Review 636: The Wheel of Time (Season 1)

 

It's almost impossible to begin a review of Season 1 of Amazon's The Wheel of Time without comparring it to Game of Thrones, the show that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is so clearly trying to follow in the footsteps of. 

The result is an uneven inaugural season that's at times a rousing adventure in the vain of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy at other times a bland and by-the-numbers adventure that tries to cover too much ground in too little time.

In a sprawling, epic world where magic exists and only certain women are allowed to access it, Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike), a member of the incredibly powerful all-female organization called the Aes Sedai, arrives in the small town of Two Rivers. There, she embarks on a dangerous, world-spanning journey with five young men and women, Nynaeve al'Meara (Zoe Robins), Egwene al' Vere (Madeleine Madden), Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski), Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) and Matt Cauthon (Barney Harris) one of whom is prophesied to be the Dragon Reborn, who will either save or destroy humanity.

To the dim degree that I recall the premise of The Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan, none of which I've read, the fantasy world is unamed (unlike Game of Throne's Westeros or The Lord of the Ring's Middle-Earth) due to the cyclical nature of time as depicted in the books, is simultaniously the distant past and the distant future Earth. The titular Wheel refers to a civilization-wide belief in reincarnation, with people being reborn again and again in different circumstances. It's also a world where magic - frequently reffered to as "the one power" - exists, but is largely the province of the Aes Sedai. All of this very intriguing and unique

Throughout her quest to find the "Dragon Reborn" Moiraine is accompanied by a warder or bodyguard/companion, al'Lan Mandragoran (Daniel Henney, whom you may recognised as Matt Simmons from Criminal Minds or Agent Zero from X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

Pike and Henney are forced to do most of the heavy lifting throughout the season as the five mini-heroes they pick up end up being mostly interchangeable in the long run.

2.5/5

The Anonymous Critic.