dex14

dom56

Look good was hoping to see Loial in the trailer believe he be cgi.

Bandoman

I wonder if this will make sense to those of us who haven't read the books.

Draven

Oh hell yes that looks awesome. I've read the whole series (and read the first 5-6 books multiple times waiting for new ones) but I think it will be easy to understand. The biggest issue with the books is length and how long it takes to get to things you know are coming. But then they actually happen and it's incredible...then another long slow buildup.

The story itself is fairly simple, standard fantasy - young people from a small village chosen to save the world. Looks like a lot of moments from the first book make an appearance here.

The Questyen

I doubt Amazon is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to make a series that will only make sense to a small niche of people.

Bandoman

Well, when you put it like that...

Eric F

I don't know, as we said earlier Bezos has so much money he can afford to produce shows that only appeal to him and not give a shit if anyone else watches it.

He does need viewing material while he's on his penis rocket.

johnnysd

He actually is in the trailer. He's at the Waygate and scrunched down.

My favorite books of all time and my most anticipated show ever.

What I have seen makes me incredibly optimstic.

DJariya

TV critics Mo Ryan and Alan Sepinwall both don’t like the series. Ryan thought it was bland. Sepinwall was bored.

johnnysd

He hates everything, so him disliking it is a good sign.

DJariya

Yeah I know about Sepinwall. He hates the majority of the stuff he reviews. He just sounds like a cranky old man.

RichC2

Hates seems to be a strong word. Though he is kind of all over the place:

Jupiter's Legacy - 1 out of 5
Wheel of Time - 2 out of 5
Physical S1 - 2 out of 5
Mayor of Kingstown - 2.5 out of 5
Shrink Next Door - 2.5 out of 5
Foundation - 2.5 out of 5
Cowboy Bebop (Live Action) - 3.5 out of 5
Hacks - 3.5 out of 5
Succession S3 - 4 out of 5
Dave S2 - 4 out of 5
Reservation Dogs - 4 out of 5
For All Mankind S2 - 4 out of 5
Maid - 4 out of 5
Only Murders in the Building - 4.5 out of 5

The trailer for this looked pretty cool, the ads they've been running on TV make it look to have the production quality of Xena.

Josh-da-man

I've never read Wheel of Time, though I have heard of it.

The footage I've seen from the trailers and commercials look like SyFy Channel schlock. I'll probably skip this.

It also makes me really nervous about the Amazon Lord of the Rings series.

lwhy?

IGN gave it a 9 out of 10 and TVLine gave it a B. https://tvline.com/2021/11/16/the-wheel-of-time-review-amazon-prime-adaptation-fantasy-novels/
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johnnysd

It is nothing like typical SyFy sclock, it is one of the deepest and most engrossing fantasy series ever that is incredibly detailed, and gets better as the story goes on and expands. The very early part is a homage to LOTR so has some similiarities but quickly diverges quick significantly. The production values will be very very high.

Josh-da-man

When I said "SyFy schlock," I meant the production values.

I am unfamiliar with the storyline of "The Wheel of Time," but from what I recall it has a bit of a reputation for being an overwrought and bloated fantasy epic that outlived its welcome, but that it nevertheless does have a lot of fans.

Eric F

It’s got to be better than Shannara at any rate. Maybe we’ll get more elven raves out of this?

johnnysd

There is no doubt that in middle starting with mostly book 8 there is some padding and bloat. It is called the slog and not a whole lot happens but even then there are still individual elements and scenes are that are amazingly compelling and it all ends well. I would not say it outlived it's welcome in any way, but the interesting thing that that happened in this time is that George R. R. Martin was sort of pumping the first few GOT books and Jordasn was crucufied for delays and milking the series and now GRRM is like 10X worse than Jordan ever was.

There is a reason why it is easily one of the Top 3 fantasy series of all time. It's fantastic. The WoT books are among the most visual novels of all time and Jordan is maybe the best writer ever in ending books. The endings of almost all the books are too good to put down.

Neil M.

I sort of agree with Josh. The commercials aren't very appealing at all. I'm sure it will be good though.

johnnysd

I actually had not seen a commercial today but agree its a bit jumpy. The full trailers are quite good IMO. At around 75% on RT which is quite strong I think. High fantasy with lots of magic is never going to appeal to everyone and magic is at the core of WoT. GoT was more a medieval drama with some fantastical elements most of which are introduced later in the series and if remember nothing magical until the last episode of first season.

I have been reading the books for almost 30 years and have read them 10 times all the way through so I am a superfan and this is my most anticipated show of all time to finally see my favorite books brought to life. Will be interesting to see non-book fans reactions. From what I have seen book fan reactions have been uniformly fantastic.

For those on the shelf, I think you should give it a shot. It is a show that will definitely become deeper and more exciting as you watch through the first season and really becomes quite remarkable as the show opens up and moves away from its more formal beginning structure.

Rodney2187

I read the first three books back in the 90's, but I barely remember them. I hope this series turns out well.

Osiris3657

I'm going to give it a chance, but my expectations are low. Why do these fantasy series outside of LoTR and GoT have to have such goofy/impossible to remember names for characters and places?

Wolf359

This is a fantastic book series that I just don't think will be done justice. I'll definitely watch but have little faith.

johnnysd

Lol, LOTR has goofy impossible to remember names as well just you are used to them

Josh-da-man

Yeah, and a lot of the Lord of the Rings characters have multiple weird names...

Strider=Aragorn=Elessar
Gandalf=Mithrandir=Olorin=Stormcrow... yadda yadda yadda...