This holiday season has suddenly become a pretty busy time for me when it comes to Live Action shows. Besides that one anime live action adaptation that people keep trying to say exists for one reason or another, I have four shows that I am interested in checking out during these times. I say this as a person that does not watch as much western live action things anymore because of how phenomenally boring they have become to me. Yes, even those Disney/Marvel things that are just cash grabs to me. The shows in question are the last season of the new Lost in Space, the last season of the Expanse which is great, the Witcher Season 2, and finally…Wheel of Time.
So yeah, I am writing about Wheel of Time as a person who has tried to read these huge fantasy tomes and has failed to do so. There was a time where I read more often and probably could have dived into these novels and read one a day, but I haven’t been able to do that for years. Especially the longer fantasy tomes which almost feel the same to me and explore their worlds in very similar ways to Lord of the Rings. Wheel of Time feels like a massive surprise that it works in 2021 because of that. It’s obviously not the book and has made some changes, but I feel like it works better for me in this format. Especially when the show is as well casted and written as this one.
So in some ways, the show is as classic fantasy set up. It is a classic tale of finding the chosen one called the dragon to stop or start the end times of this current era of that world. A world where darkness and an army of trolldocs are fighting each other and the youngsters refuse to accept that happening at that moment. It is also a world that is mostly run by women with magic called Aes Sedai who are assigned to keep watch over the world as the Wheel of Time itself spins around souls from one generation to another generation. So obviously, there is some interesting concepts and philosophy in how its constructed here.
What interested me in checking out Wheel of Time at first was my own failure in getting into the books because at first. Now, I am four episodes into the tv series again and really enjoying it. While the first three episodes were pretty good with how they were constructed, episode four was what sold me into it even more. Why? Because this is where the world made a lot more sense to me. Its where the Aes Sedai met in great mass over a false dragon, its where the philosophy of the Wheel of Time and how it changed people was actually discussed, and its where all the elements in the clicked. There were people who were hyped by the last moment in the episode, but the whole episode was a great lead up to all that happened which is why it was great.
The weakest part of this TV series is only the visual effects. Honestly, considering that the pandemic happened and the show runner has mentioned how the pandemic has affected them, that is fine. Honestly, the rest of the show is so strong that I just don’t care about them to be honest. I mean, I think me noticing that a green screen was used multiple times for set locations feels like a fluke in some ways because of how hard it would be to make some full locations. I also feel like the magic itself has an otherworldly nature that I don’t mind them feeling off putting because it’s magic. It isn’t supposed to feel ordinary. It not being as polished as it could be doesn’t feel incorrect. At least that is my reading on it that I am sure others will dunk on.
Now I am posting this on a Thursday to where I’ve been waiting and waiting for episode 5 to appear since Thanksgiving day of all things. I can’t wait for it. I want to see what this episode has to say and do about the incidents and fall outs of episode 4. I want to see this world explored even more then what I’ve seen before then. I want to see all of these characters, who have been displaced from their town for so long, just be happy. I want so many things and I want to dig and dig into it more. I’m also possibly thinking about retrying to read the books in the future because I am so curious about it. So here is my little blog post just fanboying and being excited. I don’t write enough about being excited and fanboying these days and I just wanted to share that bit.
Mechanical Anime Reviews 