I watched the first season of The Wheel of Time on Prime, and liked it. Like a lot of today's streaming shows, it moves too quickly, trying to jam as much as possible into eight episodes, when it needed at least double that to tell the same story, which although the outline and broad idea are very interesting, tend to give it a "then this happened" feel, over and over. Its hardly the only show that suffers from that though. The production values are really high. Top, top end sets and costumes, and very solid special effects. On par with a second-tier Hollywood movie. The cast is largely made up of unknowns, and most of them young and raw, and there are times that it shows, but most of them have talent and potential. I never felt that any one or two actors was bringing things down, as they all hold their own. The show is shot and directed in a way that reminded me of others made in Australia and New Zealand, such as Xena, except that this one is purely serious and fairly dark. At the end of the day, its a quality show, but as I said I wish that each story was stretched out to allow for more character development, more explanation of what is happening and why, and more moments where the mood could be lightened, rather than pure peril and stress at all times. Season 3 was just released, so I intend to watch all of them through the end, and am looking forward to it.
If they film the whole series of books, it'll need to be 25 seasons at least, lol. Think there were 12 (very long) books in the series or something like that, although I gave up on them after 8 or 9, was just taking too long to tell the story...and in a very long winded way, he was infamous for taking pages and pages just to describe what someone was wearing! The author died before he finished it, although think the last one was written by someone who knew what the ending was going to be. Edit - it was 14 books, with the last 3 written by another author. Apparently he died when writing the 12th and final book, but left extensive note and the replacement author then dragged it out for another 3 books instead.
That's good info! I didn't know any of that. Hopefully they get as long as they need to in order to do it justice. I read that Rosumund Pike, who's both the star and the producer of the series, is a big fan of the books and was excited to make it happen.
I had to drop back into this thread to recommend Dept Q on Netflix, a police procedural show set in Edinburgh, but based on a Norwegian set of novels (and movies). It's very character driven, and the characters are extremely well written. They all have their quirks, and some come across as unlikeable at first, but they're very human and the interactions between them are beautifully done, with some humour thrown in especially in the dialogue between the main protagonists. It's been created by the American director/producer/writer, Scott Frank, who was behind the likes of The Queens Gambit and Godless and the movie, Logan, so he's got serious credentials. The storyline can get a bit convoluted, and there are some implausibilities, but it never got enough to take away from my enjoyment of it. Edinburgh is very well depicted in the show too, one of the better depictions of the city that I've seen on the screen. They even get the little things right, like number plates on cars (a pet peeve of mine with many shows set in Scotland/UK), and English/Gaelic names on the police lanyards/cars like in real life. A few place names and things (like Police Caledonia, rather than the real Police Scotland) are changed and some settings are not 100% accurate or plausible, as you would expect in a TV show, but it does show the city in all its beauty...and grime. The language and swearing are very Scottish too, so much so that I expect non-Scots might have to switch on the subtitles at times!
I'll make sure to put it in the queue. Thanks! I'm glad you revived this thread because I just finished The Eternaut and I'm now a bit mad it's going to be at least two years before the second season comes out. If you have the patience and attention necessary to watch something with subtitles (or speak fluent Spanish), it's a remarkable show. Somebody pointed out that it cost $15 million to produce six episodes and that, remarkably, is the cost of a single episode of The Last Of Us. You'd never know, because the production values on The Eternaut are nothing short of incredible. And I really enjoyed the story, which is a bit deliberate but also very character-driven. Def going to rewatch it because I know I missed something the first time. And Andor is still the best Star Wars production outside of the Original Trilogy. Incredible follow up to Rogue One.
I watched, and enjoyed, the Eternaut too. Subtitles don't really bother me, so it was easy enough to follow them...just as well, seeing as I barely speak any Spanish ("uno cerveza, por favor"), never mind fluently! Haven't watched season 2 of Andor yet, been waiting until it was all done then going to binge it. First season was great though, and Rogue One has been one of the few Stars Wars movies, after the originals, that was worth watching.
