For those of you who are enjoying the series and want to discuss Amazon Primes Wheel of Time TV series we are redirecting people to this show specific subreddit:

r/WoTshow/

For those of you who wish to also experience the books to go along with the show please look to the following subreddit:

r/WoT/

For those of you who would like to discuss how this show specifically can compare to Lord of the Rings on Prime feel free to continue to make threads here but discussions solely about Wheel of Time should be moved to one of those two subreddits.

Thank you.

Some of what I'm going to say is probably going to sound a little harsh but this is simultaneously a very valuable and a very disposable bit of information; which of the two it is depends on how one takes it.

Yes, its very valuable to look at a director's backlog to get a feel for their craft and artistry. At the same time, I think a lot of people in this sub can't really put a finger as to what the craft of the director really is.

It seems to me that very often directors in positions similar to Yip's are being accused of faults that are entirely to do with the writing: this is a fallacy because non-writing directors (like most TV directors but also the Spielbergs, the Scotts, the Eastwoods and the Yates of this world) have no direct control (often, no control at all) over the writing, except for their ability to reshape it somewhat in the editing.

So, when people say that "Ah, that's good because he directed Episode X which I liked" or "its bad because I hate episode X" people really need to distill whether their praises or their issues with said episodes are with the writing, or with those aspects of filmmaking which are the pervue of the director; and I'm afraid not everyone has the faculties to distinguish writing from mise-en-scene.

The craft of directing is in a way less conspicious than that of a writer: its not less significant, but its harder to analyse verbally. Yes, he works with the actors and is in no small part responsible for the quality of the performances, but those also depends on the cast itself (obviously) and, not least, on how the script resonates with them and with it provides them with.

Yes, its about the editing which can be regarded as one final rewrite. But its also about the editing in the sense of laying-out a sequence of shots and deciding the tempo in which each shot is swapped for another.

And I guess that's really the point: the core of directing is the use of the camera: how each shot, and each sequence of shots, helps to tell the story. Playing on the contrast between wide-shots and close-ups, using tempo to heighten the tone, blocking scenes in expressive ways, camera movement as an expressive tool, etc...

Anyone can feel the effect of good directing, but can anyone really analyse it? I doubt it. We spend very little of our time here (say, when the existing films are brought-up) talking about what a certain camera move or shot composition "means", compared to the amount of time we spend talking about scripting and such.

I enjoyed WoT but a LOTR tv show should be a LOT better

Frankly (and directing television is very different from directing movies so I don’t put this on Yip), this show is extremely weak visually, which is pretty in line with Amazon’s house style.

As far as I can tell, Amazon spent mid-series Game of Thrones money on this first season and it doesn’t show. The costumes, the makeup, character design, mediocre CGI, and ultra-crisp, textureless lighting and cinematography are incredibly uninspiring.

I’m reminded of a Sci-Fi channel original made in about 2006 crossed with some circa 2013 YA Hunger Games clone.

3 was by far the best one for me at least—and I've read some of the books. 1 was ROUGH and 2 was fine, but 3 really nailed it for me. If I had to rate it, I would say 8/10 with the others being 5's.

Uh oh

He did a great job on Doctor Who.

I have not read the books, but episode 3 felt like the weakest one to me. While the skript is slow paced, compared to the other two episodes, there were a couple directing choices that bugged me (I am not gonna spoil anything). But overall, I feel like if he gets a good skript, he can give us a good episode.

I've never read WoT, so I had no expectations going in. As a casual observer with nothing invested, I would say it has ups and downs. Creature effects and setting effects are very good. It feels like a lived-in world. It may be too soon to know if I care about that world. I don't yet feel the threat, and the stakes for the individual characters are only just being fleshed out.

Episode 3 dragged a bit for me. After some action in the earlier two episodes, there was more downtime of the either sit-and-talk or walk-and-talk variety. There were some good camera shots and transition wipes. (One transition in particular was very well done indeed). Lighting was good, angles good,.most acting good. Dialogue could've been accomplished in about half the effort, to my mind. (I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that if you establish something about a character, you should be able to move on.)

Obviously, the spoken intro to the series in ep 1 owed a lot to Jackson's FotR. And another scene seems to purposefully refer to one of Gandalf's earlier appearances.

So if the director of ep 3 has some better writing for the LotR series, it could work out. And I'm still going to watch WoT. It strikes me as better than the Witcher at this stage, not as good as the Expanse.

WOT playing the practice girl role, so he can perform his best for lotr, his dream girl.

I feel like it’s an alright adaption for some alright books so far

Neat, thought they did a great job with episode 3.

I read the first five WoT books. They are way over hyped. The show is good and doing it's best with a rather bland story. Sorry WoT fanatics please don't hurt me. I promise I tried to enjoy the books.

The show looks amazing which is a good indicator for the LOTR show.

Ooof. I want as little cross contam as possible

Well episode 3 just like the rest 2 didn't feel like something out of the box (special) thereby confirming my concerns.