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Just saw this in my YouTube queue but it looks like Wheel of Time is starting this Friday (at least in the US) and launching with three (3) episodes.

I’ll admit, I haven’t read the books. They are on my list but were waiting till the series was done (I was already deep into A Song of Ice and Fire and didn’t want to go with two long series that may or may not end, heh). I generally find the books to be better than the screen adaptions so figure it better to watch the show and then later (hopefully) be surprised with how good the original is.

Looks like there are high hopes that this will be as good as Game of Thrones (Season 1) but, as long as it’s good, I’ll watch it. I need something to tide me over until The Witcher, Season 2 is out :slight_smile:

What do you think? Are you interested in it and going to watch it?

Are you going to watch the Wheel of Time series?
  • Yes
  • No
  • Waiting to hear how it’s received
0 voters
16 Spice ups
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Definitely going to watch it. I had never read WoT but I’m about 60% through book 1. I’m looking forward to the Witcher season 2 as well.

2 Spice ups
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Having chewed through the books I am less inclined to watch a series simply because in most cases the series will never live up to the standards of the book. One only has to look at all the failed attempts to adapt “The Stand” to see the truth in that. Oh, and how about the Dark Tower? I rest my case.

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haha, outside of Misery, I can’t really think of a Stephen King book that I thought was close to the source material.

Part of the reason I don’t want to read the books until after the show. The production value looks high and they look to have a solid cast. But, I’m like you (and I imagine many), that reading the source material first and then watching the series or movie… the good ones are the exception to the rule, I fear.

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Not my “cup of tea”, but it looks well done.

1 Spice up
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I read all the books and really want to see how well they adapted it, some of the reviews say the world building is not up to Robert Jordan’s but that aside I still want to see it, Lol

2 Spice ups
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I started the books when my family took a vacation (from PA) to Florida when I was in middle school. I needed something to read on the long car ride there and back. I think, when I started, there were five books available. Literally 20 years later, with the original author deceased, the series was finally finished. Thankfully, the author knew he had a terminal illness and he left extensive notes and worked with his widow to help pick a new author to carry on and complete the series. That second author, Brandon Sanderson, is now one of my favorite authors, and his ongoing Stormlight Archive series is among my favorite series of books.

I am incredibly excited for this show to launch, and I pray that it goes the way of GoT Season 1, not the way Legend of the Keeper went (another series based on another favorite series of books).

3 Spice ups
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I have seen the ads for it and some of looks good and some of it looks a bit cheesy. I’ll have to be in the right mood to start watching or I will stop the first episode and never get back to it.

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Yes but must admit I know nothing about the series or books. :slight_smile:

a63fba13-189b-4948-a748-8d91ad994406-movie.pngMy philosophy these days…

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I wasn’t a fan of the first book when I tried it, and with how book adaptations generally range from a little worse to mind blowing worse than the books, I’ll probably pass unless after the entire thing is finished people I trust the opinion of say it was really good all the way through.

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I received the entire book series, including A New Spring (the prequel) in hard bound volumes for Christmas of 2018. I spent every waking minute reading all 15 books and it took me about 4 months, from Feb to May of 2019, I think it was. My only complaint is that the last book ends kind of abruptly and the last 2 or 3 books give hints about the future, beyond what the series talks about. I wish there was an epilogue book that talks more about what happens after the end of the series. This is one of very few series that made me cry multiple times throughout, probably once per book, at least. They are such good books. Robert Jordan was a masterful writer, but I think Brandon Sanderson did a pretty good job emulating him when he took over.

1 Spice up
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I’ll probably watch it. I started the book series, enjoyed it but with how slowly/long it came out over I didn’t read the final… 3 books I believe. I plan to finish it but I was distracted by other things and haven’t gotten back to it…

Still watching this may prod me into action on the final books.

1 Spice up
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Books have no limits. They can spend an incredibly long amount of time painting a very detailed backstory and setting and that’s considered normal. A movie or TV series does have limits. They need the optics to not match the descriptive nature of an encyclopedia or typical J.R.R Tolkien novel but rather get the overall point across while still visually keeping people engaged. You can take a book in at your own pace. A movie or TV show needs to determine that pace themselves and try to ensure it’s adequate for everybody.

The folks who complain “it’s not as good as the books!” … it’s like complaining that microwave bacon isn’t as good as the bacon your dad made for you on the farm from the pigs you raised. Movies and TV aren’t raising the pigs for you: they’re trying their best to deliver a timely visual representation of the source material.

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On one hand, I agree with you, @dimforest ​, but on the other hand, when they change the story line, leave (important) stuff out or add (disruptive) stuff in, that can really “change the flavour” of a story, even ruin it.

2 examples that come to mind are “Mortal Engines” and “The Black Stallion”.

However, the movie “Princess of Mars” was a reasonable adaption of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “A Princess of Mars” novel, the 1st book of the John Carter/Barsoom series. They left a few things out (IIRC) and added in some stuff from the second book, “The Gods of Mars”, but they did a good enough job of it that I was keen to watch the movie again after I had read the books … and would happily do yet again.

However, Peter Jackson and co majorly messed up with “Mortal Engines”, changing the story/plot so much that it would be near impossible to do a sequel running closely (or anywhere near) the subsequent books.

2 Spice ups
15

Good books.

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Both @dimforest ​ and @graeme-n ​ have points… the simple “truth” if there is such a thing about art, is “based on” varies widely. There are stories “based on historical events” that… really don’t tell anything about history. The interpretation of the event is so… interpretive as to be unrecognizable.

The Movie/Series based on the book… may include all the things one loves about the written story, or it may be so interpretive as to be barely recognizable.

Neither of those means the show will be bad, but you have to manage your expectations. Kind of like how they say “never meet your heroes” because they may not be what they appear to be… Same here.

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While I agree that you should look at a show as being more inspired by the source material, and I generally try to, it is easier said than done in some cases. Usually the more near and dear to my heart that a book is, the harder it is to make that separation. For example, I didn’t read LOTR until after I watched the movies. I thoroughly enjoyed the movies (especially the extended versions) but I imagine I would have knit-picked or been too expecting had I read the book first. Granted, I feel the argument could be made that the movie series was better than the book… but I’ll save that geeknade for another day :smiley:

But yeah, I agree that we should look at a move/show on its own merits but sometimes, it’s hard not to make that comparison and hold it to a different bar.

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If they say “Based on …”, I expect it to be reasonably “true” to the source material. Yes, there may be back-story elements left out. Yes, you likely won’t be privy to a lot of the thought processes of the characters. But it should largely adhere to the source material.

If they say “Inspired by …”, I don’t expect adherence to the source material.

I have seen both of those tags used for various projects. Sadly, they are sometimes used incorrectly … es. the “Based on …” tag. :disappointed:

@bob-13 @sean-spiceworks

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Today is the day! Should have all three episodes done in short order. :slight_smile:

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I watched the first episode. It was a thing. They did some things. I have feelings. Do we start another thread for the spoiler inclusive discussion?

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