The Shannara Chronicles
MTV | Spike TV | MTV - Music Television | Release Date: January 5, 2016
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
5
Mixed:
6
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
Colorado Springs GazetteTerry TerronesApr 6, 2016
Season 1 Review: First rate production value, interesting characters and an intriguing story make for a world well worth escaping to. Read full review
80
ColliderAdam ChitwoodJan 21, 2016
Season 1 Review: Some of the romantic elements are a cheesy, and the exposition is really clunky at times, but for the most part the show is continually compelling and complex. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesRobert LloydJan 5, 2016
Season 1 Review: The series is sassier than the book.... Moving pictures require something different; messianic folderol is best served there with a little sex, and a little seltzer. That has been provided. Read full review
70
The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerJan 4, 2016
Season 1 Review: Give this reasonably absorbing series a little credit, even though it often seems to be merely reworking various fantasy formulas. It moves quickly and does a nice job of weaving together two story lines involving an elfin world that is threatened when a giant tree. Read full review
70
VarietyMaureen RyanJan 4, 2016
Season 1 Review: Sure, Shannara, which harks back to the golden age of syndicated genre fare, is a standard quest journey in which there are troll, gnomes, living trees and magic books, and characters say things like, “If Allanon is here, there are dark days ahead.” But there’s conviction in the show’s execution. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubGenevieve ValentineJan 5, 2016
Season 1 Review: Though there’s plenty of reasons to mourn a show that’s covering up its central emptiness with so much narrative busy work, there are glimmers of hope that maybe, if the show gains some footing in its second act, it might still find itself in time. Read full review
50
The WrapNed EhrbarJan 5, 2016
Season 1 Review: Fantasy fare like this generally has a pretty low bar to clear and a pretty forgiving target audience, but the heavy-handed jargon, pointy elf ears and brooding self-seriousness of The Shannara Chronicles might be too much for even those fans. It doesn’t help that the characters seem to be allowed to switch from talking dour fantasy-novel heroes to bored millennials whenever the mood strikes them. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzJan 4, 2016
Season 1 Review: The world-building is imaginative and impressive, but the mythology is exhausting to keep up with, especially when the reward is basically just a romance-novel version of The Lord of the Rings. Read full review
40
The AtlanticSpencer KornhaberJan 5, 2016
Season 1 Review: The fact that the mostly inert The Shannara Chronicles is utterly familiar on both levels is a reminder that a truly vibrant fantasy story requires some sort of invention. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMatt RoushJan 4, 2016
Season 1 Review: MTV's big swing at epic fantasy is a lot of hokey bombast, wasted on a cast of callow babes in the exotic woods. [4-17 Jan 2015, p.15]
40
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRob OwenJan 4, 2016
Season 1 Review: It's not terrible but it is quite MTV-y with a soundtrack that at times feels more like any typical teen angst drama and looks that suggest of-the moment fashions (male elves sport a variation on the manbun hairstyle). Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterKeith UhlichJan 4, 2016
Season 1 Review: The three central characters are all blandly pretty faces who give continuously stilted line readings and never convincingly embody their respective mythic archetypes, so it's up to the old pros to pick up the slack. Read full review
30
We Got This CoveredIsaac Feldberg Jan 4, 2016
Season 1 Review: Every time a character opens their mouth for some tin-eared quip that wouldn’t be out of place on a soapy drama like Gossip Girl, it knee-caps the rest of the storytelling. And wherever the dialogue isn’t weirdly contemporary, it’s frustratingly clunky. Read full review
30
Las Vegas WeeklyJosh BellJan 4, 2016
Season 1 Review: With its quests broken up into bite-sized pieces and its carefully crafted band of adventurers, Shannara is like watching someone else play a prepackaged Dungeons & Dragons campaign, only not as much fun. Read full review
20
Yahoo TVKen TuckerJan 5, 2016
Season 1 Review: The Shannara Chronicles is a lot of hooey with hotsy young actors. Read full review
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