La Roue du temps

It is simply impossible to translate a written story of 10 thousand pages into a TV series with only a few episodes (each 1 hour or less). There are so many things left outside than people that have not read the books will sooner than later find things hard to follow or even to understand. However, having said that, I believe this series is great, lots of resources have been used or spent to make it as close to the books as possible. Also I personally have discovered quite a few actors and actresses that previously I did not know. Acting is really good for most key characters, specially those that portrait strong mature women such as Moiraine, Siouan, Elaine... But do not forget about others like Lan.

I've been struggling to put into words exactly what it is that makes me dislike this tv show, the best I can do is say that Rafe Judkins has removed, changed and added so much that the resemblance to this book series is at best passing. What he has created from a classic fantasy story is a Frankenstein's monster with a rushed story that makes little sense in a world robbed of any character or depth. I watch because I love the book series, and seeing them mangle one of my favourite series is like witnessing a car crash happen in slow motion, I don't want to watch but I can't bring myself to look away.

I could go into detail, but nobody wants that so I'll save you that torment. The book readers know what the changes are, and the tv show enjoyers don't really care. Each to their own, Keeping Up with the Kardashians has been on television for 20 years so it's not like the bar is incredibly high. The crux of my criticism of the Wheel of Time steaming series is this; Rafe Judkins believes himself a better storyteller than Robert Jordan, that is the only way to explain how and why he made the changes that he did. That is the only way to explain it. There are moments that could have been book accurate, but weren't. For what reason? Only Rafe knows.

At the beginning I was not so sure, but as it has gone longer it has proven to be a very good show. While I have not read the books yet, I know many who both love and hate it and from both I have gathered it is a good enough adaption. If you have not read the books, you will enjoy it. If you have read the books you might take issue with some choices, but they also do a good job getting the broad strokes across in a very limited number of episodes. Some people are excessively negative about any adapted show, and that happens here as well. I say give it a shot if you enjoy high fantasy or fantasy at all.

I would be lying if I said there are no moments in The Wheel of Time that I didn't enjoy. A few brief moments of action and some characters standout over others. Some of the sets look great and others have CGI from 2003.

As in many other reviews I wrote for individual episodes the biggest culprit affecting WOT is the writing. Conversations are rarely engaging, and most characters are poorly developed, providing nobody to emotionally attach to. The second problem for me is the acting and casting. Rosamund Pike as Moiraine, Zoe Robins as Nynaeve, Daniel Henney as Lan and Kate Fleetwood as Liandrin are all great in their roles. Everyone else including Rand are boring beyond belief. Rand and Egwene have no chemistry and it's hard to watch one of the worst love triangle plot threads unfold with Perrin. Perrin has potential as a character, but his expression is the same throughout the whole season, the same goes for boring Rand. Watching Rand during the finale made me want to poor bleach on my eyes. Matt, what happened to Matt...who knows?

For the budget the WOT's marketing bragged about little talent is displayed from the writers and a majority of the actors. Some of the CGI is distractingly awful for a big budget show. Another problem is the shows pacing. Episodes can drag on one after the other with the last thirty minutes of episode four being the only highlight. The direction of the story is all over the place and I was bored throughout most of the season.

If you're desperate to watch something fantasy related don't let anyone's opinion prevent you from giving WOT a try. Some people do seem to be enjoying it. For me, I loathed WOT for the majority of the show's duration. Potential is lurking on the horizon for WOT. Maybe use some of that Amazon money to hire better writers and directors?

To start with, I have read the series of books and although they were not perfect, they were highly enjoyable and epic in their scale.

Now to the series.

A show or movies based on a book or series of books is generally bound to infuriate as the finished product cannot compare to the imagination of the reader, and there are not many examples of where this has been overcome.

So far I have been watching a show that has the main characters of the books relegated to supporting characters with little to no dialogue in some episodes.

There were over 2000 named characters in the book and they still felt the need to create new characters for the show that serve no real purpose.

The acting is fairly bad. With the amount of money spent on the cinematography, you would think they would have hired better actors.

I could see how someone who hasn't read the books would be confused as to what is going on, as the explanations as to what is going on are vague, which makes me wonder who this show was made for.

If it was to introduce people to the world that Robert Jordan created then they failed.

If it was for fans of the books, then they have again failed, as they have been changing things that didn't need to be changed and generally angering fans.

If you are going to adapt a series of books, then do so correctly, otherwise write your own original story and do what you want with it.

My positive takeaway from The Wheel of Time is that the cinematography is excellent, and unfortunately that is the only thing I find worthwhile.

Maybe it will get better, but I highly doubt it.

If you enjoy reading, I would recommend giving the series of books a glance, as this show is a pale reflection of the story Jordan wrote.