Wheel of Time on Amazon Prime

[Headstall]

On 7/23/2023 at 8:51 PM, Ron said:

I just watched the trailer for Season 2 and it seems like we’re in for a dynamic season. 

I watched it too, and am getting excited. Fingers crossed.

[wildone]

It might not be Sept 1st yet, but 3 episodes are up :d 

[Ron]

13 hours ago, wildone said:

It might not be Sept 1st yet, but 3 episodes are up :d 

I saw that it was in my queue, but three episodes at once is a bit much. Considering the strikes in Hollywood and no new programing coming for a while, you'd think Amazon would parcel the episodes out. Now I must exercise restraint! It's just not fair. 

[Daddydavek]

I plan on watching just the first episode tonight and parcel the next two over the long weekend!

[Ron]

59 minutes ago, Daddydavek said:

I plan on watching just the first episode tonight and parcel the next two over the long weekend!

Yes, I’ll do the same thing. I hope. 

I’m glad that Apple is pushing out episodes of Foundation on a weekly basis. The episodes are fairly long but it seems like I no sooner start watching that the episode is over—it’s that good. If they were available all at once I’d run through the episodes like water through a sieve.

[Daddydavek]

I watched the first episode of season 2 on Friday and was a bit disappointed.  I didn't watch the second episode until Sunday and it got me hooked on the series again.  I watched the third episode today and it was very compelling.  All the criticisms about it compacting and condensing are still true, but enough glimpses were provided to remind me of the story that I read all those years ago.  I'm looking forward to Thursday when the next set of episodes drops!

[Headstall]

I've watched all three new episodes and I'm still invested. I really like the pace of it, just like I did for the first season. Matt seems a totally different man for some reason.  

[wildone]

I don’t like Rand’s new haircut 😜 Just saying

[Ron]

I agree that TWOT started slow but I’ve found over time that lots of shows do this with the first episode of a new season. Regardless, there was enough going on to keep my attention. And after having watched the entire three episodes available I find I’m still interested, and happy Amazon is running with the show.

[Ron]

After having watched the fourth episode I have a thought... How many seasons is Amazon planning for this series?

I also think this season must be saving the most dramatic scenes for the last few episodes. The amount of background exposition (albeit in video form and great to watch) needs to produce something of a bigger splash in these next few episodes remaining.

[Daddydavek]

I watched episode 4 and I had to turn off the lights in the room to see what was going on as parts are filmed in extremely low light.  It makes it a bit more mysterious, but it is also overused...

This episode like the prior ones leaves many loose ends...

[Ron]

After the most recent episode it seems we are finally getting some meat (of your choice) to go along with all of those potatoes they’ve been feeding us. 

[Daddydavek]

I'm still turning the lights down low to see the detail.  The last episode with Moraine being forced by the Amrlyn Seat and then Lianfal coming in was powerful.  Lan has certainly turned out to be deeper than first present....

[Ron]

12 hours ago, Daddydavek said:

I'm still turning the lights down low to see the detail.

I don’t know what kind of tv you have, but have you looked into the settings for it? I have a Sony 55” 4k from 2017 and there are settings for cinema or standard (which is good for older media). There’s even a pro-movie option but that’s too dark for me.

[Headstall]

I'm still loving the series. They do a good job with the Seanchan so far... their arrogance. The pace is still good in my opinion. Loved the scene when Moraine could touch the source again, thanks to Lan and Rand.

[wildone]

Now that was one hell of an action packed season 2 ending

It seems like it was like the books, were they built up to the climax at the end of each book.

How long until season 3?  

[Ron]

One Wheel of Time show wasn't enough. Maybe, possibly, it might happen that there will be a prequel to the show called The White Tower. Just like Star Trek, The Planet of the Apes and The Hobbit, etc., franchises before it The White Tower is slated to be an animated series. Read about it HERE.

[Daddydavek]

Season three starts March 13th and a preview episode is up now!

https://www.tvguide.com/news/the-wheel-of-time-season-3-release-date-cast-and-everything-to-know/

[wildone]

[Ron]

@wildone Steve… that otterly unbelievable depiction of an endangered species of animal acting in an otterly undefensible (or is that indefensible) manner, is otterly unbelievable! You must be channeling from an entirely otter dimension if you think that is true. 
 

Wait … what are we talking about?!

[Jason Rimbaud]

I enjoyed season 1 and if you would like to read my cheeky review just on season one you can do that Here

But here is my take overall after watching two seasons. This is a fresh take on the series. This is not Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. And that's fine.

I loved the retelling of the invasion of Three Rivers. Tam pulling the heron marked sword was amazing, watching Matt find the dagger made me exclaim loudly, Moraine and Lan kicking ass in the Three Rivers using the power, on screen and it was amazing. Did Perrin need the backstory of murdering his wife? Did Rand and Eugene need to have been bumping uglies already? 

The casting across the board was really good, with the exception of Perrin. That actor was too big, Perrin is short and muscular in the books. 

The issue lies in the fact that Amazon had a huge toy box filled with fun characters, so they just started throwing them around willy nilly. Not sure if it was the showrunner or Amazon who directed the story, but something was off. 

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, is just over nine hours. The Wheel of Time first season is just under eight hours. Which one between the two feels more complete? Lord Of The Rings.  Just because you have a thousand characters to play with doesn't mean you should try to cram them all in just eight hours. 

Thom, introduced in an amazing way, five minutes later he was "dead". So much time dedicated to Logan, when he's not important to the story until much later. Too much time or not enough time is spent on the White Clocks. Too much time or too much time is spent on the White Tower and all the politics of the Aes Sedi. 

