- What the hell was up with the audio mixing in the first half of e1? It was very difficult to hear what everyone was saying over all the loud background noises. This is a common problem in movies today and oh so easily corrected. It was worse because it was a second layer of confusion on top of some of the heavy accents, and the timing was bad because of brand new folks missing names and possibly important introductory character info. (...maybe the audio could be re-engineered and this could be fixed?)
- While the CGI was often good and did the books justice (fans for years have worried about how channeling would fare in a live action production) some of the effects struggled with the uncanny valley (Shadar Logoth) or just looked straight up fake (Thom's knife through the darkfriend's throat, or her blood on the cobblestones). The production quality in general feels so good, that the "good enough" effects stand out.
- I'm just going to say right out of the gate that the number of planned episodes (seasons?) is not enough. This trend toward shorter and shorter seasons puts such a strain on character development. I often had Dune flashbacks, where *I* knew why certain scenes or dialogue were important (when Moraine was telling the Manatheren story and got to the part about the queen and the camera cut to Egwene I got literal chills down my back), but too often it felt like they were checking storyline boxes and hitting plot beats as fast as they could because they just didn't have time to stop and breathe. I understand the budgetary constraints which limit episode count, but if these seasons had twice the episodes, it would have been very easy to draw out episode 1 better, spend more time on character establishment/development, build up more to Bel Tine and the festivities, then cut to credits right when the Trolloc weapon pierces that guy's chest. As a book reader I'm already invested in every character, but a common complaint in the room was not knowing or caring who the characters were individually.
Alright those are probably my top three complaints; I could scrounge up others but they'd be trivial really.
Stuff that was
for me:
- I didn't really care about the casting changes. Yeah the characters aren't mirror counterparts to their book selves but... it never threatened my suspension of disbelief and was just not on my mind much while watching. Lan may be the most apparent departure for me, but good acting can cover a multitude of sins and the entirety of the main cast did not let down.
- The Trolloc faces should be varied and animal-based (bull faces, bird faces, etc) but they're just kinda generic monster faces and... that's fine, whatever. I noticed it but didn't care.
- Bella. She was always a fun, minor inclusion in the books, but from a production standpoint I understand the continuity burden would have been overly risky. I didn't mind her being cut even though I noticed.
Stuff I was real happy about:
- Boy I sure was glad when Thom showed up. He's hardly a main character, but I was real shocked when he didn't show up in the first episode. For me, down the road, rolling him into another character or something would be a significant departure for the Tower of Ghenjei rescue. Seeing that patchwork cloak let me release a breath I didn't know I was holding.
- Channeling (and the Warder bond). I'm glad the portrayal so far has been appropriate and well-paced, instead of terrible CGI or awkward info dumps. Anything dealing with the One Power could easily be botched but so far so good in my book. While we know the One Power is more of a soft magic system than a hard one, I'm looking forward to seeing it move over time from a mysterious deus ex machina to a firm plot device. For non-readers I think rewatch value is likely going to be very high.
- The dialogue, particularly the humor, is exactly the adaptation the books needed for live action. I'm glad they didn't try to force the goofy in-world curses, and the innuendos have been hilarious (and infrequent enough that someone like it mom probably won't turn the show off from them). I'm glad to hear "go in the light" and "the light guide you" and such but hopefully I'll never have to hear "wool-headed buffoon" or "mother's milk in a cup" spoken out loud. It worked fine in the books, but it would just be so cringey in this format.
Alright there's my big rundown you probably didn't care about haha.
Tune in next week for my review of e4?
All in all I was real happy with the show, am very excited to watch more, and was glad that most of my friends (who haven't read the books) enjoyed it and found it engaging. Can't wait til next week.