MTV show uses BART's Transbay Tube as the key to saving the world

The Bay Bridge, seen a year or two from now. The Bay Bridge, seen a year or two from now. Photo: MTV Photo: MTV Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close MTV show uses BART's Transbay Tube as the key to saving the world 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

MTV is full of garbage television and its adaptation of Terry Brooks' popular Shannara book series is no exception.

For Bay Area viewers, though, there's one crucial detail in the first season of the fantasy show that might draw some ironic laughter: The key to saving the entire world is held inside BART's Transbay Tube.

By way of a simplistic plot run-down: The protagonists (Wil, Amberle and Eretria) of 'The Shannara Chronicles' are on a mission to find a mythical tree to defeat an invading demon army. The three travel through some derivative fantasy franchise forests before finally arriving at their destination.

It's BART.

The first hint that things have taken a hilarious turn is when Amberle discovers a map to their location. It's a badly approximated BART map that runs all throughout San Francisco. Maybe humanity made some advances in the future that led to service extensions, but that feels less realistic than the show's druid magic.

Once they get to the Transbay Tube, they journey deep into the tunnels where trolls (OK, that's realistic) and murderous ghosts (also not out of the realm of possibility) threaten their mission.

The season finale aired last week, but in case you were still waiting to watch it (unlikely, I know), I won't spoil the rest.

However, it should be said that if there's ever a future in which humanity's salvation lies within the BART system, we've made a lot of bad decisions as a species and probably deserve to be eradicated.