The Wheel of Time - Season 3

The Wheel of Time is back with its best season yet! Wow.

If you like fantasy and haven't seen The Wheel of Time yet, I can only recommend that you watch it as soon as possible. Yes, the first season has its flaws, but the second season mostly fixes them. The third season, on the other hand, is phenomenal. If The Wheel of Time gets the chance to tell more of the story, this increasing quality can only mean a lot of good.

For those who don't know and are still reading this review of the third season: The Wheel of Time is based on the fourteen book series by Robert Jordan and tells, in a nutshell, the story of Moiraine Damodred, a powerful Aes Sedai, who searches for 'The Dragon Reborn'. The magician who prophesies is to save the world from 'The Dark One' or break the world again, as happened before.



In the first two seasons we saw the beginning of the journey. Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) found Rand al'Thor (Josha Stradowski) and his friends in their hometown in 'The Two Rivers', adventures across the continent followed and at the end of the second season it was widely known that Rand is the new 'Dragon Reborn'. The third season continues where the second ended. And how? The opening scene of the third season is better than some series in their entirety. What a phenomenal opening piece that was. Actually, after such a good opening scene, it could only get worse. However, nothing could be further from the truth. The entire season maintains the quality incredibly well.

Is this third season completely perfect? ​​Of course not. But every minimal shortcoming melts away like snow in the sun with the plus points. The cinematography, the staging, the script; everything is right this season. The characters all get enough time on screen to give them enough depth. Clear choices are made in who should appear in an episode and who should not. Clear choices are made in the rhythm and at important moments the time is really taken to tell the story, despite the fact that time is scarce with a story of fourteen books. The third season is not perfect, but perfection does touch on several moments this season.

One such moment is the fourth episode. In a unique way, you as a viewer become much wiser about the history of the world of The Wheel of Time. The episode is particularly strong because of the focus on only two characters, which gives them the necessary depth. The development that is undergone is essential for the progression of the story. A truly fantastic piece of storytelling. And online I read that even the book lovers thought it was a very good episode!

You have to embrace the bitter and the sweet, so you never forget which is which.

What we see in this season is a combination of good storytelling and high production quality. You can tell that the showrunner knows where he wants to go with the story and knows how he wants to tell what, and when he wants to tell it. The complete picture has really been thought through. In addition, a lot of money has been invested in this series. You can see and notice that. But the money is also well spent. Too often we see big budgets, with mediocre stories, or the other way around. The combination is present here and that is also reflected.

In closing, I want to highlight two more performances. Everyone does a good job, but for me this season Natasha O'Keeffe and Sophie Okonedo stand head and shoulders above the rest. Okonedo, as always, delivers her best season so far.

I give the third season a 9.5!