The Wheel Of Time (Amazon Prime) TV Show • Page 21

I keep eyeing that hoodie, thanks @ChaseTx

 

yea, i honestly think overall that this 1st season is going to leave a weak impression on most people and we're going to struggle to get beyond 2 or 3 series (which will create weaker seasons as I'm sure they'll continue to rush to the big moments to get as much of the story in as possible before it's an axed).

The story is an absolute mess (especially after the finale) and they so explain so little and are so fast and loose with all the 'rules' of the world (EXAMPLES: we see 2 or 3 dreams then they're barely mentioned and nothing like the bat in the mouth is ever explained or happens again, there's a month long time jump to Tar Valon where they didn't get attacked yet the prior 2 episodes they couldn't get a nights sleep without trollocs or dark friends catching up, they barely explained how Morainne knew where the dragon would be and why she keyed in on the 5 of them and discounted so many others along the way and the inconsistency with how powerful the Aes Sedai are or aren't is confusing and feels like plot armor. Not to mention the blight being described as this dangerous place and Rand and Morraine and Lan just run right to the eye of the world for a mysterious anti-climatic battle with a villain who is barely explained).

I've really tried to stay positive but having finished the season and looking at it as a whole, I'm pretty disappointed and don't think anyone who's not a book fan is dying for more. Rushed, inconsistent writing and dodgy special effects. And I HATE HATE HATE how expressive the channeling is. It's such a huge part of the series and every time there's a channeling scene i cringe with the choices they've made.

Add to that the MAJOR changes to the book in the last episode, and how they now need to fit in parts of the book that were skipped, it's feeling more and more like a major flop.

Some episodes were close to 8/10's for me, but there's enough bad of the season that I'd barely score it a 6 overall. If the 2nd season is more of the same, I'll just enjoy the books every half a decade or so as there will never be another attempt to adapt it and this will be the best we're left with.

 

I never read the books. I enjoyed it as a whole and look forward to season 2.

On a side note it did feel a little rushed but I heard the books were also super slow. The big battle was pretty lame and it seems like they could do a lot better with the special effects. I feel like the book fans will never be super satisfied especially if they read it recently. Game of Thrones was one of the favorite shows and then when I read the books around the middlish of the show at the time I remember having a lot of complaints.

 

The books aren't slow (at least as far as I've read). They're just very long

 

Ehhhh, I'm hitting the climax of The Great Hunt and there have definitely been points where it's slower than I'd like.

 

The books are definitely slow in the middle and it's what killed the enjoyment for me

 

My best friend (non-book reader) just texted me and told me he and his wife both thought the season finale was the best episode yet. So… reactions are all over the place.

 

I was asking my wife what she thought of episode 8, and she was saying that she thought it was really good, but things happened way too fast and she really had no idea what the fuck was going on for any of the climactic stuff, like Rand vs. Dapper Sexy Guy. She said she didn't think that was The Dark One, but she had no idea who it was, not even in the slightest, didn't even remember / know The Forsaken were even a thing, and if that was The Dark One she thought that was super lame and said it would really test whether she even wanted to keep watching the show.

 

Just a few more scenes establishing the Forsaken, the World of Dreams (vs actual dreams, though, the White Tower HAS mostly forgotten this so maybe not!), and the damn prologue tying it all together could go a long way for information gaps.

 

Asked my girlfriend what she thought of the end and she needed me to remind her what happened, says it was anticlimactic

 

I have like 5 of 6 friends, non book readers, and all have loved the entire season. It's important to remember that they shot this during the beginning of the pandemic and lost a main actor partway through. They needed to change the climax of EotW or everyone would have just been standing around whole Rand did his stuff. All things considered, it's an 8 out of 10 for me. Plenty of room for improvement but I'm enjoying this spinning of the wheel.

 

A "source" has come out this week and said Barney didn't come back for season two because he wouldn't get the covid vaccine. I've only seen it one place, though, so who knows how accurate that is. Would be a sad reason.

 

It had to be something personal for it to be have been kept quiet this long, so even if this isn't it, it's got to something similar (medical whether physical or mental). If it was anything else, like abhorrent behavior, I'd question why it was kept silent for so long.

