I was not a fan of Season 1 (as a book lover, I would give it a C-; if I was pretending I had never read the books, I might give it a B-.) I liked a lot of the actors but thought a lot of the writing was amateurish, many directing decisions were baffling (i.e. the Seanchan sending a tsunami against that little girl on the beach in the final scene?!) and many of the changes/cuts (knowing some changes/cuts *had* to be made) were poorly decided or not well executed. Going into detail would take all day—what's done is done. Went into Season 2 Episode 1 hoping things would get better, as many shows improve with time. I did think it was a little better than I was expecting. Actually looking forward to Episode 2. A few initial thoughts: Still not loving the way the One Power looks. When Alanna 'weaved' earth and water together, it was just generic CGI ribbons of light swirling together. Give us actual threads interlacing! There are so many interesting patterns that can be done with stitching, knitting, weaving, looming, lace, etc! Google 'weaving patterns' and imagine the One Power lacing together over and under, under and over like a complex loom... Oh well, maybe in future seasons. I was strangely happy to see the new Mat... I wish Barney well, wherever he is, but the human side of seeing a new guy welcomed to the show and filling those shoes was really touching. I don't like Moiraine very much. Pike is a great actress; not sure if we are supposed to dislike her character as much as I do; in the books, even when Moiraine was aloof or bossy, I never disliked her. Pike seems to lack something of the pert, chipmunky aspect I always associated with Moiraine. My biggest concern was the smallest scene—showing Rand for 2 seconds lighting a Bel Tine lantern. Major misstep in direction, IMO. Why show him for 2 seconds? Everyone in world and in the viewing audience is wondering Where is Rand? Another missed opportunity to maybe build to a dramatic conclusion and show him at the very end staring into the Aiel Waste as the music builds... Instead we see him for 2 seconds in the dark. I get that they wanted to show him still connected to his roots, honoring Bel Tine at the same time as the E5 even though if off on his own, but it fell quite flat for me. And it makes me nervous about the hand at the helm, making these 'creative' decisions. Seems like the same bizarre mindset that would have the Seanchan launch that tidal wave in S1E8. Loved the Fade fight at the end... sort of. Was way too dark to see anything clearly... maybe I need a plasma TV? I agree with disliking Lan picking up the Fade sword at all, and with criticisms that Lan never seems to get a Win in this show... but I do think the show understands the Fades almost better than any other 'character' from the books. Their slinky, shadows powers. The way they almost seem to play with the frame-rate (like Into the Spiderverse) when the Fades lunge. Will try to watch it again with contrast maxed out in a darker room. Okay, time for episode 2. Good to be back!