Brief Story Line
Story focused on a young woman named Talon (Jessica Green - Roman Empire TV series etc) who was a descendant of Blackbloods race which were hunted by humans. As she witnessed her whole village murdered and became the only survivor, Talon was determined to get revenge. She later found clues that one of the people who murdered her family was at an outpost at the edge of the realm. While investigating, she met with captain Garret Spears (Jake Stormoen) who helped her to enter the outpost despite the suspicion from gate marshal Wythers (Andrew Howard - Perry Mason 2020 TV series, Truth or Dare etc).
Talon managed to get work at a bar owned by Elinor (Robyn Malcolm) where she befriended with Elinor's adopted son/barkeep Janzo (Anand Desai-Barochia). She also later met with Lady Gwynn (Imogen Waterhouse - Braid etc) and somehow became friends. With the help from a mysterious person referred to as The Smith (Kevin McNally - Pirates of the Caribbean movies etc), Talon started to get her revenge while trying to avoid capture by the soldiers. To make things further complicated, Talon found out that she possessed some supernatural power which could endanger the lives of everyone around her.
So what would happen to Talon and her vengeance mission? Find them all in this fantasy adventure series.
End of Brief Story Line
When I watched the first episode of this series, I honestly felt that it was a bit terrible. The story seemed to be done a bit rushed, the actors and actresses seemed to be over acting a bit and the fight sequence were unconvincing at all. Everything did not satisfy me at all. But I thought if the series could be renewed until three seasons, it could not have been that bad. So despite my reluctance to proceed, I still gave it a try.
Frankly, not until the 3rd (or possibly the 4th) episode that I started to gain real interest. The acting became much better and the fights were choreographed more convincingly. Plus the fact that the story and the characters development were quite a lot and fast, making it more exciting. I enjoyed the series more as I continued watching until the season finale which was quite awesome, leaving some thoughts of what second season would be.
The series regular were mostly people I have not seen before, apart from Andrew Howard and Kevin McNally who I was already familiar with. The lead character Jessica Green apparently was real good in martial arts and she even performed her own stunt and fights in here. Btw, I personally did not like the character Janzo whom I thought was over stretched as weird. The rest of the cast were OK but if I have to single out, I think Robyn Malcolm was amazing as the bar owner Elinor. Her character was refreshing to see.
As a fantasy adventure series, this one has sufficient amount of everything, be it revenge, love, journey to find "treasure" and plenty of fights with bad guys and monsters. The special effects were so so and should definitely not be compared with high budget series of similar genre. Oh, the fights were good but not the totally brutal & bloody kind. Watching this one reminded me a lot during the time I used to watch the popular 1990s series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (Kevin Sorbo) and Xena: Warrior Princess (Lucy Lawless).
Overall this one was a decent series and as I said above, having it extended until 3 seasons definitely meant it is a popular enough show. Even if it started off not as good as I thought, it got better as the story progressed. I myself enjoyed it and decided to continue watching subsequent seasons. One thing that really amazed me was I did not see anything in the opening/closing credits that showed if the series was based on novel or remake or anything, which proved that the creators Jason Faller and Kynan Griffin were truly creative. So if you are looking for fantasy adventure series with those qualities, you can give this one a try. It might not be as sophisticated & complicated as other similar series, but it's certainly refreshing enough.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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