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The Wheel of Time Season 2 Review

The second season of The Wheel of Time premiered in 2023. It’s a pretty good season that was slightly better than the original one.

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“I am sorry it took me so long to fulfill my duty“

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This is a more confident, better made season of television than its predecessor, though there is still that issue of overly complicated narratives, way too many characters in its roster and an overreliance on dialogue throughout each and every episode. It is obvious that they changed the source material for the worse even to us who haven’t read the novels, so I can definitely see why fans would be so upset with the show that is ultimately better suited for novices.

There is one area where the first season was better and that is the action adventure elements, especially the latter. This season lacked those wonderful adventure scenes of chasing or trekking through this world, mostly focusing on building the lore and this world instead. This did negatively impact it in terms of pacing and momentum, but I do reckon it is necessary to explain all of these ideas and rules to us now so that we can understand it better later.

Moiraine is still one of the highlights. I love this character. I find her to be quite complex and intriguing as she has a heart underneath her cold exterior. She is definitely a bitch more often than not, but her goals and motifs are always righteous, which makes her interesting. It also helps that Rosamund Pike is playing her, the best actor on the show by far. She’s so good here.

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It’s a shame that her romance with Lan was so toxic and his character so insufferably submissive. They have that final reunion that was quite moving, but otherwise I would have done with less of this relationship. But at least Moiraine got her magic back near the end of the season, leading to that epic moment where she destroyed an entire fleet of ships.

Nynaeve continues to be an off-putting human being. She’s way too angry for her to be sympathetic in any way and too often she was downright unlikable. As for Perrin, this entire subplot with the wolves was okay, but it was stretched way too much and it definitely seemed like the most inconsequential storyline of the season.

By far the character that fared the worst this time around was Rand. I could see that they destroyed his character even as a guy who has never read a single Wheel of Time book. He is too passive and he just stands there whining and waiting for others to save him. It’s okay that he has help along the way, but he never shows why he is so powerful and so important, thus his eventual rise to power was very difficult to believe or engage in emotionally.

They also significantly sidelined the character of Mat throughout this season as they recast the role and even somewhat changed his personality. That was frustrating. Ishamael being so easily killed was also annoying. But other characters fared much better. Liandrin is still very intriguing, Elayne is quite likable and Lanfear is definitely a badass villain that posed genuine threat here.

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The highlight of this season was Egwene. Her arc was superb. The entire master-slave dynamic that developed between her and her torturer was fascinating and difficult to watch, but eventually emotionally rewarding when she broke free and killed her tormentor. There are so many of these powerful moments in this second season, including that final battle and all of the villain scenes. There is a lot of magic and world building in this show that makes me want to continue watching it, but at one point they will have to quicken the pace and reduce the extensive dialogue and exposition.