The thing I was worried about with The Wheel of Time on Amazon is the thing they’re not doing, and I’m so happy about it.

I’ve been reading these books since I was much younger. The books came out in 1990, I didn’t actually get my hands on them until about 2000, and I’ve read the whole thing and listened to the audiobooks at least several times. The series is based on the books by a writer named Robert Jordan, who’s arguably one of the grandfathers, or big daddies, of modern day high fantasy. He’s kind of the modern version of what J.R.R. Tolkien was back in the day. Jordan wrote the books up to a certain point, and when he passed away his wife, who was also an editor, ended up handing it off to another writer named Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson is an equally talented writer and he did an amazing job finishing off the series. I believe fully that anyone who starts it is going to love it by the time they end it.

I’m not one of those people who says you’ve got to read the books, you’ve got to read the books. Look, man, I wish you would read the books. But let’s talk about this TV show.

I’m late on this one, and I apologize. I moved and I had to get the studio set up. So this is an overview of the first few episodes, and then week to week we’ll start doing a breakdown review that explores each episode in more of its entirety.

I Chucked My Presuppositions

The show is very much different from the books, and I noticed it immediately. I’ve heard something about backlashes, and I really haven’t experienced any of that to this point. I’m not bumping into anything.

By bumped into, I mean when I’m watching the series, does something slam me hard. Right out of the gate there were some ethnicities that have been added, and I didn’t bump into any of that. I’ll be honest, I did think most everybody was going to be some form of European-esque culture. I knew certain ones would be different, like the Aiel and some of the other great cultures we’re going to see, because the way Robert Jordan describes them very much speaks to the various cultures in our world. It’s easy to see the Ghealdan as being somewhat Persian-ish, or the people from Tear being a little more Spanish. A lot of this has to do with what you saw in your mind’s eye when you read it. And the voice actors on the audiobooks chose certain accents, so I’ve got a lot of those preconceived notions in my head too.

So what have I done? The same thing I did years ago when the Ghostbusters movie with the female leads came out in 2016. I took my presuppositions, balled them up, crumbled them up and chucked them away, because to my way of thinking you have to take every iteration of a thing on its head.

Oh, but Mr. Know-It-All, I can’t believe you would say something like that. What are you trying to say, that we shouldn’t have our fandoms? Hang on. You watch the MCU right now. For those of us who’ve read comic books and who love it, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is nothing like the comic books aside from the costumes and the names and some of the powers. Some. It’s literally this exact same process, so I’m not even going to entertain that conversation.

In contrast, watching Star Trek: Discovery, I’m constantly bumping into all of the various differences. Little by little, that’s right, they’ve worn me down like a good mind-numbing brainwashing. They’ve totally worn me down, and I’m starting to see that series a little differently. That’s what I was afraid was going to happen when I started watching The Wheel of Time. I was worried that as I got into it I’d find myself going, oh my goodness, what is all this, I can’t believe it, this isn’t my show. None of that.

Brother Could Be Long-Winded

I want to go on record first. I love Robert Jordan. I love the books he wrote. I love how he wrote. I don’t have an issue with any of it.

Brother could be long-winded, okay. I’m just going to call a spade a spade. He definitely knew how to use the English language to the fullest, so much so that some of the books kind of dragged. It’s like he added a whole bunch of stuff and it took forever to get anywhere. I always tell people, if you’re going to get into The Wheel of Time, trudge through the first book. A lot of character building happens and a lot of root stuff is there, but at the end of the day it’s a long slog. I always thought The Eye of the World, that’s book one, could’ve been about half as long. Okay, maybe that’s not true. You could’ve lost about a third of the excess and smooshed it down to a healthier size that would’ve been a little more brisk in its reading.

So that was my concern: how in the world were they going to take this long-winded material and boil it down to its best essence? In later books I don’t know how they’re going to be able to do the opposite, because later on it’s really intense and very impactful. But in the current iteration of the series, I’m really loving the pacing.

I’ve noticed a lot of people online saying it’s bad, worried that it’s too much, that the thing’s not going to work out right. I remember thinking to myself, shut up. I’m telling you it’s not an issue, at least not one that I’ve noticed whatsoever. What’s funny is I’m not even bumping into the explanation stuff.

You’re going to say, but Mr. Know-It-All, you know the story, so that’s why you’re able to look at it like that. Okay. My wife is not a high fantasy fan. She does like some fantasy in a different light, more like witches and fairies, that’s kind of her flavor. When I sat her down I told her we need to watch this series, and I need your clean eyes. She fell in love with it from episode one, never having read the books. I’m debating the two of us doing a read along together, but either way she’s enjoying the heck out of it.

The Two Rivers, and What the Book Set Up Better

The first three episodes are “Leavetaking,” “Shadow’s Waiting” and “A Place of Safety.” There’s also “The Dragon Reborn,” which was the most recent episode last week, and I feel they should’ve saved that episode title.

The first two episodes cover a span that really took about two to three hundred pages of the first book. We’re introduced to Rand, Mat, Perrin and Egwene, as well as Nynaeve. We’re also introduced to Moiraine Damodred, who’s an Aes Sedai. The Aes Sedai are the magic users in this world. These first episodes get us through Moiraine and Lan showing up in the Two Rivers. You meet the kids, you understand what’s going on, and you get the impression there’s something up. We’re missing a character, by the way, but I digress.

