How did the show hold up for you?

[Vambram]

For over a week, I've been encouraging my youngest brother, who is 50 years old, to watch Amazon's Wheel of Time. He has never read any fantasy books in his life. But, he told me that after reading from Wikipedia the setting and basic premise section about WoT, he watched episode 1. 

My brother said he enjoyed episode 1 and that it didn't feel like it was too difficult to follow. So, good news is this. He will watch the rest of the series. My brother has become a new fan of The Wheel of Time. 

[wotfan4472]

19 hours ago, NightWolf said:

It sounded like they used Robert Berry's Theme for the Wheel of Time (2001) as the Winespring Inn music in episode 1. Hopefully I heard it wrong but if I didn't, I pray Berry was paid royalties.

The music with Episode 3's ending had me. That in particular was beautiful. Considering all the songs in the soundtrack is in Old Tongue, I am loving it.

I am also listening to them on YouTube, they are that good.

[Joseph Beaudreau]

I like it, but I think the showrunners are making a bigger mistake by rushing things than any of changes to the books they've made. E1 was just very badly paced. If I didn't love the books, I would have thought it was cheap cheesy garbage. E2 got better but still rushed. Episode 3 was much more compelling. For my partner (who knew nothing of WOT), this episode finally got her committed, but she wouldn't have made it there without me. Still don't understand why they are doing 8 episodes when slowing down a bit could have easily made it a satisfying 10, but we will see! I'd rather have them make mistakes in Season 1 than later seasons. 

[Vartija]

5 hours ago, Deadsy said:

I do wish we had gotten something closer to the books with Tam's healing so we could have more convo between Rand, Moiraine, and Lan, but I feel they really wanted Rand to be suspicious of Moiraine. My only real problem there is Rand and Tam didn't even thank her for healing him. Rand just immediately implied she brought the trollocs.

Based on interviews with Daniel Henney I'm confident we will get some more Lan and Rand bonding in season 2.

Yeah I pretty much hated that. I had to rewatch the scene just to make sure it really was as blunt as I thought it was. I loved the part of the book where Rand was desperate and afraid of asking an Aes Sedai for help, but still does it and is immensely grateful afterwards ("I'll pay any price in my power if you help him. Anything."). It set a nice dynamic between the two and a sense that Rand owed a debt to Moiraine. I also liked Moiraine's reaction when she sees Rand returning alive to the village: "A little more light in the darkness." 

[DaddyFinn]

18 minutes ago, Joseph Beaudreau said:

Still don't understand why they are doing 8 episodes

Amazon. Rafe has said he wanted a 2 hour pilot and 10 episodes per season

[Joseph Beaudreau]

49 minutes ago, DaddyFinn said:

Amazon. Rafe has said he wanted a 2 hour pilot and 10 episodes per season

Bummer. That must explain why have have so much extra content to explain things. I hope the next few episodes really take off. If Amazon didn't think it deserved 10 episodes that doesn't show a lot of confidence in the show. Yes, I know they gave a big budget, but they are desperate for original content. Netflix did this for a while too, throwing money at anything just to add OC, but not necessarily committing to them.

[DojoToad]

 

Not too good so far.  Only 52% on this site have given it a positive vote.  Better than the 31% that gave it a negative vote - but hardly high praise.  Will episode 4 turn it around?

[Elder_Haman]

3 minutes ago, DojoToad said:

 

Not too good so far.  Only 52% on this site have given it a positive vote.  Better than the 31% that gave it a negative vote - but hardly high praise.  Will episode 4 turn it around?

It's a very poor sample. 

[MasterAblar]

And we're a very poor audience ?

 

I would expect the relatively hardcore book fans to have a harsher view in general because of how meticulous and picky we tend to be about the most minute details. It's what made these forums fascinating but its also going to cause us to be extremely critical of a show that simply cannot fit everything and that might take shortcuts at times out of necessity.

[DojoToad]

1 minute ago, Elder_Haman said:

It's a very poor sample. 

Why is that?  Because of the number of votes?  Because it is likely a 100% book fans?  Something else?

[Elder_Haman]

This site is not particularly representative of the public at large. Only a small subset of people exposed to the show will have read the books. A smaller subset of that population would call themselves "fans". Fans of the books who are sufficiently invested to spend their time on message boards are a small subset of an already small subset. 

