The more good fantasy shows the better.  Of course it remains to be seen if either WoT or LoTR will end up being good shows.  I will give them 2 to 3 seasons to hit their stride 1st.  

I'm going to wait for season 2 to play out first and see where everybody ends up.  But if they don't include the ter'angreal visits in Rhuidean that would be a massive failure....

Is it true that season 2 will be 8 episodes but that the episodes will be longer?   Heard that on WotUP today.  If true wonder what the new length will be.  That is fantastic news... the biggest weakness of season 1

5 hours ago, DojoToad said:

I can understand 2 times, but 12 is just masochism - if you don't like it.

5 hours ago, Guire said:

I am a little surprised The Boys, The Expanse, and Carnivale Row are lower.  But i have streamed entire season at least 12 times mostly on my commute.  I keep hoping it will finally click with me.  Sadly it just doesn't.  

the fact that WOT is higher than so many shows is amazing, especially the Boys.  Carnival row, I watched 2 episodes and can't motivate myself to watch the rest.  Is it worth it?  Expanse is good but not sure that is a huge audience show.  Also surprised that WoT is higher than the Jack Ryan show

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/amazons-most-viewed-series-behind-the-numbers-for-prime-video-originals-1235165556/amp/

WOT 2nd highest streaming minutes ever on Amazon after Reacher.

They are probably ramping season 3 behind the scenes and saving the announced shortly before season 2 launches.  

13 hours ago, Nik said:

 

I think it's valid to dislike the show! No piece of media can please everyone and I can definitely see why some people didn't like it. I have criticisms too, and there are absolutely things I wish they'd done differently. But I still enjoyed it a lot. And saying it was objectively bad or that it "failed" seems dishonest when it was objectively an incredibly successful show which even book fans (not all, but definitely many) enjoyed.

well said... just because it reviews bad or certain parts of the show arent the best doesn't mean we can't enjoy the show or that it can't improve for season 2.  

Jeez, this guy ripped the show apart in painstaking detail in this video.  

Didn't really love season 1, so I can easily wait for season 2.  Plus there is so much Sci-Fi/fantasy material coming out over the next year in books/TVs/comics.  Obi-Wan series is the one I am most excited about right now.   Will probably work on some kind of creative hobby too... diorama building sounds fun haven't tried that before.  I went to the lego store and saw someone custom made a heron-marked blade from WoT.  That was pretty cool

I'm sure they planned for all these characters, but my impression is based off season 1 where there were lots of characters and not enough screentime for them all.  Especially the major characters... everything felt rushed.   The extra time would really help the show, but I'm sure Amazon wants to stick to a budget here in the days of inflation.  

They keep adding new characters to the show every few weeks.  Baile Domon and now the Harry Potter girl.  This show seems like it will be too fragmented with all these characters.  8 episodes definitely not enough, especially when it comes at the cost of reducing major character screentime.  

Pretty average show for me.  The 55 metacritic score is a little low, but I wouldn't give it more than a 70.  I did tell many people about the show and they all started watching it. Unfortunately none of them finished it.  

This show has too many characters and plotlines for the amount of time they give each episode and the number of episodes per season.  Also way too much time given on minor characters

  Works great in the books, but is really unfocused for the streaming series.  I hope they can salvage this, but it is not a masterpiece show yet.

20 hours ago, Andra said:

She might be out of the price range, but how about casting a "Selene" as, well ... Selene?

 

Another excellent choice would be Morena Baccarin - except that I always pictured her more as Berelain.

was just thinking about it, but is Berelain based on Cleopatra?  it certainly seems that way to me

Natasha O'Keefe has already been casted and some hints given she is Lanfear.  Many of us think she is Lanfear, but maybe they don't want to announce that yet if 'Selene' shows up first.

On 3/8/2022 at 2:10 PM, WhiteVeils said:

You're reading it wrong.

Here's another article with the same information, but it clarifies that WOT's Week 1 numbers were 1.16 billion minutes for 3 episodes, while Reacher's Week 1 numbers were for 8 episodes during it's first week. You are correct, that only 3 days were collected, but these are both week 1 comparisons.

https://movieweb.com/reacher-viewing-figures-the-wheel-of-time-amazon-prime/ 

 

The WOT numbers were not for its whole run, only its first week.

I think this is just showing how popular Amazon streaming is becoming.  Over 200 million prime subscribers now.  Amazon doesn't have very many premiere shows like Netflix.  But everytime they have a big show it sets up the audience for the next big show, especially since most of these subscribers are annual.  Reacher is in the crime thriller genre which might even be more popular than fantasy on streaming.  

It will be interesting to see the final viewing numbers side by side after 2 months though.  I would think wheel of time will come out ahead there.  

11 hours ago, expat said:

The whole Selene subplot is him acting childish.  She just magically appears in a location requiring channel to get there, appears and disappears at will, always pushing him against his better instincts etc.  Yet his POVs shows that he never even entertains that thought that anything might be wrong about the situation and that she might not be what she seems.  This is after he has multiple battles with darkfriends and knows that at least some of the Forsaken are loose.  There is a place for innocence, but completely turning your brain off when you are the DR? 

