‘The Wheel Of Time’ Season 1 Review: Weaves Stunning Visuals But Can’t Mend Holes From Drab Characterisations And Storytelling

‘The Wheel Of Time’ Season 1 Review: Weaves Stunning Visuals But Can’t Mend Holes From Drab Characterisations And Storytelling

That books are almost always better than the movie or show adaptation is practically axiomatic at this point (the exception being some Chetan Bhagat books, which IMO made better movies). It’s hard for readers to then objectively judge an adaptation, I feel. Either they have too much knowledge and are too close to the subject to be impartial, or they are the harshest critics because someone else’s version of the story is pitted against the most powerful one of all—the reader’s own imagination. When I walked out of the screening for the first two episodes of The Wheel Of Time, the adaptation by Rafe Judkins for Amazon Prime Video headlined (and produced) by Rosamund Pike, I was faced with two reactions. One was my own mild interest but evident lack of any mind-blowing moment that reeled me in. The second was the utter rage that readers of the Robert Jordan high fantasy novel series that spans 14 books, felt about the show’s deviation from its source material.

 

 

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The first book, The Eye Of The World, is a year older than I am! It is a cardinal rule for adaptations that if you want to change things up, only do it to make it better or concise. Because if you fail in this quest, there will be persecution. And Amazon Prime Video’s ambitious The Wheel Of Time (WoT) series, which aired its final episode on December 24, 2021, is smack in the eye of the storm.

WoT is an expensive bargain by the streaming giant. If you’ve followed the show, you know that each episode came with a price tag of a few million. The promotions have been massive, and in true Prime Video fashion, the Wheel Of Time series page doesn’t just have episodes, but also explainers, illustrated origins stories as bonus content for each episode, and oodles of trivia about the making of the show. In fact, just this morning, as I opened it up, I saw Ranveer Singh promote the show in the banner, and talk about how fascinating a story it is and the epic scale on which it has been mounted. If anyone knows epic, it would be a Bhansali hero like RS. 

But what he would also know is, that all the grandeur and CGI in the world would amount to nothing if the story didn’t have heart, or if the audience wasn’t able to connect with and feel for the characters. And that’s where the major problem of Amazon’s The Wheel Of Time lies. The wheel spins, but it doesn’t spin the threads strong enough to make you care about the characters. Eventually, the rope trying us to the show breaks, in a number of places.

The Wheel Of Time Story

For the uninitiated and the non-readers, The Wheel Of Time is a Chosen One story, and the saviour of this world is known as the Dragon Reborn. Why reborn? Well, you see, the last Dragon, a male Aes Sedai, in his quest to imprison the Dark One, managed to do just that. However, the Dark One tainted the One Power and the Dragon Lews Therin and all the male Aes Sedai were driven to insanity. Since be broke the world, and set civilisation back by eons. The Age of Legends ended, and the Third Age began, where the woman channellers of magic, known as Aes Sedai, took charge. They helped heal and rebuild the world, advice, fight, as well as ‘gentle’ any men who tried to channel the One Power because it would inevitably drive them mad.

There’s a lot to know about the Aes Sedai of the White Tower in Tar Valon, the Amyrlin Seat the governs them, and the significance of the colours of their Ajah: Blue, Green, Yellow, Red, White, Gray and Brown. But let’s just focus on the one Aes Sedai, Moiraine Sedai (Rosamund Pike), who in the present time, sets out to find the Dragon Reborn, because a prophecy says that he/she/they will either save the world by defeating the Dark One once and for all, or join him and break the world once again. She is accompanied, as is custom, by her Warder, Lan Mandragoran (Daniel Henney). Together, they arrive in a small village called Two Rivers, where they find not one but five young men and women of the right age, who Moiraine senses could be the Dragon Reborn.

When cannibalistic monsters called Trollocs attack their village, the five potentials—Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski), Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden), Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford), Mat Cauthon (Barney Harris) and Nynaeve a’Meara (Zoë Robins)—find themselves following Moiraine on a path that is full of adventures, peril and dark times, which tests them together and individually too. The series is created by Rafe Judkins and directed by Uta Briesewitz, Wayne Che Yip, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, and Ciaran Donnelly.

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The promise of The Wheel Of Time and how it might not be able to keep it all the time

To confess, I suffer from somewhat of a halo effect when judging fantasy genre offerings, because I love stories so much. It’s why it took me so long to even write a review that did justice to my conundrum. So even though I wasn’t exactly sold on the first two episodes of WoT, I decided to stick with it, and give it the benefit of doubt. The books have been much loved, and I could sense that the premise was promising. Women wielding power in a gender imbalanced world, a Chosen One pitted against a dark force, magic, politics, and that beautiful opening sequence (music by Lorne Balfe), not to mention the lovely Rosamund Pike and Daniel Henney as leads… It could get better in future episodes, right?

And yet, I couldn’t help but constantly compare scenes from the opening episodes to those from Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring. A sorcerer uprooting four young people from their comfort-filled, carefree life in a remote village as whispers of a dark power stirring rise? Fades and trollops, which reminded me of the Nazgul and the orcs. And the sinking of the Taren Ferry, which was so much like the scene with the Buckleberry Ferry that Frodo and Company take to cross the Brandywine river from the Shire into Buckland!

Once the comparisons began, I found it hard to hold ‘em back. And it’s one of the reasons why I decided to stay with the series. Maybe I’d grow to care about Rand, Egwene, Mat and Perrin like I did for Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin, together and when they went on their separate adventures. 