I don’t feel like they made Bel Tine a big enough part of it, because that was a major part of the opening of the book, and I would’ve liked to have seen more of it. Bel Tine is the festival, very similar to Beltane in the real world. In the book there was excitement over the fact that there’s a gleeman coming. What’s a gleeman doing in Emond’s Field? That gleeman is the character of Thom Merrilin, who we meet later on, I believe in episode three. Thom Merrilin is a really cool character. A gleeman is what other fantasy fans might know as a bard, but he’s kind of a roguish bard. I guess bards are roguish in their own way. Either way, I was really looking forward to seeing that character portrayed a little differently. If I had to say I bump into anything, it’s probably that character.

The storytelling is brisk, but they’re establishing a lot of things quickly and well. In the opening scene they introduce Moiraine and Lan, you see the Red, and you understand she’s capturing a man who can wield the One Power. They go into all the explanations of what those things are, and again, I didn’t bump into it. I liked it.

Another part I did bump into was the entire bit about the Myrddraal, the officer, according to IMDb, in charge of the Trollocs for the Dark One. The faceless guy. He had a mouth and no eyes. The eyeless ones, whose capes are said to never look like they’re being touched by the wind. In the books they get a little more of a run up. You find out that Perrin, Mat and Rand had all seen one, so there’s something that says, hey, something’s coming, someone’s detected something. The book did a slightly better job setting up the premise that something bad was on its way. The series tries to do that a little, but it happens a little too fast and loose for me. It’s fine. Nothing to really bump into.

Then the Trollocs show up and do their thing, and you see Moiraine use fire, I’m assuming in some form, either balefire or just fire. Balefire is a thing in the series that we can get into in a further explanation. But man, it’s amazing. The series is unreal. I mean stupid unreal.

I’ve Seen Bad Fantasy Storytelling

I’m a fan of a lot of books, and I’m a huge fan of the Terry Goodkind series, The Sword of Truth. Back in the 2000s Sam Raimi’s studio came out with a series called Legend of the Seeker. It was essentially The Sword of Truth in series form, and it was bad. Really bad. I don’t miss that kind of storytelling, and I’m really happy we’ve come to the place we are now. Thank you very much, The Lord of the Rings, and now thank you very much, The Wheel of Time.

The funny thing is I thought this series was going to come and go really quickly. I didn’t anticipate it would land as solidly as it’s landed. We heard rumors of movies and another series, things fell through, and the next thing I know, poof, there’s a trailer and it looks amazing. I was just blown away.

Tinkers, Shadar Logoth, and Not Spoiling My Wife

“A Place of Safety” is where we meet the Tuatha’an, the Tinkers, the people with all the colorful carts and whatnot. They do have a secret that has to do with some other stuff that comes in the future.

That’s probably my biggest hang up. I constantly find myself having to reel back from accidentally telling my wife spoilers, because I’m so amazed. Look at this, look at that person. When Moiraine introduces the Red Aes Sedai and her name is Liandrin, I was like, that’s Liandrin, my goodness. Everything is so exciting as you’re going through this thing.

By this point everybody has split up and they’re on their own ways. You’ve got Perrin and Egwene. Rand and Mat are going one way, and Mat now has the knife he got from Shadar Logoth. Shadar Logoth, by the way, brilliantly portrayed. Overall I’m really excited about the direction they’re going with a lot of this.

“The Dragon Reborn” has to do with Logain and how powerful he is. That’s one thing the books did do, mention how Logain is very powerful. I’m debating how much to tell, because I don’t want to sit here and spoil things I know from the books when I don’t know how the series is going to do it.

I’ll say this. There’s been a backlash to some of the story beats changing. I go back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We’re already used to story beats changing, so I’m not really sure why this is suddenly different and why anybody’s bumping into it in the first place.

I felt like this was an excellent character building and story building episode. You learn about the Greens, the Green Aes Sedai. You learn about the Warders they have and the bond between Warder and Aes Sedai. Nynaeve gets more interplay with Lan, and you see the groundwork being laid for what, at least in the books, is potentially a relationship between the two of them in the future.

Where This Goes

I’m really digging the show, man. I can’t wait to see where they go with this.

I know they’ve already gotten a season two pickup. If the story continues at this pace, truthfully I don’t see why they couldn’t get to the end of season one and be done with book one, and I’m okay with that. At the end of the first book you find out who the Dragon is, you find out what the overarching goal of the Dark One is, and you’re introduced to some more characters. I love how the Dark One’s represented, too. He looks amazing.

This was a starter, my very first official video on the channel about The Wheel of Time. Maybe we’ll call it Wheel of Time Talk or something. I intend to do a more comprehensive review per episode from here. I may also do some breakdowns of the actual books, just to give everybody a groundwork to work from: here are the books, here are some of the stories you may or may not have experienced.

Either way, dude, check this show out.

Let me know if you need a little more description of this world and how it works. I know some other places have already done some of that, and I’m happy to do it here. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.