John-Scott Horton

Completely lacking emotion or charm. A grey world of whispering, posturing, wooden people that are far more aware of the camera than they are the source material. The CGI is good and Robert Jordan’s world compels, but the chosen tone of the series makes it very hard to care about anyone or anything happening. The story is muddied further by diversity casting run amok. It’s wonderful to imagine a world blind to race but if you’re going to alter the appearance of half the characters from the books, at least make the dialogue match. The sleepy mountain town that nobody visits or leaves (the Two Rivers, where our protagonists are from) just so happens to be full of people in every shape, size and color you can imagine, with perfect teeth and stylish duds to match. It looks far more like a trendy neighborhood in London than a holler in West Virginia. Yet somehow, when they leave, our heroes are pegged immediately by foreigners as being from The Two Rivers. It’s not their accent…It’s not their appearance…Must be bad writing. As a person that read and enjoyed these books through my youth, I will continue to watch. But I won’t be happy, and I certainly don’t recommend it to anyone else unless they are starved for fantasy, have not read the books, and have other things to do while they’re watching it. It’s probably a better screen saver than series.