So the first season of Amazon Prime's WoT series premiered yesterday. I watched episode one and here are some of my thoughts. Of course others may disagree:
First, I generally liked it. The story and film making was good, though not exceptional. It seemed like they used old fashioned costuming for monsters like the Trollocs when so much more could have been done using today's CGI.
My #1 issue is the casting. Rand, Matt, and Perrin seemed fine. However it appeared as if they bent over backwards to try to bring diversity to the casting even when it contradicted the books. Egwene and Nynaeve were not really as they were described in the books and did not seem to fit into Emond's Field, an insular community where very few outsiders have come for thousands of years. Everyone should look very much of the same stock. The world of WoT, as described, was very insular. Countries and communities across the continent would contain all varieties of races, but people could often tell where you came from just by looking at you. People did not travel or relocate very often so communities were very homogenous.
My two biggest complaints in casting were with Moraine and Lan. As I recall from the books Moraine was a small woman, yet they chose to cast Rosamund Pike in the role, who is quite a tall woman. Lan was cast as a lithe Oriental looking man. My image of Lan from the books is of a large, well muscled man. Someone like Manu Bennett (the actor they cast as Allanon in the Shanara Chronicles). You can even see how Moraine and Lan should look from the front cover of the "Eye of the World" book.
Now all that said, the acting was good and the story was good. I'd give it an above average rating after one episode. I definitely plan to watch the rest of it.
If you go to Youtube you can find all sorts of reviews.
I can add my agreement to Zeim's review. And the underlying points he mentions were also noticed by me as I have read this series and loved it and have strong impressions of what i see when I read the descriptions and the characterizations, and how it all plays within the nature of the world and the setting itself.
Overall I enjoyed it. Quite a bit. There were 3 episodes available to watch and the wife and I watched all three. I liked it quite a bit and many scenes were easily recognizable to me. I particularly loved how Shadar Logoth was depicted. It felt very much like what i remember reading. Obviously, for the purposes of of a TV show, there have to be alterations to convert a 700 page book into what i believe will be 8 episodes of about an hour each.
There was one character's beginning in the show that was quite different and set me back a bit. I just had to do Frozen on it and Let It Go! I understand the pathos they were trying to establish. Oh, and aging them up a bit was not a problem for me... but an early scene that brought two characters together in an intimate way changed the awkward love interest dynamic into a more strained friction laden relationship. but when it came that early I was concerned that there would be quite a few more creative liberties and reinterpretations coming... I am pleased that has been minimal after three episodes. It works well enough.
I haven't read the books, so I come at it as a pristine telly watcher.
Personally I thought it was boring, vague and aimless, poorly edited, bad sound levels, uninspired production design and acting that was at times painful. Thank goodness for the salve that is Rosamund Pike!
It was like EastEnders crashed into The Lord of the Rings. Definitely not for me.
Fwiw, having not read the books, the diversity in the village (Two Rivers?) made sense to me. The land has suffered some sort of apocalypse, if I understand correctly, so whoever was in the region at the time would be stuck there. A bit like if we had an apocalypse today, 100 years from now the communities that rose from the ashes would still be quite multi-ethnic since that's their starting point.
I had no problems with the ethnic diversity in characters. In fact the world encompasses that quite well in a regional sense- the continent is very large. I don't generally pay any attention to it as I don't really care. what I really want is to be told a tale in a way that makes me feel as if I am there and I can feel what they are feeling. I do point it out because the two rivers folk were detailed and described as the descendants of a particular people in that area, and their very appearance could identify them as Manetheren from ages old... before the breaking of the world in an age long past... these descendants are insular, isolated, and distrustful of outsiders(for it is in the blood to know betrayal- to stand alone, to rely on only themselves. their tales and songs teach them this)
As to your point about coming at this from never having read the books... if that becomes the consensus among those like yourself, then the show will fail. time will tell.
Good points, PP. And I think I understand what you and Zeim are saying about the village's culture. It's not that it's too diverse, it's that it's not distinct enough.
Regardless of their racial background, you'd expect such a close-knit and isolated village to have a very strong culture. I never got a sense of this from the episode. No sense of folk lore or history in the way that the LOTR film-makers underpinned the Shire, Rohan and Gondor. When we were shown around Hobiton, it seemed like a real place with real people doing real things. Not so with Two Rivers, in my opinion at least.
Neal - Its understandable if you haven't read the books. The apocalypse happened thousands and thousands of years ago, not a hundred or two. And the Two Rivers was part of a lost Kingdom called Manetheren. You'll even hear Rosamund Pike say "The Old Blood runs strongly in the Two Rivers." That is a comment adding to the insular and homogenous nature of the world's population.
it is very understandable that if you haven't read the books the story might not be engaging at first.
I agree with PPs comment about the different starting story of Perrin (married?) and Rand and Egwene (in the books shy teenage puppy love, in the show actual hooking up?)
As also pointed out in several reviews, the political correctness extended to comments about the "Dragon Reborn" being any one of the four Ta'averen and a line in episode one that it could be a man or woman. Jordan's books had firmly established male-female dynamics. Both genders had a specific place and a specific role and none EVER crossed that line.
The Dragon Reborn is always male. If for no other reason than he has access to Saidin (the male half of magic). In WoT males and females each have access to specific types of magic and neither can touch the other's. The Dark One poisoned the male half which drives male magic users insane. That was why the first Dragon broke the world to begin with. A 'female' Dragon is impossible.
Do you think that means they intend to deviate from the books and make the Dragon Reborn female, Zeim, or that they just want to deepen the mystery for viewers who haven't ready the book?
