My wife and I watched the first episode last night and loved it. She read about half of the first book before realizing she did not want to spend 14 massive books reading the series. I have not actually read the series at all, but was aware that “Rand” is the main character.
Anyway, coming in with no knowledge of the whole story, we loved it.
Well you’re going to have fun because the first episode is actually the worst one so far.
I keep hearing that. I had told my wife, “The first episode received mixed reviews, but the episodes after it keep getting better ratings overall.”
We were obviously pretty pleased with the first one.
Is season 2 going to be on in 2022?
I hated how Loial looked and I think I’d have rather he didn’t make it in the show at all.
The way Loial look is definitely NOTHING like he’s described, and nothing like I ever envisioned… but the performance is spot on aside from that. So, I’m OK with him being there.
I wasn’t crazy about the 5th episode, seemed weird to spend SO much time, much of it repetitive, on the warder. But it still had some great moments… I loved Egwene tricking Valda by pretending she could barely channel while freeing Perrin.
Kinda feel the same.
How he looks though is really putting me off and I have to struggle get past that.
Probably my favorite character from the books though.
Huh, no commentary on the complete brutality of the scenes with Child Valda? I thought they really did an excellent job with the tension in that scene and the actors all brought their A game.
My only complaint is that Perrin, after freeing himself, takes time to do the wampa-roar rather than immediately beating the holy hell (heh) out of Valda - and Valda just stands there and watches him do it.
The Warder funeral was also wrenching even though they totally telegraphed the suicide robbing it of much of the emotional impact.
This show refuses to show a single titty but they will give you extreme close ups of pus covered injuries and go ahead and pop them for you like some fantasy dr pimple popper.
Question: Do we know why the heck Mat has been recast?
Are there negative allegations with the actor? Did he get stupid and ask for more money? Did he just quit?
Question: I read in passing this show is renewed for Season 2 and 3. Is this true?
My wife and I are watching episode 3 and we both agree it is the best new fantasy show we’ve seen in years. Probably since Game of Thrones. I want to believe this will get a bunch of seasons.
I have not been able to find anywhere the reason for the recasting. It has been renewed for up to season 3, which will begin shooting as soon as they are done with 2.
One comment I’ve seen a few times, which I agree with, is that it’s a weird and jarring choice to see Nynaeve be so insanely bad-ass at the end of episode 4, in full view of so many people… and then give so little screentime to her (or anyone else’s) reaction to that event.
My wife and I are blown away. We have seen four episodes and are calling this the best new show we’ve seen in a long time. I can’t say “years” since I don’t remember every new show, but we are super enjoying it.
We’re limiting ourselves to one per day since there are only five(with another on Friday).
Without looking over any list, this is the best new show of 2021 for me I think.
My guess is they adapted his looks so they don’t have to continually CGI him. That said the goatee was too close to a beard for me and he shouldn’t have had it.
Ya, as my unspoiled brother-in-law said why do they keep spending so much time on characters then killing them off like that musician guy. Which I guess may be the point you don’t know which deaths are real and permanent.
I didn’t really like the scene. I mean it was well acted and all but I think the children are better off as blinded by being good rather than actively evil. Vanda is a great bastard though and I liked all of the details that they are using like the previous blood on the rope holding egwene’s hands. I found the scene more intense than the warder funeral which I thought was cheesy.
At this point my biggest complaint is that they only gave the show 8 episodes in the first season. It’s great and I want to see more.
Sticky-outy pointy ears would just be prostheses, though. That’s what I’m missing from the look.
Ya, but then they would need to move too.
Amen! It’s $10 million per episode so I guess they went for about $100 million just to get this season going(I have no idea on rights and advertising). I wish they had gone a bit further and given us 10-12 episodes a season.
I told my wife yesterday, “I just hope this gets a good, full run. I want one season per year for a few years and then a nice wrap-up, even if it doesn’t follow the books.”
I’ve decided that I really like Brandon Sanderson’s idea that the TV show is a different turning of the Wheel then the books. It’s helped me be less bothered by changes even if I still make comparisons back to the books.
They’ve already signed 3 seasons and the show runner has said his plan was for 8 seasons so unless there is a huge drop in quality I think they’ll get to the end. My biggest concern is they are rushing season 1 so much that the eventual conclusion may not be set up as well. Hopefully, they get a little more breathing room in season 2.
Based on the recent announced casting it seems like they are going to follow book 2 at least a little bit.
I am actually a really big Brandon Sanderson fan*, so I am glad that he is being consulted. I trust his input and on reddit, he even posted his disagreements on the first episode, which I respect.
*Hilariously, I don’t like his “magnum opus” The Stormlight Archive, but I loved Mistborn and actually wish Mistborn would come to TV.
That is interesting I think Storm light will replace Wheel of time as my favorite series. The mistborn stuff is ok but I put it more in the vacation read category. Totally agree about the respect for Sanderson he’s one of the best writers going.
I haven’t watched episode five yet but I enjoyed the first four. It’s benefiting from some serious nostalgia points though; I started reading this as a kid. From the episode summary on Wikipedia (I don’t really care about spoilers when I’ve read the books) it looks like they cut Elyas Machera. At least for now. Sounds like they cast Min but we won’t see her until later, so maybe they’re changing when different characters show up.
Trimming this monstrosity of a series into something TVable is no mean feat, so it’ll be interesting to see what elsebis left out. I read this so long ago that I may not even notice.
Ba’alzamom looks bad. I don’t really like how they chose to visualize channeling. Do I have a better idea for how to have done it? No. But I would have left out the associated hand and body movements. I don’t find any of this detracts all that much.