The Wheel of Time

"The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning." Full of contradictions. Sorry, not full, but FULL. There are plot lines that have tension, drive, interesting characters and supporting themes. In contrast, however, the lines that go round and round from nowhere to nowhere have no characters to carry them, and there is nowhere to carry them to. They give a whole new meaning to the concept of tedium (only survivable thanks to successful X-Ray mode of Prime Video). The work with the introduction to the laws, the history, etc. is also contradictory. At times it's artfully worked in, at other times it's like something out of the "how to definitely, but like really definitely, not do it" handbook; a kind of "now we're going to sit by the fire for five minutes and I'm going to tell those around it what they know, but the viewer doesn't". There are also problems with the casting. There are some excellent performances and well cast roles, but there are also a bunch of you-coul-call-them-actors, next to whom even amateurs from a community ensemble look like worthy candidates for the National Theatre. It doesn't help that it's mostly "good lines with good actors, boring lines with bad non-actors", which only deepens the split in quality. It continues with the visual aspect. The epic scenes have thoughtful design of locations and costumes, are not afraid to use extras, CGI and practical effects as well as various camera tricks. But the very next scene looks like the first meeting of wannabe LARPists who stole a white sheet at home thinking it was enough for a white robe, and let the neighbour film it, because he has a camera at home, which is quite enough qualification to be a cameraman. All this in a very loose adaptation (more like "based on motives") of a material that itself suffers from a number of inconsistencies. First of all, that it is a long-winded mash-up, where Jordan makes up for the lack of his own inventiveness and vision by shamelessly borrowing from more verbose colleagues who have written "the same thing" much better. Fortunately, Jordan was a skilled enough routinist that he was at least able to sell it properly (aside from the unintentionally ridiculous names and nomenclature) to make it a mostly passable epic fantasy saga of the most standard cut possible. The adaptation is a worthy result, it’s impressive as often as it is boring. What's more, it can also annoy in a way that even all the faceplam GIFs floating around the net can't adequately express. There's enough good in it with promising potential to keep you from preemptively shooting down possible future series, but at the same time so much bad that you won’t look forward to them or perhaps actively seek them out. So in that respect it is a perfect adaptation, because the same is true of the books. | S1: 3/5 | (24/12/2021)