Pat's Fantasy Hotlist: The Wheel of Time Soundtrack: Season 1, Volume 3

The Wheel of Time Soundtrack: Season 1, Volume 3

Stopped watching after episode 5 because there was no point. But Lorne Balfe's score remains solid.

15 commentaires:

Unknown said...: I'm curious Pat, what do you mean by there's no point? I can tell you that I feel like I'm watching it because my wife wants to, since I find it deeply boring. But I have also been thinking about the books themselves and reading your old reviews on the closing trilogy...perhaps my boredom is based in the lingering (even now) sense of disappointment that the last books were so *not* good. So to watch the show reminds me of how ugly it felt to finish that last book all those years ago.; 2:52 PM
Patrick said...: The closing trilogy wasn't up to par, it's true. But the first 6 volumes were quite good and I have fond memories of the series up until the end of A Crown of Swords. It went downhill after that.

I wanted the show to recapture that early magic of WoT. But going for diversity and a more progressive turning of the Wheel made this show a somewhat piss-poor fanfic adaptation that is very loosely based on the source material. As such, I found it utterly boring and not very well-done.

With a 10M$ budget per episode, I was expecting better. Alas. . . =(; 5:27 PM
Dpoulos27 said...: I'm stunned reading this. This show is really good. I can't believe how negative and baseless some of these complaints are. Newsflash: they had to change it - I'm so tired of entitled fans - please stop watching - and yeah, if they are smart they will skip Sanderson's terrible contributions and change the ending, 2 seasons after Lord Of Chaos it should end; 10:37 PM
Shroud said...: I don't know how I feel about the show. It's kinda growing on me even though there is major lore breaking going on in almost every scene. I did not like the books, however, and gave up after book 3, so maybe I just don't care enough about the series to begin with to form an in-depth opinion.; 7:06 AM
Fred said...: Are the books still good after all those years Pat? There's so much good stuff in the last 20 years.; 1:16 PM
Patrick said...: I can't really say because I haven't reread them in a long time. WoT, a product of the 90s for the most part, may not have aged as well as other SFF series. Given the death of Robert Jordan and Sanderson's inability to close the show the way the series deserve, I never found the energy or the desire to go on such a major reread. Will get to it at some point, I'm sure.

Regardless of how well it has aged, the first couple of installments are still a thousand times better than the TV series. :/; 1:32 PM
Dpoulos27 said...: It's aged poorly - Jordan clearly did not know how to depict women - the show is a MASSIVE improvement in that area.

I just don't get the criticism - if they stuck to the books as a bible we'd still be at the grinwell farm and Rand and Mat would be playing the flute and complaining about sleeping in haylofts, SNOOZER

books 3-6 are the best of the series, RJ clearly started taking the money and checked out after that - Sanderson, ugh, what an awful choice to finish - show will hopefully ignore most of books 7-14, I reread AMOL and literally couldn't believe I paid for that book

Enjoy the show for what it is, an adaptation that will carry a lot of the themes of the books; 2:45 PM
Fred said...: Thanks, I guess I should finish Malazan instead. Finished the 7th a few years ago, I guess I could wait for the French translation to get me back at 8th.; 3:24 PM
Patrick said...: @Dpoulos27:

I can't. God knows I tried, but I hate almost everything about the show.

The writing sucks, the acting sucks, and the production made some extremely weird decisions that turned this adaptation into fanfic material. Glad some people are enjoying it, but I checked out and don't believe I have it in me to give the show another chance.; 10:17 PM
Dpoulos27 said...: I don't get it Pat - but hey, to each their own, I guess we went into this with different expectations.

Sad for you, it's really good - but if you want a 'by the books' adaptation that's impossible, wouldn't you agree?

Also, I would expect someone as accomplished as you with the reviews I've read of yours to come with something better than "the writing and acting suck" - The only actor I don't like thus far is Perrin and the writing around him has not been great, the rest of the cast has been fantastic. I couldn't stand him in the books so no big loss for me.

Either way it's a hit, yay! Also maybe the difference is you seem to like wheel of Time a little bit more than I did - I used to think it was a lot better but after reading Erikson and Bakker - I realize Jordan was playing checkers while they're playing chess; 5:09 PM
Shroud said...: @Dpoulos27:

Would you leave the man in peace? :D; 1:48 AM
Patrick said...: @Dpoulos27:

We will have to agree to disagree, my friend. =)

The quality of the writing is bad. The casting sucks, with only Moiraine and Mat being adequately depicted. The storytelling and the weird choices that were made are subpar, to say the least.

A faithful adaptation was impossible, true. But this fanfic-level new turning of the Wheel is akin to the last 3 seasons of GoT in terms of quality. As such, about on par with The Shannara Chronicles.

Just enjoy it and don't worry about me. If you've been following the Hotlist for a while, then you know that I'm hard to please and quite demanding when it comes to movies and TV series. =); 10:34 AM
Dpoulos27 said...: Lol - Fair enough - do me a favor - watch the aiel fight scene, let me know what you think when you have time.

Disagree about characters, Rand and Mat especially are well done and the women had to change since RJ was a bit of a sexist perv IMO; 1:24 PM
Shroud said...: You want him to watch a scene where an UNVEILED Aiel kills multiple soldiers? You must want him dead. :D; 2:45 AM
Dpoulos27 said...: Lol nah big fan of Pat - he does great work :); 12:20 PM