Amazon’s ‘Wheel of Time’: Did the Show Just Get Good?!
After a pretty meh run, The Wheel of Time show just got good.
The Wheel of Time has not been a great show. It’s not even really been a good show. The first season was kind of a mess. For its first few episodes season 2 was better, but also just kind of boring. All of this has finally changed. With Season Two, Episode Six Eyes Without Pity the show finally, surprisingly is good. There are a couple of reasons for this.
Improving Storylines
Overall I thought that all the storylines in Episode 6 have gotten better. This episode also had a few standouts. I thought the Rand and Mat reunion was great and pretty well done. This would have been a highlight of some other episodes but was actually pretty middle of the road.
Lan’s plotline was pretty clearly the worst and most pointless, but it also seems like it’s over now so that’s good. Overall we just saw an increase in stakes, and the emotional moments hitting. The Wheel of Time is suddenly getting good.
The Plots are Coming Together, and That’s Good
I’ve talked before about how I think one of the major issues with Season 2 is that it started with everyone split up. This is kind of a big issue. The five Emond’s Feilders really are the main characters. Fate literally weaves around them. Another half dozen or end up also becoming major important characters. In season 2, the group starts to split up. A couple are in pairs, but some are on their own.
Even most of the pairs end up getting split up. Instead of one story that branches into two and then more, we start with five branches that keep growing. This robs us of most of the inter-character play and bonding we should have. Instead of talking about issues with their friends most of the group ends up talking to strangers and new characters.
via Amazon Studios and EW
Everything being split up meant we spent a lot of time jumping between stories, or not seeing main characters for whole episodes. It made it much harder to get invested and enjoy these people. However, we are slowly starting to get the groups to come together. Rand, Lan, Mat, and Moiraine are all effectively together.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew are in close proximity and the next two episodes should see them all draw together. This will greatly simplify things and really help make The Wheel of Time good.
Being Uncomfortable is Good
The two best plots of the episodes both take place in Falme. These follow Egwene in one and Nynaeve and Elayne in the other. Both deal with the Seanchan and their collared casters the damane. These two storylines are the best thing The Wheel of Time has done so far. They also happen to be the two storylines that most closely follow the books. And look the whole damane thing is deeply uncomfortable to me and many others. It should be.
via Amazon
The idea of leashing women and breaking them down to remove their very humanity and use them as living weapons is abhorrent. That doesn’t mean people in the real world don’t try to do just this. In this way, the episode is an amazing, horrifying, and heartbreaking look at abuse. Both mental and physical.
It’s amped up and shown through the lens of fantasy, but it’s dealing with something really well. The show is, for one of the first times, really saying something or using its medium to look at some real issues in a coherent way. Coupled with good acting, it’s both riveting and uncomfortable to watch and that’s not bad at all. The show also shows the strength that can be needed to get through this kind of abuse.
Looking Forward
This was by far the best episode of The Wheel of Time we’ve gotten. For really the first time I felt invested and drawn in. With it, the show has really crossed over from “OK but boring” to “good”. We will have to see if the final two episodes of the season can be this good, or even better. If they can, I think season 2 may have just saved the show. Hopefully, this wasn’t just a fluke.
