reveal that will light up Twitter and lead to last minute accolades.)

The latest episode (the 5th), cheaply set in a forest with minimal sets and obviously plastic "Bone Reaver" garb, was almost unbelievably bad and moved the plot forward not an inch. It was entirely filler. It gave us a chance to give a trophy--and a title--to the perpetually stone-faced character of Jade. The fearsome Bone Reavers essentially live in a few huts in the middle of a "magical forest" about as interesting as a woodlot you can find near any freeway. Most of the episode was spent with no forward progress and the introduction of potential allies about as threatening, and numerous, as your weekend flag football team. (But the big, muscular guy with the woman's name is apparently a closet epicurean.) I just can't understand why, in a series that is only eight episodes long, the writers devoted an entire episode that stridently refuses to move the plot along or do anything interesting with a single character.

Oh, and the title character gets about five minutes of screen time glowering, lecturing, and catching up with an utterly wasted cameo character (Rool) who mostly shows up to bitch about his teenage daughter, toss out a few lame jokes, but then wax rhapsodic about the heroic adventure of a group of people he's barely met. Did I mention how bad the writing is?

I just can't believe, sometimes, that people are paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to write this terribly. This has been on the level of the tens of thousands of free or cheap novellas on Amazon that amateur authors vomit out every day, but who lack the connections to actually get paid for. It also boggles my mind that the critics, possibly blinded by the emphasis on inclusiveness rather than the good writing, seem to have come to the consensus that this is a show worth watching.

Woof. I haven't watched the original in years, and I have little fondness for it--though Joanne Whalley was stunningly pretty and the weird two-headed dragon was rather different---but the writing for this series is CW-level at best.