 

Further, participation in this forum implies a vested emotional interest in the subject matter, so you have to expect an overrepresentation of the most strongly held feelings.

Edited November 24, 2021 by Elder_Haman

[DojoToad]

1 minute ago, Elder_Haman said:

This site is not particularly representative of the public at large. Only a small subset of people exposed to the show will have read the books. A smaller subset of that population would call themselves "fans". Fans of the books who are sufficiently invested to spend their time on message boards are a small subset of an already small subset. 

 

Further, participation in this forum implies a vested emotional interest in the subject matter, so you have to expect an overrepresentation of the most strongly held feelings.

Agreed.  So why aren't more of the people with the highest emotional investment having positive feelings about the show?

[Agitel]

4 minutes ago, DojoToad said:

Agreed.  So why aren't more of the people with the highest emotional investment having positive feelings about the show?

 

I just can't get invested in a show that gets little details like Bela's eye color wrong.

[TheDreadReader]

2 minutes ago, DojoToad said:

Agreed.  So why aren't more of the people with the highest emotional investment having positive feelings about the show?

 

I suspect that it is a measurement series that evolves over time.    Initial negative reactions spike high first and then level out as time goes while as positive reactions build over time.

 

Across all platforms that I've surveyed... positive reactions seem to outnumber negative ones.  That's including the "but I have to include something negative to show that I'm objective" flexes that you see in the positive category.

 

[Elder_Haman]

23 minutes ago, DojoToad said:

Agreed.  So why aren't more of the people with the highest emotional investment having positive feelings about the show?

Because people who are emotionally invested are just as prone to hate it for what it isn't as they are to love it for what it is. It's not hard. It's pretty standard in any fandom like this.

[Aluudren]

Hate it, with hate and vitriol.

Rating it as it's own show, as-if unrelated to WOT, I would still rate it poor. Even the color grading is bland.

 

IMO, the series needs a Peter Jackson type visionary and at least a 7-season commitment to tell it well. The producers of this version didn't think big enough.

[king of nowhere]

3 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

Because people who are emotionally invested are just as prone to hate it for what it isn't as they are to love it for what it is. It's not hard. It's pretty standard in any fandom like this.

i'll add that a lot of the most hardcore book fans hated GoT too.

it is, indeed, normal in any fandom.

[Deadsy]

3 minutes ago, Aluudren said:

Hate it, with hate and vitriol.

Rating it as it's own show, as-if unrelated to WOT, I would still rate it poor. Even the color grading is bland.

 

IMO, the series needs a Peter Jackson type visionary and at least a 7-season commitment to tell it well. The producers of this version didn't think big enough.

 

 

This is weird.

[Aluudren]

28 minutes ago, DojoToad said:

Agreed.  So why aren't more of the people with the highest emotional investment having positive feelings about the show?

Because it was bad.

I think a lot of the positives just come from seeing the series being dramatized.

Just the opening sequences are bland, flat, and poorly executed. If you didn't know what the story is about I expect it'd be entirely confusing. 

[Deadsy]

Just now, Aluudren said:

Because it was bad.

I think a lot of the positives just come from seeing the series being dramatized.

Just the opening sequences are bland, flat, and poorly executed. If you didn't know what the story is about I expect it'd be entirely confusing. 

 

 

Except non readers seem to like it and are intrigued.

 

And no it isn't bad. Not even close.

[Aluudren]

4 minutes ago, Deadsy said:

 

 

This is weird.

In what way?

[Elder_Haman]

1 minute ago, Aluudren said:

Because it was bad.

Lots and lots of people disagree.

[Aluudren]

Just now, Deadsy said:

 

 

Except non readers seem to like it and are intrigued.

 

And no it isn't bad. Not even close.

Is it bad like home-made video shot over the weekend bad? No, I would agree with that.

But is it "good film making"?  No.

[Deadsy]

3 minutes ago, Aluudren said:

In what way?

 

 

You joined this forum for the first time just to whine about the show

[Aluudren]

2 minutes ago, Elder_Haman said:

Lots and lots of people disagree.

But lots of other people agree.