Review: The Wheel of Time (Rafe Judkins, 2021-)
Fig 1. - The Wheel of Time (Rafe Judkins, 2021-).
The Wheel of Time (Rafe Judkins, 2021) is a highly anticipated Amazon Prime TV series based on Robert Jordan’s book series under the same title. The first season comprises eight episodes and recounts the events from The Eye of the World (1990), the first volume of Jordan’s epic saga, introducing its main characters in a familiar Tolkienian fashion. A stranger visits a small village in secluded mountains, which is almost immediately attacked by hordes of animalistic monsters. Fortunately, the stranger turns out to be a powerful sorceress Moiraine Sedai (expertly played by Rosamund Pike), who is adept at channelling the One Power, an equivalent of magic in The Wheel of Time’s world (see Fig. 1, and below for a short clip of Moiraine’s Quest from the programme’s Bonus Content). After the attack, Moiraine and her Warder Lan (Daniel Henney) reveal to four young unsuspecting villagers that one of them is the prophesied saviour of the world, the Dragon Reborn and, to protect their loved ones from further grief, Egwene (Madeleine Madden), Mat (Barney Harris), Rand (Josha Stradowski), and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) must travel to Tar Valon. On their way, they are joined by a village Wisdom Nynaeve (Zoë Robbins) who discovers she can channel and requires training in Tar Valon, as the city is a centre for knowledge and Aes Sedai training.
The Wheel of Time - Moiraine’s Quest.
Amazon Prime Video deserves a pat on the back for the amount of world-building accomplished throughout this season. The landscapes used across different parts of The Wheel of Time world are epic in scope yet distinct enough to allow this world to stand out amongst a growing number of fantasy films and TV series, such as The Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003) trilogy, Game of Thrones (David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, 2011-2019), The Witcher (Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, 2019-), and Shadow and Bone (Eric Heisserer, 2021-). The teams who have worked on locations and landscaping VFX may rest easy, as they have managed to create a visually unique fantasy world.
The landscaping achievement is complemented by the series’ soundscape. Lorne Balfe creates an incredible music score that makes The Wheel of Time’s world palpable because it provides thick layers of wonder, alienation, horror, and longing across the season, and punctuates the fantastic elements of the show without being overbearing. For those of our readers who enjoy fantasy soundscapes but are not inclined to sit through eight episodes of a TV series, I recommend watching the title sequence of the show. It encapsulates the strength of the show’s musical differentiation well, with its Eastern-inspired use of string instruments, Celtic drums and vocals sung in Old Tongue (Jordan’s original fantasy language) complementing a beautifully flowing animation (below is an expanded version of the title sequence from the original soundtrack). Although Balfe explains the importance of folk instruments like banjos and mandolins and the use of Uilleann pipes and the bagpipe in creating a score for a fantasy show about shepherds rather than kings and queens, the Eastern influences audible in the score confirm the production team’s commitment to the literary source, as Jordan derived many of the world-building elements for his fantasy saga from Eastern mythologies and philosophical systems (2021).
Expanded soundtrack from the title sequence titled “Moiraine Sedai.”
As the main characters travel through the world, the television series does a good job of showing the richness of cultures interspersed across the landscape, whether it is in cities or villages, and the cultural differences between various peoples are reflected in their clothing, hairstyles and behaviour. Such attention to detail is crucial in the process of designing a convincing self-contained fantasy world, as the absence of such elements can heavily influence the reception of the show and prevent the audience from successful immersion, especially if the show already has a devoted fanbase derived from its literary source. Season two of The Witcher is a good example of how a show can fail at this aspect of world-building, and how this in turn can undermine the reception of other elements of the show, such as acting and VFX. Although Judkins’ The Wheel of Time adaptation is not without problems, it manages to impart the depth of Jordan’s world, which in turn allows the audience to focus on characters and their stories.
