The Legend Continues

Beastmaster Episode Review

In which we meet Dar.

What Happened

Dar saves Tao and Ruh from the Terrons, asking Tao to lead him to the Terron camp where King Zad is holding Dar's love Kyra. Observing their progress, the Sorceress decides that she'd like to have Dar's ability to speak with the animals and interferes in his rescue attempt.

The Good

• This show has absolutely the most beautiful cinematography. Just gorgeous.
• The Sorceress observes, but without the need to cackle and pontificate about how evil she is. It's all in the facial expression. Props for finding an actress who can do this, and for muzzling the writers so they don't try to foist unnecessary dialogue on her.
• Damn. Even the ferrets get a back-story.
• Dar and Kyra's almost reunion. They look appropriately distressed.

The Bad

• Off to rescue your girlfriend? Be sure to stop off and pick up your weapons. And your ferrets.
• They always threaten to take the hero's girlfriend by force. But they never follow through because that would mean raising actual issues and having to deal with uncomfortable truths for more than forty minutes plus commercials.
• Why is King Zad wearing a plastic helmet with little plastic wings?
• "That's why Kyra was with the tigers." Tao is guessing that someone is luring Dar around for some reason. The audience knows, however, that the Sorceress didn't know about Dar's powers until later in the fight and wasn't the reason Kyra was being fed to the tigers - so why was she, if she's Zad's favorite? And when was Kyra captured, anyways? Years ago when the Sulas were massacred? Last week?

The Cliche

• The sidekick. There to fall over, get captured and play exposition boy. Tao is kind of fun, though.
• Good thing the Sorceress had only two tricks (fire, black smoke) and didn't come up with anything new that Dar hadn't prepared for.

What Did I Think?

Good enough beginning to the series. There used to be a very primordial atmosphere to the show that made it stand out a bit from the rest of the pack.