When watching movies or series, I often read through the reviews, but not until this day and this show have I decided to actually write my own. But after watching the last episode, I am at loss for words and yet at the same time overwhelmed by emotions that must come out. Negative emotions, that is. And let me explain why.
First of all, I am currently in the process of reading book no. 4, so the books that this series covers are fresh in my mind. That being said, I was open-minded and totally okay with there being parts of the story cut out or changed - because how else are you supposed to boil 14 long books down to seven seasons?
What I am not okay with, overall, is the fact that they completely neglected huge and important parts of the story. They have turned an epic story into a teen-drama and political agenda and I do not, for the life of me, understand why they chose to invent unnecessary subparts when they don't even have enough space to actually include focal points in the books.
Honestly, I don't even want to get into the details, because then I would be sitting here writing this review all night. But I am absolutely astounded and devastated after finishing this season.
I give the season as a whole 4 stars, exclusively because of the nature cinematography, the acting of Matt, Moiraine, and at times Rand, and the few times where the story follows the book (fx with the snow fight). Everything else is horrible. The production value is terrible and looks like a video-game, despite the $10 million budget per episode, and the thoughtless changes they made to the show has so many holes in them that I don't even know where they'd begin to fix them (if they even can).
And to the finale.... I don't even know where to begin... I read a review on that episode, which used a word to decribe it that I think fits quite well: abomination. The episode was a downright abomination to everything the books stand for.
To put it another way: after having watched this season of WoT, it feels to me as if the screenwriters have taken the book, cut it open from the top down, violently ripped out the pages, thrown it into a metal can of open fire, and then picked up random pieces to make it sometimes resemble parts of the books.
I will not watch any further, but instead enjoy the rest of the books for the glory that they are. I will not recommend this series to anyone, but recommend you to instead read or listen to the books - they are fantastic.