Say what you want to say about Jordan, when it came to the overall story arc, he was second to none in fantasy. Yes he meandered worse than Circumnavigation and had even more filler chapters than that travelogue. But Jordan created an amazing world that the showrunners couldn't handle translating to the screen.

I think they were overwhelmed with the fan anticipation that they just tried to do too much. So we got an entire episode about an Aes Sedi and her warder who died. Waste of screen time for sure. The portrayal of Lan in that episode was so out of character it was laughable. 

Then the ending at the Gap, that happened in like what, five minutes and it was over. I know Covid screwed things up the first season, but then we got season two and it was even more frantic.

Because my husband is all in on this show, I will watch season three. But something tells me unless they make some major changes, it will be the last season. And I'm not sure if that will be a bad thing. Even trying to reimagine for a different medium, they didn't use the toys correctly. 

J 

 

[ReaderPaul]

17 hours ago, Jason Rimbaud said:

I enjoyed season 1 and if you would like to read my cheeky review just on season one you can do that Here

But here is my take overall after watching two seasons. This is a fresh take on the series. This is not Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. And that's fine.

I loved the retelling of the invasion of Three Rivers. Tam pulling the heron marked sword was amazing, watching Matt find the dagger made me exclaim loudly, Moraine and Lan kicking ass in the Three Rivers using the power, on screen and it was amazing. Did Perrin need the backstory of murdering his wife? Did Rand and Eugene need to have been bumping uglies already? 

The casting across the board was really good, with the exception of Perrin. That actor was too big, Perrin is short and muscular in the books. 

The issue lies in the fact that Amazon had a huge toy box filled with fun characters, so they just started throwing them around willy nilly. Not sure if it was the showrunner or Amazon who directed the story, but something was off. 

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, is just over nine hours. The Wheel of Time first season is just under eight hours. Which one between the two feels more complete? Lord Of The Rings.  Just because you have a thousand characters to play with doesn't mean you should try to cram them all in just eight hours. 

Say what you want to say about Jordan, when it came to the overall story arc, he was second to none in fantasy. Yes he meandered worse than Circumnavigation and had even more filler chapters than that travelogue. But Jordan created an amazing world that the showrunners couldn't handle translating to the screen.

When you say The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I am guessing you mean Peter Jackson's theatrical version.  I enjoyed them hugely, though sections were cut out to save time.  I liked the Extended Editions better, and so did my brother, who went with his wife, (a true SF and fantasy fan, she is), myself, and my spouse.  And we saw the theatrical versions on an IMAX screen.  

Tolkien and Jordan both had great visions of their created worlds.  I have also heard that some think that Jordan's widow hiring Sanderson to complete Wheel of Time revitalized the book series.  Jordan was seeming to be a bit repetitive at times in later books.

Still, it is a challenging task to adapt large writing to a different medium.  

Edited March 1, 2025 by ReaderPaul

[Jason Rimbaud]

48 minutes ago, ReaderPaul said:

When you say The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I am guessing you mean Peter Jackson's theatrical version.  I enjoyed them hugely, though sections were cut out to save time.  I liked the Extended Editions better, and so did my brother, who went with his wife, (a true SF and fantasy fan, she is), myself, and my spouse.  And we saw the theatrical versions on an IMAX screen.  

Tolkien and Jordan both had great visions of their created worlds.  I have also heard that some think that Jordan's widow hiring Sanderson to complete Wheel of Time revitalized the book series.  Jordan was seeming to be a bit repetitive at times in later books.

Still, it is a challenging task to adapt large writing to a different medium.  

I remember watching the final one, Return Of The King, on opening night. They were showing the first two leading up to the midnight premier of the final chapter. The guy I was dating at the time drug me there, it was awful to sit in that theater for over nine hours. I did get a t-shirt out of the deal and an HJ during intermission so the night wasn't only a bust, pardon the pun. 

However, though I think Wheel of Time is by far the better series, Jordan was not a great writer by any stretch of the imagination. He overly describes everything, even a town that Rand passes by briefly in book 2 and then that town is never revisited again. That didn't stop Jordan from describes that town, its inhabitants, and it's customs for six and one half pages. Just self indulgent writing. 

He was great at world building, horrible and writing clearly. Thus you get so many mysteries that he just never plainly answered, saying all the answers are there if you search. They weren't. His fight descriptions were horrendous, and he loved writing about women's skirts. 

I do agree that Sanderson did a fantastic job making me care again about the series. My only complaint, he couldn't quite get a handle on Mat until the last book where we finally got the man in the black hat again. 

I would also go on record as saying A Memory of Light is the best fantasy books ever written. I can only imagine, with almost twenty years experience under his belt, what he might have done with that trilogy now. 

I have watched many of his free lectures on writing, world building, magic systems you can find on YouTube, I have never read anything of Sanderson outside of the Wheel Of Time. He is an LDS and I refuse to support that church indirectly through Sanderson's tithes, which no doubt is a big chunk of money,  no matter how good of a writer he is. 

 

[Daddydavek]

Episode 1 of season 3 continues to be visually stunning. Same with episode 2. The Andoran Queen's consort is a problem along with his conspirators. Episode 3 reveals more pitfalls for everyone from two rivers.

I'm still enjoying it but confess I have no idea what's coming next.

[Ron]

43 minutes ago, Daddydavek said:

The Andoran Queen's consort

Consort! What consort?! Sshh, no more spoilers, dude. 🫢
 

Ignore that. You said ‘Queen’ of Andor. I was thinking of the daughter, because up into the most recent episodes I don’t recall having any memory of the actual Queen on screen. Of course, you’re speaking of him from the books (hopefully).

Edited March 14, 2025 by Ron