The Wheel of Time Season Premiere Review: A Journey Begins

Rosamund Pike leads the way in what promises to be an exciting season of magic and adventure.

The premieres start and end with a bang and promise to bring excitement in the near future.

However, the production seems to falter a bit in The Wheel of Time Season 1 Episode 1.

I hate to speak ill of it because the story and acting were superb.

The special effects left a lot to desire.

The magic was better than the falling rocks but still looked unimpressive against the sweeping setting.

The plot drags heavily in its confusing and unclear world-building but picks up again at the end with a tense battle.

The effects of the battle lead well into the two following premiere episodes and make for an all-around good first set.

This first episode serves well as a first foray into the world of the Wheel but also lacks a lot of essential explanations.

There are things that they force the audience to accept as usual without any sort of prior introduction.

Nynaeve: Do you hear that?
Egwene: Sounds, wrong. What does it mean?
Nynaeve: I don’t know. I’ve never heard anything like it.

This leads to the plot kicking itself into action relatively quickly and suffering from too much exposition and not enough explanation.

Luckily, the story is pretty easy to pick up on, but extra world-building for the first hour would have helped immensely.

The acting, however, exceeded expectations.

Rosamund Pike is electrifying and seriously steals every scene (which works well because she’s one of the leads).

Rounding out the main cast are Daniel Henney as Lan Mondragoran, Josha Stradowski as Rand al’Thor, Madeleine Madden as Egwene al’Vere, Marcus Rutherford as Perrin Aybara, Zoë Robins as Nynaeve al’Meara, and Barney Harris as Mat Cauthon.

The entire cast brings interesting takes on their characters, and they give outstanding performances.

Daniel Henney’s character Lan serves as Moiraine’s right-hand man, and they are bonded together through a psychic link.

His character is the most mysterious of the entire cast of characters, with his opinions and point of view relatively unclear.

I hope that the series delves deeper into Moiraine and Lan’s bond (like the what and why).

So far, their dynamic (both the characters and the actors) is quite interesting, and I hope it stays that way throughout the series.

After the attack from the dark one’s army of Trollocs, Nynaeve disappears.

Moiraine also gets gravely wounded during this attack, which adds an immense sense of urgency to their journey to the White Tower.

Luckily, we don’t have to wait to find out the fate of Nynaeve (or Moiraine) in one of the best twists in a while.

Even though it’s three hours, it’s impossible to turn off the TV and take a break because of the gripping story and cliffhangers.

Moiraine: Words are important and how we use them is important.
Egwene: I don’t know.
Moiraine: One, to speak no word that is not true. Two, to make no weapon with which one person may kill another. Three, never to use the one power as a weapon; except in the last extreme defense of her life, or the life of her warder, or another Aes Sedai. These oaths are bound by the one power itself, it’s not that we do not break them, its that we can not break them.

The Wheel of Time Season 1 Episode 2 sees the journey continue, the world-building advance, and the special effects improve.

Time runs short for the villagers as the dark one hunts them.

This episode added an enormous sense of urgency, and a new, mysterious threat in the city Lan sought refuge in for the group.

The terror of the city they arrived in is legitimately scary, and they spend much of the episode running for their lives.

Lan still is quite a mysterious character, and Moiraine’s anger with him taking them to the dangerous city raises many questions about him.

How did he know about the city? What is the dark entity that lives there? Why would he take them there?

Moiraine, when healed, will have a few words with him.

Our villagers got split up and paired off: Perrin with Egwene and Rand with Mat.

Luckily, our villagers live but are now all split up.

The Wheel of Time Season 1 Episode 3 finds our leads out on their adventure, which leads to near-death for all involved.

Guest Star Maria Doyle Kennedy appears in this episode, and It is always a pleasure to see her on-screen.

She plays the lead of a mysterious group of travelers who assist two of our heroes, Perrin and Egwene.

Episode 3, entitled A Place of Safety, is the strongest showing of the three premieres.

The hour contains a boatload of suspense, intrigue, and lots of world-building.

The stellar pacing during A Place of Safety compliments the incredible performances of the leads quite well.

With how much this episode impressed, the first two almost seem a little lackluster, especially the first, entitled Leavetaking.

The second, entitled Shadow’s Waiting, improved on the first, and the third on the second.

We would love it if the show’s trajectory stayed the same because seeing an improvement with each episode is not something entirely common.

This is not to say that Leavetaking was terrible.

It serves as a great first experience into the world, and the other two premiere hours add a brilliant amount of clarity to the direction of the series.

The journey seems quite long, making us wonder how much of the season will cover the trip itself.

Having already been renewed for Season 2, we know that the plot won’t precisely wrap up at the end of Wheel of Time Season 1.

A Place of Safety left us with an exciting cliffhanger, and we wonder what the rest of the season will bring with cliffhangers and unresolved plotlines.

Amazon has a winner with The Wheel of Time, and hopefully, it goes on for many seasons.

Although Amazon Prime is a streaming site, they have opted to go with a weekly release after the premiere.

This release format will serve well for The Wheel of Time because they leave time to digest each screening while building a fanbase.

The book series may be popular, but with production this large, they will want a lot of positive word of mouth to spread to new fans.

It is a beautiful fantasy show and should not be compared to other fantasy shows like Game of Thrones because it’s already its own entity.

I would be remiss not to mention the other parts of the production aspects that make this show brilliant so far: The costumes, makeup, and music.

The costumes on everyone (From Moiraine’s cloak to the Aes Sedai outfits) are incredible.

The makeup also amazes, especially (but not limited to) the Trolloc’s entire appearance.

Lastly, the music utilized makes a great impression. The title sequence looks terrific, and the music shines.

The score shines throughout the premiere episodes and perfectly fits the show.

So fanatics, what did you think of the first three The Wheel of Time episodes?

Will you be watching more?

Let us know in the comments below!

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Michael Stack is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.