The Wheel Of Time(Amazon Prime Video, 8 Episodes)
Rating: *** ½
This long-awaited peregrination into the heart and soul of a nostalgic nation, a civilization that exists only in the exacerbated imagination of those who believe in the magic of the universe, is a beast of a feast.
Stunning to look at, the series spreading sensuously into eight looming episodes, proves a slog for those of us who do not believe in fairies, elfins, goblins and dragons, and who think rewarding binge-watching means feasting on The Maid or , nearer home, The Family Man. The forest is full of mysteries.But what exactly does it hide?
More pretentious than portentous ,The Wheel Of Time transports us into world where wondrous images coalesce into brutal intimations of mortality. It’s all to do with Aes Sedai, a cult permitting entry to women only , that uses magic to save the universe from perilous creatures. Moirrain, played by the ineluctably persuasive Rosamund Pike , is the cheerleader of Aes Desai who must escort four young people, Mat, Egwene, Rand, and Perrin…three boys and a girl…across the universe.
The perilous beauty of the forests and mountainsides which carry our young ….shall we call them tomorrow’s hope…onwards into a fantastical future, form a stunning backdrop to what is essentially a grandma’s take , spruced up with heavy doses of seminal philosophy and mythology.
There are passages where we are lectured on the beauty of the universe and why it is imperative to not desecrate Nature’s beauty. Some of this psycho-babble is pretty incomprehensible. But hats off to the fetching cast for keeping the proceedings perpetually pungent,perky and impassioned.
It’s not easy to enter into this crypto-magical world. The four young actors who play Moiraine’s quartet of mentors are so into it, they almost seem to be products of the times when forests were flush with monsters and mystique. Mat(Barney Harris), Egwene(Madeleine Madden) , Rand(Josha Stradowski), and Perrin (Marcus Rutherford) come across as cogently created nomadic characters who are as timeless as they are time-bound.
Then there is Rosumund Pike at the heart of panoramic plot, feeding on the fiesta of fabulous visions even while trying to preserve her character’s core individuality from being submerged in the towering landscape.Pike is a dependable ally in the series’ epic excursion . But even she can’t escape the unintended hilarity of some of the scenes, like the one where her platonic travel-mate (Daniel Hanney) gets into a hot tub with her and cribs, “It could have been warmer”.
One could say the same about the series. The Wheel Of Time , for all its timeless visual beauty, suffers from a certain coldness around its heart.Often the discourse is too lengthy and one feels like telling the director to just carry on with the action and stop gabbing over goblins and discoursing over dragons.
At the end of it all The Wheel Of Time appears to be a casualty of its own epic vision. Try as they do, the accomplished actors cannot help being dwarfed by the sheer majesty of the landscape.Too much of the wind whispering to the characters and too little shouting back, makes this a beast of a feast.
Beautiful to look at but lamentably lifeless underneath. Also, the action is occasionally over-gruesome. Why show a woman being roasted over a fire pyre? This is not The Underground Railroad or anywhere close to it. Spare us the graphic violence. It is not relevant in a series that seems to tiptoe over the stars in pursuit of an extinct galaxy.
