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The Wheel of Time Season 1 Review

The Wheel of Time is an epic fantasy televisions series released on Amazon Prime Video. Its first season came out in 2021 and it was overall flawed, but fun.

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“Words are important,

and how we use them is important“

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I have never read any of the books by Robert Jordan and this book series consists of fourteen novels, which is a ridiculously high number, making for many potentially huge problems in the process of adapting it to the small screen. Many of these problems came to fruition, but still there is a lot of good stuff to be found here, so let’s discuss.

I am not the biggest fan of Lord of the Rings, but I did like the first movie quite a bit, which is why I liked the first season of this show as it emulates the adventurous elements of that movie very clearly. I loved those moments on the run with the highlights being the scenes in that dark town, the wolves and the entire beginning that was a strong set-up for the whole season.

The show is full of fantastical elements with intricate mythology. I especially liked the various colors and their functions within the Aes Sedai. That episode that focused on the politics within The White Tower was easily the highlight of the season. Whenever the show focused on character dynamics and building its lore, it was excellent.

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It also helps that the show received an enormous budget, which helped it tremendously in terms of the believability of the action scenes. The actors all sold these scenes as well, resulting in some terrific battle scenes. Moiraine in particular got the best action scenes throughout. I also loved the show’s epic, rousing score and fantastic cinematography. It makes use of its real-life Czech scenery superbly while the added towns and effects all looked surprisingly strong.

The character development is also unexpectedly strong. Yes, some of these people are either unlikable or boring, but most got solid arcs and the dynamic between the main group was great. Egwene is heroic and brave as is Rand, so the two definitely felt too much like archetypes, but I was still surprised that he ended up being the most important character of the season and the only one that confronted The Dark One. The main villain was solid, but I expect more of him in future seasons.

Perrin having some connection with the wolves made for an intriguing storyline full of great potential. As for Nynaeve, she was way too bitchy throughout the season and honestly quite unlikable. She was angry all the time, which was frustrating to watch. Liandrin was way too horrible not to be a future villain while Moiraine is the highlight of the season. I loved her character a lot as she was admirable in her qualities, but also flawed. Rosamund Pike is so far above the levels of other actors that it was ridiculous seeing how she blew everybody out of the water.

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The Wheel of Time has that typical chosen one narrative that was made unique by being multiplied to the possible five chosen ones, but still many fantasy archetypes were here, making for a very familiar story. The various creatures were okay, but for now they were underutilized. Most of the season felt just like build-up with the first half being too slow and the second one too abrupt. But the future is potentially bright for this world full of potential.