The Wheel of Time - Season 3

[BlueStuff]

As a book reader, I always liked Amazon's Wheel of Time show... but never loved it.

Until now, with 3x04 "The Road to the Spear" - what an amazing episode. Season 3 has been a big step up from the first two, leading to this remarkable hour of television. Sure, there'll always be grievances from book fans - but I can barely imagine a better depiction of

Spoiler

Rhuidean

than that. Josha Stradowski, take a bow.

 

[BlueStuff]

Well, apparently I overestimated the number of people watching this, lol. But I hope more WoT fans will start tuning in because I think season 3 is by far the show’s best. They’re really executing some long-anticipated moments very well, and most of the changes, I believe, are beneficial. One could argue that show-Moghedien is a lot more interesting than book-Moghedien, for example.

And where the Rand/Moiraine/Egwene material remains heavy, Mat/Nynaeve/Elayne provide a much-needed light touch in Tanchico. The Hills of Tanchico!

Two episodes remaining; hopefully they stick the landing. These could very well be the final two episodes of the show, in fact - I’m not totally convinced it’ll be renewed for a fourth season. Or maybe I’m just intentionally being pessimistic so as not to be disappointed.

 

[mswood]

No question episode four is the best episode this series has made. But Minus the last episode of season 1 (which I really didn't care for) I still prefer season 1 to date to season 2 (which I felt was easily all over the place) and what we have seen so far of season 3 (still two episodes so if they are as good as episode 3 that would push it to be my favorite season).

But as the canvas keeps getting larger, I find the stories seem to be more and more rushed.

Though each episode does have parts I really do like, I find for the most part the characters seem to get less and less time to show development. Now that is understandable with condensing multiple works that are exceedingly well fleshed out into what is a really short window.

As for its future, well it's hard to judge. For seasons 1 and 2 the only ratings source we have is Nielsen's streaming ratings (for theUS) where season 2 out performed season 1. And we won't see the ratings for this season, until next week's streaming charts, for the first three episodes.

The other other source of (US ratings) is Luminates. And Luminate was not tracking ratings during the time of season 1 and 2. And so far Luminate has not tracked Wheel of Time on any of its 4 weeks to date. And that's a little bit of a bad omen.

But Luminate and Nielsen often don't agree (for one Nielsen tracks the ratings of the show, not the season or the episode), while Luminate tracks by season of a show. Paramount shows (specifically Sheridan produced ones) have all tracked much higher on Luminate then on Nielsen (Discovery did worse), But Rings of Power did far better on Nielsen charts then on Luminate. There are also many other examples (but those are some of the larger ones). And of course these are just for US. Netflix is the only service that releases weekly WW data.

 

[BlueStuff]

Agreed - it’s very hard to make any kind of judgement about the show’s chances of renewal based strictly on ratings. In the streaming era, such matters are increasingly nebulous. Sometimes you just know a hit when you see it - and sadly, I don’t see WoT as a hit in the public consciousness. That may change with word of mouth, and I think it deserves more recognition for a vastly improved third season.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I'm still watching and enjoying it. I haven't read the books so I feel like I don't have that much to add to the discussion. I'm impressed how there's no real weak links in the characters of the actors, I enjoy watching every scene. Loved the scene with Elayne singing in the tavern. I agree that episode 4 was great and Rand's actor really impressed me there.

I hope it gets another season, but as I understand it there's 14(!) books so I don't see how they can possibly tell the whole story. Is there a good natural endpoint they could reach if get, say, six seasons in total?

 

[BlueStuff]

I'm still watching and enjoying it. I haven't read the books so I feel like I don't have that much to add to the discussion. I'm impressed how there's no real weak links in the characters of the actors, I enjoy watching every scene. Loved the scene with Elayne singing in the tavern. I agree that episode 4 was great and Rand's actor really impressed me there.

I hope it gets another season, but as I understand it there's 14(!) books so I don't see how they can possibly tell the whole story. Is there a good natural endpoint they could reach if get, say, six seasons in total?