 

A friend of mine binged all eight episodes yesterday and gave it a solid 7. I’ll take it! Her favorite from the start was Rand, which is new among my non-reader friends who have watched it. She HATES Mat and is neutral towards Egwene.

I’m rewatching 6-8 this morning as I’ve only seen them once each. Got me thinking about how I would’ve structured/inserted a cold open for each episode to fill in just a bit more information if you’re going to keep it eight episodes.

One: The Blood Snow from episode 7
Two: Logain in Ghealdan from episode 4
Three: *new* somehow explain the Forsaken and Baalzamon’s power in the World of Dreams (the forsaken are a children’s story to scare people in the books, could be a good framework)
Four: *new* Thom and Owen (explains why Thom cares out of nowhere)
Five: *new* Gitara’s foretelling (because Rand says “I recognize that mountain” in this episode)
Six: remains Siuan Sanche’s introduction
Seven: cold open from episode 8, but with Ishamael somehow included for a little more foreshadowing of who is at the Eye
Eight: *new* prologue of EOTW

Thank you for the five people who also care about this show as much as I do, haha. I truly hope next season they can take the same huge step up The Witcher did in quality, as this was already vastly better than Witcher season 1.

And, for the love, stop nerfing Rand.

 

Finished yesterday, solid 4.5/5. Acting took a little to find its own and the CGI was subpar but overall told a really good story for readers and non readers. Main plot failing was not really showing us more about the enemies they face like... The dark one just sort of showed up to tempt Rand, needed a bit more fleshing out

 

For those of you who have read the books (there are spoilers for future stuff), it's fun to hear Brandon talk about the show:

 

How far into the series does it spoil?

 

High And Mighty podcast did an episode with the hosts of Pod of Time discussing the series. Some different takes from what I've seen in here, largely seemed like they were disappointed with it

I enjoyed watching each week, there was some good episodes and stuff but the finale really left on a bad note. Hopefully they can bring it back on track

 

youre probably fine.

the biggest take away is that episodes 7 and 8 had no feedback from Brandon… and it shows. COVID REALLY messed up those two episodes.

 

The more I think about it, the more I'm disappointed overall. I think it lacked any sort of 'wow' episode or moment. It was all kind of just fine? I am still excited for season 2 (though less so) and I obviously know how big and wild the story gets, but it will need to improve to keep people on board (in my opinion and also from what I've seen online. I am trying to avoid super negative and super positive, I think the general reaction is probably like mine, it's just fine). I am sure once we get teasers and tidbits about season 2, I'll get just as feverish as I was for season 1 but I'm not chasing it like I was preseason. I was hyped for years for this to come out and as an example, I'm searching news for better call saul season 6 and the last of us season 1 almost daily but for this I think I'll just let season 2 come to me vs seeking out whatever I can.

I'll watch that video with Brandon but he's kind of rubbed me the wrong way a little bit with how open he is about his criticisms. I wonder how the rest of the writing and creative team feels about how blunt he is online about what he wanted vs what happened. Martin was pretty silent on game of thrones show as far as I know and I don't know of many cases yet where a producer on a show (let alone the author of the source material) has been involved in the show but also critical of it.

I also was really worried when he said he found content objectionable and that he didn't like any of the same-sex relationships but that turned out to not be the case (at least that wasn't what he meant when he said he found some content objectionable). I didn't know that Rafe Judkins grew up Mormon, him and Brandon probably have vastly different outlooks on religion now (though I could be wrong). I am sure Brandon doesn't like those aspects, but I am glad he didn't say that as i feel like it would have started a debate online.

 

I’m pretty sure Brandon openly gay characters in all of his series, so I don’t think that’s what he meant.

 

I’m in the middle of The Dragon Reborn, am I ok to watch?

 

I watched a different video with Brandon, and honestly the biggest criticism I remember him having was the situation with Perrin's wife. He did not at all like how that storyline played out, what they did to the female character and what it did to Perrin's character going forward. He had some other criticisms, but he was overall very positive, and even when he had criticisms he said that he understood the why of what the show writers were doing. I do remember him being adamant though that fridging Perrin's wife was bad and dumb on many levels and him thinking that it actually hurt the season significantly. I believe this may have been before the last two episodes aired though.