I am a huge fan of Robert Jordan (and eventually Brandon Sanderson's) amazing Wheel of Time series. It is a series which, consciously or unconsciously, much of modern fantasy owes some homage to. It has everything one might want, prophecy, madness, war, amazing magic, battle scenes, and a plot which can propel you through fourteen books and get you misty eyed at the end. Truthfully, I loved pretty much every minute I spend in the world Robert Jordan created, and I thank him for much of the work he did which inspired other authors. Now, however, Amazon has sought to bring his work to the small (very small) screen in their multi-million dollar adaptation of his series.
Does it do anything for readers or watchers? Let me offer my initial thoughts. I have, so far, only watched the first two episodes, which is what I will be basing my thoughts on. SPOILERS BELOW
Firstly, I want to say that visually this is a beautiful series. The thought and effort which has gone into producing and creating this world is simply amazing. I might not agree with all the costuming choices (those of the Whitecloaks most of all) but I do think that it was a labor of love. From the buildings to the background mountains supposedly sculpted by the One Power, they gave a lot of thought to how this world should look.
The casting however, is fantastic. The premier image of the promotional material was of Rosamund Pike as Moraine, an Aes Sedai of the Blue Ajah on a quest to find the Dragon Reborn. Daniel Henny as her warder, Lan Mandragoran, is a serious and very excellent presence in the show as well. However, much of our main caste is new faces, such as Josha Stradowski as Rand al'Thor, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, Barney Harris as Mat Cauthon, Zoë Robins as Nynaeve al'Meara and Madeleine Madden as Egwene al'Vere. These are the main characters from the series, and each are all played very well by their actors in the first episode. I enjoyed that, by and large, I didn't have any preconceptions going in and so could put these characters onto these actors very well.
So far our secondary cast is also well rounded, and I'm looking forward to more from them.
Visually, the show is a treat. They put a lot of work into the background, from jagged mountains to a stunning visual of "mountains" that are in fact ancient buildings overgrown by encroaching wilds after millennia after the Breaking of the World. The costume design is, mostly, very well done. With the average wear and the blades and weapons looking fantastic. The practical effects on buildings and other set pieces are amazing. The blend between practical and CGI effects is very well done.
For the show there are changes in both the setting and the characters. For instance, Mat is the son of an alcoholic philandering father, which does go a long way to explaining his gambling and flirting issues as we saw in the book. That makes for a very different backstory, but a very good way to get us used to this character. Perrin is now married and has a wife who works the forge with him. Nynaeve disliking Aes Sedai is well established, and Egwene and Rand having a relationship has a bit more depth to it, which I enjoy.
One great adaptation, is the Trollocs. They're beastial monsters who, while in the books are sort of like orcs, in the show, they feel like they're a combination of orcs and werewolves. They eat people, are amazing monsters, and look very cool. They're largely made through CGI, but they also use some practical effects. It makes for a good and scary appearance, but the few times we see too much CGI it makes them look very bad. The Mydraal too is... not good. It's a monster which is creepy because of the uncanny valley, but here there's an inexplicable change where it has a sandworm mouth, that adds nothing and looks pretty bad.
Speaking of CGI, the shows use of it runs the gambit from being extremely well done to very poorly done. Some scenes seem to have an overuse of it, and the ending of the first episode was powerful, but the sheer amount of CGI onscreen could probably have been cut down because it ended up looking like a light show rather than a battle. Some effects seemed poor, while others looked amazing, which is hopefully something that can be fixed as the series goes on.
That said, there are some amazing scenes. In the attack on the Two Rivers, there is a moment where the women of the village gang up on a Trolloc and stab it to death. I was so captured by the moment I stood up in my seat and yelled "This is Women's Circle business!" and was crowing with awe. Then when Perrin and his wife interact in the fight it was an amazing action scene, and the way they use it to explain his character's fear of hurting others was perfect. Makes his coming character arc that much better. There is also genuine humor and with that we can see, and I'm looking forward to what I find in more episodes down the line.
While the show has some more mature themes, and a bit of a mixed bag effects wise, I did find that the first two episodes were very cleverly done. I had some moments of genuine tension and genuine joy in watching it, and I would highly recommend others give it a go whether they have read the books or not. Definitely a series to keep an eye on!
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