David Gardner

What a disaster. Feels like a 'B' movie in production. From the acting, the scenes, the costumes, etc. Some of the lines used to explain the story just come out of nowhere. There is basically no character or scene development. It all feels very small. An army is attacking and it's like 20 guys in much too nice and clean clothing and the channelers, who they say could stop an army, don't look powerful enough to stop 5 men on their own. Then there's the breakneck speed of the events, farmers who are spotlessly clean in what looks like bright and new clothes, completely disjointed dialog. Nothing feels natural or real. It all feels forced. And of course the gender war has come in. The dragon is a man. He channels the male half of the source, which is tainted by the dark one, but they keep implying that the dragon might be female which would make absolutely no sense in a world clearly divided by male and female. But in today's culture war you can't clearly define a male character anymore. Then there's the fact that this is a tiny village that rarely sees outsiders but every character looks like they came from a different culture around the globe. Nobody looks related in any way. The accents between family members are different which makes no sense. The time between events is nearly instantaneous and you can't tell where anyone is at. What town are they in? Dialog includes random comments that don't feel like a real conversation half the time. They're just thrown in because they removed some relevant event or conversation that explains something and needed to add that detail in somehow. As far as storyline, there is no semblance between the show and books. They've cut out huge swaths of storyline and added in things that make no sense. The newly added wife of Perrin doesn't even say anything. Can't tell what's going on there. The magic is crazy looking. Some weird steam thing or something. Doesn't look like a "weave" as described in the books and the channelers look like they're doing some weird dance when they do it. Fades are supposed to be absolutely terrifying but they look cheesy and nothing about them looks scary in any way. If I had never read the books, I would quit this show after episode one. The ONLY thing going for it is the name and the legendary story behind it. Otherwise, it's a cheap MTV style attempt at a fantasy series that we're probably, vainly, hoping will get better. But I doubt it. My guess is, this is likely being canceled during or at the end of season two. And only because they started making season two already.