Is the Wheel of Time on Amazon a good show? I enjoyed it quite a bit. I thought of it as high-budget Xena, if you remember that series at all. But there are so many other people who have varying opinions about this show that it is hard to discern the true measure of it. Almost every friend I know who bothered to read the books (disclaimer: I didn't) has said some version of the following (this is a direct cut/paste of a conversation I've had but I'm not saying who it was):
"Not liking Wheel of Time. Many reasons. Casting sucks. Forced diversity. Not even close to the books. Action scenes out of Xena. Some of the set pieces look okay...but way too dependent on these landscape shots. Makes everything else look out of place. Wardrobe and costume design is horrible. Not going to waste any more time on it."
Another friend of mine said, "I love this show, because it features strong women. People who hate this show probably don't like admitting that women can be strong."
And another friend of mine said, "This simply isn't how the books went. They've changed everything. The Dragon Reborn should never have even the possibility of being a woman, and they brought that up in episode one to satisfy the diversity police. But that's wrong. The Dragon Reborn is a dude. At least they got Rand's hair color right."
Anyway...it's all very weird to me. I guess the diversity police really did get a hold of the Wheel of Time series and said, "None shall pass until you meet our criteria and then this will be spooned to the masses!" Or something like that. However, that's their call, right? I mean...let's face it...writers go begging to studios to produce their stuff, because it's everyone's dream to get something turned into a movie or a television series (and get a payday with fame and oohs and aahhhs).
Sooo...with all that begging...I mean...the writer doesn't really have the power now do they? That's just how business works. That's why the workers at Kellogg's are having such a hard time trying to get the company to cave into their demands (by striking). It's hard being the little person trying to get the big company to give into your thing. I mean...you could put your foot down and scream, "NO! I will not allow this to happen!" And that would be fine too. It just means that the company would buy some other dime a dozen fantasy series and promote that, and yours would fly into obscurity. Or in the case of striking workers, the reality is they could all be fired.
What's weird is seeing all of my especially misogynistic friends being upset with the series as if their boycott is going to cancel anything (the series has already been renewed for season two). Their anger stems from the fact that a beloved property of theirs has an estate that has "sold out" to a corporation that will change the material so that they can line their pockets and satisfy a narcissistic demand to see their story on the screen, acted out and portrayed by professionals, and lavished with hundreds of millions of dollars. What narcissistic person wouldn't want that? They throw aspersions at Amazon for exercising "I do what I want!" in capitalist America while they say nothing at the sellout owners of the intellectual property of the late Robert Jordan. In many cases, they are the worst kind of hypocrites, because given the chance, they'd sell out in a heartbeat to have the money and prestige of an Amazon series...even if it compromised everything that they believed in regarding white male privilege. Funny how that works, isn't it?
The fact of the matter is...when new properties are turned into series...the worst impulses of writers whose works are being adapted are going to be mellowed by the diversity police. And this is how it should be. We don't need works that glorify fascism, that glorify male privilege, or who insist on making everyone one race. We don't need works that show women cooking and cleaning and black people in the role of household servants and Asian people working in laundromats. Those days are gone. You can write that stuff and probably get an audience of some kind. But for a big corporation to adopt it into something that the public will consume...it's going to get changes. Otherwise, they won't buy it. And this is upsetting to a good deal of folks, but let them rage.
Is the Wheel of Time any good? I thought it was fun. What I don't understand is why so many people wanted this story to be taken so seriously? And I think, this lack of being taken seriously is behind the outrage of people who hated what happened to "The Wheel of Time." To some, the story of the "Wheel of Time" was a sacred thing, because...well...they read it. With books thick enough to be a door stop...a lot of men who read the books put in some serious effort and time to slog through it all. And their time is valuable dammit! So yeah...they read it...so "sacred" it has now become. For someone like Amazon to come along behind them and "trivialize" the story with casting changes, inclusion, diversity, etc. seems to have ruffled their sensibilities. "How dare they?" I could imagine one saying. "Would they have done this to Harper Lee?" However (and for what it is worth) I don't see statues of Robert E. Lee as sacred but other folks do (shrug?). So, I'm okay with them being boxed up or even recycled while others scream and cry about it all night. Maybe it even ruins their lives? I have no idea. I guess Obi-Wan Kenobi was right when he said to Luke that a lot of what one believes in life extends from a certain point-of-view. It's just a weird phenomenon to watch in real-time, and...I don't get it. But...whatever.
As for the Wheel of Time, I think you should watch it. I enjoyed it more than Cowboy Bepop, but not as much as The Expanse.
I haven't read the books so I wouldn't really have much opinion on how faithful it is. But there is a lot of this with comic book movies/shows and Star Trek Discovery and so on. As much as we might want to sanctify the original properties, we should acknowledge that books and comics and TV shows from decades ago shouldn't really be the same as now because the world is different than it was back then. That is of course frightening to a lot of those who fear they will become the minority.
ReplyDeleteHaving read most of the books, though it was a long time ago at this point, I am going to say one thing definitively: The books are -bad-. Not all of them but, on the whole, they are poorly written trash. It's not exactly Jordan's fault as he was pushed to continue a series that was meant to be a trilogy, but even people who love the series will admit that at least half of it is horrible, generally referred to by the fans as "the slog."
ReplyDeleteYou can't put that kind of stuff into a TV series. Especially since Jordan devoted inordinate amounts of time to describing dresses (sometimes pages describing how someone was dressed) and food.
The important thing to acknowledge, from anyone, is that an adaptation is just that: an adaptation. So you can judge whether or not it's a good adaptation or not, but you also have to judge the work as to how it stands on its own. And I say this as someone who has, at times, really struggled with the faithfulness of adaptations.
So here's my comparison:
Jackson's version of The Hobbit -- HORRIBLE adaptation but ALSO bad movies. There's almost nothing redemptive about The Hobbit movies, especially since they undermine even his own version of LotR.
WoT -- probably not a great adaptation, though I can't remember enough of the details to really remember what's been changed. The only thing I know for sure is that the show is moving MUCH faster than the books (but that's probably a REALLY good thing as almost nothing happens in some of the books). In contrast to Hobbit, this is a good series. It's solid. The story they're telling is well done, and it can stand on its own. (and, really, we don't need more cis-white male shows, especially when the female characters are there in the books and just as significant).
I don't have Amazon, so I can't say how the show is. If you're enjoying it, that's all that matters. It sounds like some of your friends are threatened by a world changing to not center the white male viewpoint. Very telling about who they are.
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