Wheel of Time

by **Dukasaur** on Sun Dec 19, 2021 3:28 am

Well, looks like the GoT conversations have died down.

Wheel of Time should be the next great fantasy novel to be turned into a TV series. Anybody on it?

Early favourites?

by **KoolBak** on Sun Dec 19, 2021 8:56 am

Oh man. To me, this is another one that started out great and completely went to shit. First....6? 8? books I liked, then by 10 I couldn't enjoy it. I'm pig headed so I read them all but hated the whole thing by the time I was done.

So I can't opine on it :lol:

There's a ton of series I've read that DONT do that I'd far rather discuss :lol:

by **mookiemcgee** on Sun Dec 19, 2021 11:52 am

It's been decent... better than some other fantasy trash on TV, but not as epic (yet imo) as GoT was.

by **KoolBak** on Sun Dec 19, 2021 3:15 pm

So it's actually on tv now? If so, what platform?

by **jonesthecurl** on Sun Dec 19, 2021 3:18 pm

Amazon, which I have briefly. I'm not impressed, and I haven't read any of the books. A load of old trollocs.

by **mookiemcgee** on Sun Dec 19, 2021 5:36 pm

Maybe it's just because I played the video back in the day... but I really like 'the witcher' on netflix. Season two just went live a couple days ago.

I gave cowboy bebop a shot, it wasn't as bad as I worried it would be but also nothing special

by **jonesthecurl** on Sun Dec 19, 2021 9:38 pm

yeah I watched about five minutes before I forgot it was on.

by **KoolBak** on Mon Dec 20, 2021 10:02 am

I don't watch much tv and have gone the smart tv route. That being said, the best damn thing I've ever watched is Yellowstone. Up til that, it was the Sopranos. Gonna check out 1883 now.

by **Dukasaur** on Mon Dec 20, 2021 2:39 pm

I only read 3 of the novels, and I didn't read them in order, so for once I'm not a very good judge of how faithful the TV series is to the books.

From all the commentary I've read, KoolBak's commentary is similar to what a lot of people think:

KoolBak wrote:Oh man. To me, this is another one that started out great and completely went to shit. First....6? 8? books I liked, then by 10 I couldn't enjoy it. I'm pig headed so I read them all but hated the whole thing by the time I was done.

So I can't opine on it

There's a ton of series I've read that DONT do that I'd far rather discuss

Most people loved the first 6 books and then hated the next five (up to Knife of Dreams). Most fans felt that Jordan lost his way after the first six books and became a self-indulgent blowhard.

At that point Robert Jordan died and Brandon Sanderson took over the series. This is where the consensus disagrees with KB. Most people felt that books 12-14 (the Sanderson books) did a good job of recapturing the original spirit of the first six and were actually more true-to-Jordan than Jordan was to himself.

Too soon to tell where the TV series will go, but I'm hoping that it will follow a similar pattern, maybe drifting around for a while but ultimately coming to a satisfying climax. Very unlike Game of Thrones, where R.R. Martin, after getting lost in self-indulgence land, didn't have the common decency to drop dead and let someone else finish the series.

So far I'm on Episode 4 of Season 1, and I'm very happy with it.

by **KoolBak** on Mon Dec 20, 2021 8:36 pm

Hmmmm. After reading the GOT series, I watched one episode and hated it...lol. I am reluctant to try Wheel - still pissed about the books and that was a LONG time ago.

DoD, have you watched yellowstone? Or the Sopranos?

by **Dukasaur** on Mon Dec 20, 2021 8:40 pm

KoolBak wrote:Hmmmm. After reading the GOT series, I watched one episode and hated it...lol. I am reluctant to try Wheel - still pissed about the books and that was a LONG time ago.

DoD, have you watched yellowstone? Or the Sopranos?

I never saw the Sopranos. Never had HBO.

My wife watched Yellowstone and I overheard parts of it. Seemed well acted but ultimately rather soap-operish.

by **Dukasaur** on Tue Dec 21, 2021 8:56 am

KoolBak wrote:After reading the GOT series, I watched one episode and hated it...lol.

I am surprised about that.

Accustomed as I am to the the usual Hollywood butcheries that crank out movies only vaguely related to the books they purport to represent, I was really amazed by GoT. It's the first adaptation of anything that seemed really faithful to the books. I thought the first four seasons were amazing. After that, they lost their way, but it wasn't really their fault. It was around that point in the books where Martin himself lost his way.

What did you hate about GoT?

And back to the OP, watched Season 1 Episode 5 of Wheel last night. Rather slow. I hope they're building up to something. But Episode 4 the previous night was amazing!

by **KoolBak** on Tue Dec 21, 2021 10:09 am

funny. Yellowstone is so not soapy IMHO. Got seemed stupid, overproduced, overacted and not true to the books. Soapy perhaps

aren't opinions great?

by **2dimes** on Tue Dec 21, 2021 10:25 am

Which one has the most midgets and castles?

by **Dukasaur** on Tue Dec 21, 2021 11:38 am

KoolBak wrote:Got seemed stupid, overproduced, overacted and not true to the books.

But you gave it only one episode. Try a couple more, maybe best-of-five...

by **mookiemcgee** on Tue Dec 21, 2021 11:49 am

2dimes wrote:Which one has the most midgets and castles?

I'm not sure any will be able to compete with GOT's midget dominance.

by **KoolBak** on Tue Dec 21, 2021 2:11 pm

Dukasaur wrote:
KoolBak wrote:Got seemed stupid, overproduced, overacted and not true to the books.

But you gave it only one episode. Try a couple more, maybe best-of-five...

Noooooooooooooo.....what, you think I'm reasonable all of a sudden?? :lol:

by **2dimes** on Tue Dec 21, 2021 2:36 pm

Duke, have you watched Frontier?

by **thegreekdog** on Thu Dec 23, 2021 11:18 pm

I thought Wheel of Time (the show) was fine. I'll keep watching. Some of the acting is poor (Rand and Perrin for example) but the story is quite good and I like the Lan, Moraine, Nynaeve characters quite a bit.

I thoroughly enjoyed the novels but they pale in comparison to other, similar works (e.g. Steve Erikson, Joe Abercrombie). I will probably read them again someday.