The Fireside

Fantasy sometimes gets a pretty bad rap when it comes to live action adaptions. There have been more 'bad' than 'good'. I won't go off listing some of the bad ones since The Lord of the Rings film trilogy showed us that it can be good (or close to when it came out.) There's been a TV series on MTV (I know, shudder, right?) that's been doing well for the network. Well enough to get a second season renewal. It's called The Shannara Chronicles . The series is based on Terry Brooks' Shannara titles. I admit, I've not read them. Back when I was first discovering fantasy after reading some Tolkien in about 2002-2003, I heard of some of the more success ones in that 'vein' of fantasy: The Wheel of Time, The Sword of Truth, Shannara... but I never actually checked out Shannara first hand. I did read the short story (or was it stories?) that was included in the anthologies Legends, and Legends II in the past few years on my ereader. I found ...

I’ve often spoken about my dislike of the present state of TV programming and how it needs to evolve. Please note: I’m not talking the shows themselves, but in how they ‘brought’ to us. Home phone. Cursive writing. “TV” [not the display unit itself but TV via satellite, cable etc.]. these are all things that are either not being used on a wide basis, or phasing out. So what’s wrong with TV providers? They don’t change or offer any incentive to stay. With the debut, and success, of streaming services (Apple TV, Netflix…) watching shows/movies has seen a great window of opportunity, as well as the next phase in how we watch things as well. Some providers have taken a few steps in that direction with ‘On Demand’. Without ranting, complaining or telling you about ‘the wave of the future’ or other long windedness, I’m going to propose my ideal out-come for ‘the future of TV’. When you load up Apple TV, Netflix, etc…you get to choose WHAT you want to watch, as opposed ...