They aren’t covering one season per book, so that helps. They’re compressing events, consolidating, moving the story around to fit the medium - I believe they’re gunning for eight seasons in total.

To be honest, the events of the middle books (7-10) could easily be covered in a single season - if not, a few episodes!

 

[CaptainWacky]

A friend and my sister have read the books and the first thing they both mentioned to me was how many pages are spent on Nynaeve tugging her braid...

 

[BlueStuff]

That was a big showing for Perrin - if you like the Two Rivers storyline, you’ll probably be a fan of episode 7.

 

[mswood]

Well we have the first numbers for season three.

In Comparison seasons 1 and 2 ratings. Nielsen includes all ratings for any episode of the show in their ratings regardless of season, so ratings in season 2 and 3 would include some views of the earlier season (s).

They also are counting ratings during a full week. Prime for each season as a schedule that the first 3 days are in one week, the remaining four days of the initial airings are not he next week. And in each season Prime has dropped three episodes, and then gone 1 episode per week.


Season 1
Eps 1-3 Week 1 - 1,163 Million Minutes
Ep 4 Week 2 - 663 Million Minutes
Ep 5 Week 3 - 537 Million Minutes
Ep 6 Week 4 - 509 Million Minutes
Ep 7 Week 5 - 467 Million Minutes
Ep 8 Week 6 - 638 Million Minutes
Final 4 days of Ep 8 - 630 Million Minutes
Week 8 (no New episode) - 300 Million Minutes

Season 2
Ep 1-3 Week 1 - 515 Million Minutes
Ep 4 Week 2 - 515 Million Minutes
Ep 5 Week 3 - 423 Million Minutes
Ep 6 Week 4 - 531 Million Minutes
Ep 7 Week 5 - 416 Million Minutes
Ep 8 Week 6 - 430 Million Minutes
Final 4 days of Ep 8 - 230 Million Minutes
Week 8 (no New Episode) - 147 Million MInutes

Season 3
Ep 1-3 Week 1 - 534 Million Minutes

So while season 2 clearly dropped from season 1, with the first 3 days of this seasons first three slides we see a slight improvement over season 2.

Two key things to also remember, this is just US numbers. We have no data week to week for its World Wide performance. For example 2/3rds of Rings of Powers audience is not from the US (which matches fairly close to the breakdown of the LoTR films from 2000). Be very curious if Wheel of Time is also viewed in a similar ratio.

 

[CaptainWacky]

^It's usually in the top 5 of Amazon UK's top 10 most watched shows, for what that's worth.

I enjoyed episode 7 a lot, besides wishing it wasn't so dark at times. Loved the kids roasting that White Cloak, he's had it coming a long time.

 

[BlueStuff]

My understanding is that the holdup in renewal news has less to do with the ratings and more to do with ongoing negotiations currently taking place between Amazon and Sony. We're (already) approaching the season finale - let's hope for a positive update soon as it'd be a real shame for this show to get cancelled right as the quality shot up.

And, if this show "fails" as it were, I don't think anybody will touch the IP again for a very long time. So, love it or hate it, it might be the only adaptation we'll see.

 

[BlueStuff]

WoT has traditionally struggled with season finales but I think they nailed it this time. Great ending to a great season. The show has really hit its stride - now all eyes turn to the decision of whether or not a fourth year is coming.

Spoiler

I was ready for Moiraine to die, but she managed to emerge from her duel with Lanfear unscathed for the time being. No such luck for Siuan; but what a way to go, defiant to the end.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Great finale, but I want more. It definitely didn't function as any kind of ending.

Need to know what was going on with that scene with Mat and the magical creature-type guy.

 

[Skywalker]

I really hope they keep the show going. I think it's gotten better with each season. Episodes 4 and 7 were particular highlights, possibly the best two episodes of the whole show so far, but I thought it was a strong season overall with no real duds.