Rand is a young man and Selene is the hottest woman on the planet.  People are expecting logical decisions?

my only prediction dor season 2 is that I can't predict anything from these showrunners.  I just hope they do a better job with season 2 as season 1 left way too many underdeveloped plots and characters 

Wheel of time a huge hit.  The previous article said it was the most watched original show of 2021.  It beat out all the new Marvel shows, Star Wars shows, and the biggest Netflix new hits such as Squid Game and Arcane.  That said, season 1 had some major flaws.  I'm not sure they can fix all of these for season 2, especially if they only get 8 episodes.  But hopefully a couple more seasons can really make this show hit the same highs that the books hit.  Hopefully season 2 can make enough improvements that it grows the audience/   

Amazon has a huge base for TV shows, close to 175 million Prime users have used Prime Video now.  It is probably even closer to 200 million now.  Netflix has 214 million users.  Prime is rapidly growing, and wheel of time is the premier show until Lord of the Rings.  it's quite possible that Wheel of Time will end being the better show of the two.   https://qz.com/2003812/amazon-prime-has-almost-as-many-streaming-subscribers-as-netflix/

2 hours ago, WhiteVeils said:

https://www.businessinsider.com/wheel-of-time-biggest-new-series-last-year-2022-2#9-chucky-syfy-2

 

Pretty crazy.  Wheel of time bigger than every new Marvel and Starwars show in 2021.  Hopefully Amazon gets their crisis response team and figures out their script problems and other problems asap.  

1 hour ago, Skipp said:

 

This being an US only tracking I wonder what the world wide looks like.  It seems like Amazon was trying to do a massive global marketing effort.

The Amazon executives were saying the Wheel of time was doing big numbers worldwide.  didn't provide metrics

1.  One of the biggest fails was that they tried to fill in the gaps with bonus materials.  These bonus materials aren't easy to find and aren't even available on most TV streaming devices.  someone told me I have to watch it on my computer to find the bonus content.  What's the point?  

2.  If they are struggling for time I suggested they do a very fast 3 second intro scene like the Witcher season 2.  That will allow a little more content in each episode. 

3.  Gotta fix the editing and pacing.  I just watched book of Boba Fett and I was amazed at how they spend so much time on each scene, sometimes with no words at all.  Alien languages, world building etc. It was really fun to watch Tatooine come alive. Wheel of time rushed almost every single scene (except the Steppin one) and barely even showed the world they built such as Shadar Logoth. the Ways, the Blight etc.  Amazon has to give them more time to make the scenes and characters come alive.  that isn't happening for me yet.

4.  Wheel of time needs some more humor as well.  the books are full of humor, and I don't think the show is making that humor element at all.  Grimdark can still have humor.  Game of Thrones had some hilarious scenes as well.... not so much with WOT.

5.  Don't change the books for reasons that make no sense.  Perrin killing his wife was an absolutely terrible decision.  Didn't add to the season and Perrin ended up a compete dud.  Listen to Brandon next time when he has strong objections 

The females were empowered so much in season 1 they forgot to empower the men.

1.  Lan being pretty much useless and bumbling most of his assignments

2.  Perrin killing his own wife and doing just about nothing the rest of the season.  had to be rescued by Egwene from Valda, just stood there without trying to stop Fain from stealing the horn.

3.  Rand having all his scenes stolen from him, never learning the sword, never having Male bonding with Lan.  They tried so hard to ignore Rand that no one has any idea of his strength yet.  

4.  Matt had some decent scenes early on but pretty much not doing anything other stealing a tainted dagger and then getting sick.  His only highlight was helping his sisters

5.  Loial did pretty much nothing other than guide in the ways, get drunk with Min. and then get stabbed by Fain.

6.  Agelmar, top 5 general, looked pretty useless.  All in all I would say he is probably stabbed but not dead.

Badass male scenes were given for scenes not in the book such as Steppin and Logaine.  The female scenes were needlessly overpowered.  Nynaeve healing everyone instaneously, Amalisa destroying a whole Trolloc army while her brother was useless, Egwene healing near death Nynaeve, etc

They need to do some major work in season 2 to balance all this out.

I was pretty surprised some of the big wot channels such as WOTup given 5/10 review for episode 8.  Not the great episode we need for hype into season 2.  I was hoping for a lot more.  I'm very happy WOT did good numbers, but Rafe really needs to make major improvements on this show.  

If Amazon won't give them more episode time they should take out the wheel of time pattern intro and use that for more storyline.

No reason to waste valuable episode time when it is already so limited

https://comicbook.com/tv-shows/news/amazon-wheel-of-time-ratings-tops-netflix/

WOT was the most watched show on any streaming service, including Netflix, from 11/15 to 11/21.  Hopefully the audience stays for season 2 and Amazon can improve the show and get the interest level even higher for season 2

19 minutes ago, notpropaganda73 said:

It’s not a prediction but a big problem with how they have left S1 is Rand going off on his own. It means

 

1) Lan never trains him 

 

2) Rand doesn’t chase the Horn with Ingtar et al. Ingtar’s reveal as a DF will be hollow without his relationship with Rand imo

 

 

Rand on his own could be a prelude to him running into Lanfear and then having a portal stone journey.  They've changed so many things about the story but I don't predict him going to the Aiel waste just yet

2 hours ago, JenniferL said:

Leigh Butler’s review. 
 

https://time.com/6131394/wheel-of-time-season-finale-review/?fbclid=IwAR0zKqQCkdE_hGOh3AFQQeTXUglZdH4i7KDw9GmJ9m5tZ-bBHHDM-1xO3j8

this review seems spot on.  hopefully Amazon listens to the feedback and responds