REVIEW: Wheel Of Time Leavetaking (Season 1, Episode 1)

This is a review of the first three episodes of Amazon Studios’ Wheel of Time series that premiered on Friday, November 19, 2021. Spoilers ahead.

I read the Wheel of Time series from beginning to end, and until the final few books when the time investment became unmanageable, I would re-read the series prior to a new book coming out.

I was very excited to see that a series had been produced, but kept my expectations low; I knew changes would need to be made to adapt this juggernaut of a story to the small screen, and that I wouldn’t necessarily agree with these changes. I also worried that the entire adaptation would be botched it it wasn’t handled by people who cared.

So on Saturday night, I settled in with friend from college who had also read the series, and we watched the first three episodes.

While there are spoilers ahead of what happened in the episode, I will do my level best to not spoil anything from the books so as to not ruin any future reveals for people who have not read the books. With that being said, read further at your own risk.

Leavetaking

This was such a jarring start. We initially thought we were watching a trailer for the series, but quickly realized that nope: this was it. We were jumping right in.

I get why they started here, as they needed to establish for everyone (maybe for the book fans even more so) that this was Moiraine’s story, and not necessarily that of the Two Rivers kids. Still, it was an abrupt beginning that didn’t impress us.

Then bam, we’re with the Red Ajah chasing down Logain, and Liandrin Sedai gives her little speech to Logain. A little heavy-handed, I felt. Moiraine is there, and mentions rumors of “five ta’veren” in Two Rivers. Liandrin Sedai gives her little speech to Logain.

OK, a note from me: I felt like this needed some context, and they never really provided it. In the WoT universe, a ta’veren is someone whom is less susceptible to the turning of the wheel and the “weave” that in some ways governs people’s lives, and instead by their very nature and presence cause the weave to move around them, and can essentially alter fate.

Now off to Two Rivers. It wasn’t how I envisioned it. I always had a picture in my head of something more rustic, a little more open…but this is how they made it, and I’m not mad.

We meet our principle characters: Nynaeve, Egwene, Rand, Mat, and Perrin. And Perrin is married?! OK, this is the first major departure from the books that we saw. Not a deal breaker, but the worry starts: how much are they going to change?

Thankfully not Mat. He already has some of the best lines in the show, and Barney Harris is perfect casting.

More day-in-the-life scenes, Rand heads back home with Tam, and my friend and I pause to get some beef stew that he made. We take this moment to reflect about our initial thoughts, and we both are lukewarm to it. So far, nothing special, and the beginning scenes didn’t leave a good taste in our mouths. I’m starting to worry a little that it isn’t going to get better.

We unpause, the trolloc attack starts, and we both immediately reverse our previous positions. This is awesome! The trollocs look great (freaking nightmare fuel), the fight is tightly shot and edited, we get to see some badassery from Moiraine, Lan, and Tam, both of us lost any bet we would have placed regarding the fate of Perrin’s wife…just wow. Great job on that scene.

And Nynaeve being taken by a trolloc was a surprise. We figured it wasn’t the last we would see of her, but that was a little shocking.

The villagers fighting back and laying a thorough beatdown on a trolloc, though, was choice. We needed to see that they weren’t completely helpless for reasons that I’m sure will be revealed in a future season, and this was a great way to show it.

There’s also a great cinematographic choice made when the group leaves Two Rivers with the scene being lit in the blue scale, matching the color scheme of the cover The Eye Of The World (the first book in the series). I swear that when Lan turns his horse, there’s a brief moment when it looked exactly like the cover, and it’s such a great touch. Great work by Director of Photography David Moxness (Fringe, Smallville).

Finally, ending with the opening monologue from the book was a good choice. I thought it would have been what they started with, but I suppose that would have been too close to the opening of Fellowship of the Ring, which I have zero doubt is something that the producers are trying to avoid. It would have been criminal to not include it, and this was probably the best way to do so.

Final Thoughts

So overall, I give the first episode an B. The opening scene really hurt things, in my opinion, and I don’t know if it’s because I have The Eye Of The World (the first book in the series) in my head. My friend and I both agreed that starting somewhere in the New Spring novelette that shows the foretelling of The Dragon’s rebirth would have made more sense, but alas, this was the choice that was made.

I was also a little worried about Daniel Henney as Lan Mondragoran because of his age. In the books, Lan was a bit older, maybe in his 40s, and I was concerned that his youth would take something away from the character.

I was wrong.

Henney carries himself with gravitas and is completely believable as a stoic and lethal warrior.

[MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD]

Also (major book spoiler ahead), they cut the scene with Rand taking his injured and delirious father back to Two Rivers to be healed. We got why, as this would reveal the identity of the Dragon Reborn, and this was something that the producers are obviously trying to tease out. We’ll see how successful they are in episode 7, “The Dark Along The Ways”.