Fans of Jordan’s book series may find some narrative changes disappointing or even discombobulating. For example, the portrayal of Mat’s father differs substantially from that in the literary saga. Further narrative changes in the structure of the season become visible and confusing after episode six, because Barney Harris, who portrays Mat, has resigned from the show halfway through the shooting of the season. As the episodes were shot in chronological order, his resignation proved to be one of the major obstacles in the production and his absence had to be addressed swiftly through restructuring of scenes and episodes at the end of the season. I sympathise with the production team and acknowledge many difficulties this rare situation must have caused, nevertheless, the show suffers from this rapid readjustment of narrative arches and some of the scenes in the last two episodes feel forced and out of place, precisely because some of the characters are evidently performing actions not intended for them initially. Fortunately, the role of Mat has been recast, and I remain hopeful that the scriptwriting of the future seasons will remain uninterrupted, allowing actors and writers to work on a consistent and cohesive adaptation of Jordan’s fantasy.
Two other elements of The Wheel of Time series deserve a mention. The first is the depiction of villains across the whole season. As in many epic fantasy stories, we are faced with an absolute villain, the ominous Dark Lord who must be defeated by the hero. However, following in the footsteps of other showrunners, Judkins’ interpretation of the source material demonstrates how clever use of minor villains can enrich the narrative, and allow the audience to experience battles with evil on a more personal level during intimate encounters as well as epic battles. Kate Fleetwood as Aes Sedai Liandrin Guirale and Abdul Salis as Eamon Valda, a knight of the Children of the Light order, shine in their villainous roles and bring depth to every exchange with the main cast. The second element that deserves highlighting is the use of horror across the season. As horror shocks and disturbs, its use across The Wheel of Time’s VFX to depict, for example, the male half of One Power is very effective (see below). The sluggish oily blackness that has an almost tentacle-like quality is vastly different to Moiraine’s threads of light that spin from her fingers as if she was weaving with electricity. This horrific depiction of One Power allows for a shattering contrast to be experienced by the audience in a form of both: a visual spectacle and an induced emotional response of revulsion and fear. Such subtle use of horror makes for a refreshing change from the sex-scenes-saturation championed by Game of Thrones, enhances the fantastic reality, and differentiates the show further from what has already been done in TV fantasy.
VFX of One Power: Male and Female.
Overall, season one of The Wheel of Time is entertaining and serves as a solid foundation for future seasons. The amount of world-building achieved in eight episodes is impressive, however, due to the complex nature of the world and ensemble cast, some of the interactions between the characters may feel forced or out of place because they were not given enough screen time to fully develop. For example, the dream sequences between Rand and the Dark One are very effective and provide ample tension across the first two episodes. Unfortunately, these interactions disappear completely until episode eight and leave the audience with continuity befuddlement once they finally reappear. This, hopefully, might be addressed in the future. The last scene of TheWheel of Time season one rings on an epic note full of promise, with intriguing battleships approaching the continent and sinister-looking sorcerers sending a tidal wave towards the shore straight from the ship’s deck. I sincerely hope that season two will be produced with the panache and the attention to detail that this scene promises. In the meantime, fans of Jordan’s books as well as fans of fantasy television may enjoy this relatively satisfying adaptation of The Eye of the World while they wait for the next chapter of the saga.
**Article published: January 14, 2022**
References
Balfe, Lorne. 2021. “Creating the Music for The Wheel of Time.” Amazon Prime Video YouTube Channel, December 26, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFR0x4OQ5L8&list=PLWz2DO39R-NVC5pL6yACZJmE4KVKCIT6J&index=25.
Jordan, Robert. 1990. The Eye of the World. New York: Tor Books.
Biography
Dr Aga J. Drenda works as a writer, reviewer, and editor. She is Book Reviews Editor at Fantasy/Animation.org, and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP). She has received a PhD in Fantasy Literature from Anglia Ruskin University (2017) and she specialises in fantastic narratology and the contemporary fantasy genre. Aga is currently working on an academic book The Anatomy of Magic, a chapter on unicorn fiction for The Mythological Equines in Children’s Literature, and a chapter on Polish fantasy for The International Fantasy Reader. Visit Aga’s academia website or follow her on Twitter.