When it comes to comparisons, every fantasy offering will now have to go through a tedious one with Game Of Thrones. I remember there were many who dismissed Game of Thrones in the first couple of episodes too, and then went on to share “Am I the only one who hasn’t watched GoT and doesn’t care what the fuss is about?” every April thence, to reassure themselves that missing out on a cultural phenomenon like no other was NBD. Their loss, because GoT had some incredible writing to back it up, and along with it, shocking twists that began right from Episode 1 when Jaime Lannister pushed 10-year-old Bran Stark out of the tower window. Since then, GoT became this yardstick of sorts to measure fantasy shows with, and anything that couldn’t be as shocking was dismissed as not interesting enough.

WoT was a slow burn, that much was evident. However, what GoT and The Wheel of Time have in common is the number of characters that are introduced in the first episode itself that you’re supposed to remember and eventually care about. One reason I thought the former made it easier was because of the names. Jon, Rob, Bran, Arya, Ned… simple names some common enough in our time too. With WoT, the names got a tad mouthful, especially if you weren’t a reader. But hey, that’s never stopped us audiences. Look at us, loving Dune with all its complex world-building and jargon! So then what was it? Why didn’t I care about anyone other than Moiraine and Lan? Was it because Rosamund Pike and Dan Henney were faces I recognised and felt some attachment towards, despite threadbare characterisations? Could it be that we didn’t get enough backstories about these young characters or see them in their regular lives enough to care about them being safe when they set out on a dangerous adventure?

Time = Money. Are both well-spent?

There’s another issue with productions today, which Game of Thrones suffered from in the latter half of its run, and which perhaps is another major reason why Wheel Of Time can’t seem to catch its viewer’s fancy. Ironically enough, time isn’t on the side of creators of such epics most of the time. Because time means money, and budgets, while seemingly massive ($10 million per episode?), might not be enough. WoT is 14 books long, and I might be biased as a writer but I’d love to have each book split into two seasons, or at least more than 7-8 episodes. Especially when the story has so many characters that we’re supposed to warm up to soon.

In my own confusion of trying to understand why Wheel of Time wasn’t appealing to the non-readers either, I stumbled upon a Vulture article that said the show was too beautiful and perfect in its visual worldbuilding, thereby distracting from the messy human emotions of its characters that build the emotional world that reels the audience in. The crux of the above observations might feel far-fetched; I am honestly all for it looking breathtaking. The world of Wheel Of Time looks picturesque, both unreal and real at the same time. And it is fantastic. But perhaps a small portion of the money spent in creating this world could’ve been diverted into adding more episodes per season. Episodes that stayed with characters and let us ruminate over what makes them who they are, so they don’t seem unfamiliar and uni-dimensional.

But here’s what’s interesting. I don’t not like The Wheel Of Time, or completely hate it like some of the purist book fans do. As I recall telling a fellow viewer of the series, WoT grew on me slowly over the course of Episodes 3-6, and I was hoping the final two episodes would be that crescendo that really made me wanna listen to this tune on loop. However, the finale, while engaging, did feel a tad underwhelming to me. A Chosen One was about to meet a Dark One, yet there was no palpable tension or urgency felt. The stakes didn’t register. People were dying, important people and not a single gasp or note of concern escaped my mouth. As was in the start, so was in the end. I only cared about Moiraine and Lan, and perhaps a little about Nynaeve.

And that’s when it struck me. I had a similar feeling back in Episode 1, when the Trollocs attacked Two Rivers. I knew just how expensive the set that was being burnt down was. And it all looked glorious, in that awe-inspiring way. Yet, even with Rosamund Pike at the centre of it, weaving her bright white spell threads, I couldn’t feel the stakes sink in. Perhaps, spending a little more time showing us these characters interact with each other, their families, their hopes and dreams and more could’ve helped.

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The deviations from the book

I always want to read the book after I have watched the adaptation. If it is good, then perhaps to get to know it better. And if the adaptation is bad, then to know what makes the book so good and how it could’ve been done better. The Wheel Of Time makes me want to get down to reading those 14 tomes right away because I really do want to understand the disappointment that the book fans feel over the story being twisted and changed. I read a few critiques and some of the changes pointed out really made me angry, as an empathetic fellow book reader, because imagine having the best trait about your favourite character completely altered!

That being said, I am highly appreciative of the sheer talent and effort that has been put into creating something as mammoth as The Wheel Of Time. I think the production crew should really be proud of just how incredible it looks. Everything, from the Two Rivers set to the White Tower to that battle atop a snowy mountain, and even The Blight, it’s all quite jaw-droppingly real and fantastic.

I also believe the actors are doing the best they can with the material they’ve been given. It is purely, IMO, the writing and the plotting that seems to be dragging its weight. Perhaps it could take cues from adaptations like Shadow And Bone, which seem to have been comparatively well-received because it focussed heavily on getting the emotional dynamic between characters right. And really, doesn’t every story, no matter how epic, boil down to the most basic of human emotions—love, family, friendship, anger, jealousy, greed and so on?

Verdict

I won’t dismiss The Wheel Of Time just yet, because I’d like to believe it can course correct by assessing the sentiment, especially from the book fans. And even if it doesn’t, or can’t, adhere to the books, the only chance it has to connect with its viewers is to work on its characters and storytelling. The series is still immensely watchable, and even though I might not be fully invested in the characters’ fates, I am very much eager to know more about the lore and the origin stories, something that Amazon has done a great job of depicting through bonus content. I do wish we see some of that heart in the writing for the second season too. I feel like the series could still be destined for great things, if only it had someone as capable as Moiraine leading them on the path.

The Wheel Of Time Season 1 is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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Jinal Bhatt

A Barbie girl with Oppenheimer humour. Sharp-tongue feminist and pop culture nerd with opinions on movies, shows, books, patriarchy, your boyfriend, everything.

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