Anyway, I wish the series the best though I won't be watching it. I just hope that Amazon's new Middle-earth series is better overall! (Crazy as it sounds, I have read The Silmarillion twice! )
the dragon was always meant to be male- the male and female halves of the one power work together- are made to be in harmony- the Dragon was the strongest male channeler of that past age- trying not to be spoilery- but one half of the one power was corrupted by the dark one and the world breaks in the dragon's madness- and a lot of time passes- the female half does not possess all their own understanding of this balance anymore and now struggle to keep these male channelers in check- a few are strong enough to rise to considerable power- but the male half is corrupted and it always drives them to madness.
The Dragon Reborn would always be a male because it is about reclaiming the other half of the one power and regaining balance with the female half.
another note- these books do not need to be updated to accomodate PC- the female channelers in this world are incredibly powerful. timeless in appearance and very long lived. they are fearsome badasses that an older empire tried to bring them down and very enarly did, but the cost would ahve been so great both sides that a truce was reached... rules by which the aes sedai live now. the politics of the aes sedai is rich and detailed...the politicsa of the many nations of this current age are also very detailed. The aes sedai maneuvering in the politics of other nations to ensure they are involved really impressed me. so much lore there that there is no reason to need to add to it for gender equality purposes. aes sedai are not to be trifled with... in some areas they are revered and respected. in others, the farther from their sphere of influence, they are feared and reviled because of their connection to the breaking in general. but they are the keepers of the watch over the dark one now for good or for ill.
in terms of the 4 characters and those in their immediate circle- every one of them is important- ta'veren- a strong thread in the tapestry of the world, threads being spun by the wheel of time in the Great Pattern that sensitives like Morraine can see them when she meets them, but they are all strong and all have destinies explored in the books... that she can't tell which of the three young men was going to be the Dragon at first. Egwene and Nynaeve are critically important to the tale- but from the female side of things.
I appreciate the lowdown, guys! Thank you for that.
I'm kind of surprised by my own lack of knowledge of the Wheel of Time. I know of it, who wrote it and finished it and how many books there are in it (which is probably why I never went near it!). But I didn't actually know what it was about until now.
Well despite hearing Neil's opinion on Sunday we have now watched the first 3 episodes and I will definitely be watching the rest! I don't get bothered by small details not matching the books. I try to watch film/TV as a fresh story. I liked the casting and Rosamund Pike is awesome. Stayed basically true to the storyline and totally engaged us both. I have read the first 5 books, Tusk hasn't read any. And yet we both loved it.
My only concern is that it follows the books too closely as I gave up after book 5 as it started to get drawn out and irrelevant, more padding than substance in the story.
I read the whole thing, to the end. All 14 1,000 page books, plus the prequel. Parts of it did slog. He spent too much time on flowery descriptions and had far, far too many plot threads going all at once. Towards the latter half of the series, for example, a 1000 page book had enough room for a single chapter or two to address each plot thread!
I guess the casting bothers me more than you, Gypsy. Rosamund Pike is doing a great job acting the role, Lan is good too, but when both of those actors are SO different from the image the books portray it irks me. For example, LoTR did a great job staying true to the actors matching the books descriptions. It would be like making Frodo a 6 foot tall, burly Scandinavian. It's an effort to get my mind engaged.
Overall I like it, but I can see how those who haven't read the books might not be the target audience they were shooting for, and based on the titles of the remaining episodes in this season it would appear they will be leaping ahead and taking liberties with the timeline in the books.
The cast was a bit jarring but I just figured it was my own perceptions. I've watched the first two episodes and I'm loving it. Yes, Perrin being married made me go huh? And Dragon Reborn being one of the 4?? Yeah, I don't think so.
For the people who haven't read the books, we should really try and not say what's coming even if the title says with Spoilers.
But anyways, maybe I'm a simple guy, and easily entertained and I don't need a lot to like something but I'm loving it. Creeps me out in parts, like the Children of Light (they're really done well) and Shadar Logoth.
Agreed, Nivek. And having Rand and Egwene hooking up in the first episode was like, WTF? But it looks like they're trying to boil the books down to their essentials for the series, after all if it was really true to the books it would have 1 full season per book and go on forever.
Now the titles of the upcoming episodes make it seem like some things will be revealed early and perhaps out of order, but we'll see.
Yeah they have to shorten it. Otherwise books 7-10 would be nothing but hundreds of hours of a blank screen
I saw a preview that they show Moiraine becoming Aes Sedai. So they'll use stuff like that explain more about them, like the different colored ajas and the warder bond.
I don't think they'll get to it in season one, but I really hope they don't cut out the Stone of Tear where Rand gets, and uses Callandor. That was one of my favorite books.
I only read the 1st book. It seems very close to what I remember. Looks good though. Will keep watching. Maybe I'll start reading the books again ... once I get truly settled into my new place
So watched episode 4 last night. Last night's episode was roughly 50% stuff that either never happened in the books or directly contradicts what did. However I am definitely enjoying the show.
So I have decided its not worth complaining anymore (too much ) about the divergence of the show from the book's storyline and try to view it as an alternate history, set in the WoT universe, starting with the same characters but with potentially different events and timelines.
No screen 'adaptation' of a book has been 'true to the book'. Sometimes it because it is not possible or financially reasonable. There =may= be other things ... like all the people involved in the 'movie' feel the need to 'put their stamp' it ... regardless of what it does to the book's story <sigh>
With all the praise, I may actually have to sit down and watch it now <g> Thanks for all the 'reviews'.
I'm still loving it. There is no way, they'd do every scene from the book. Just insanely too long. So they do scenes that convey the information necessary to learn about the world, and learn about the characters. Take the WhiteCloaks for instance. None of that happened, but damn if you don't hate and fear them! Mission accomplished.
Yeah, I agree. There is a lot going on. It really helps to have a solid background. If you have any questions that don't involve spoilers, I'd be happy to answer all I can.
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