Wheel of Time — Season 3 Review and Show Postmortem
Image Source: https://decider.com/2025/03/11/the-wheel-of-time-season-3-prime-video-review/So, let’s go ahead and establish something right from the beginning: I’m NOT a Wheel of Time (The Show) “hater.” If you’ve come to the blog to hear me slag off the series, then you’ll probably won’t to move along. This isn’t the post you’re looking for (to steal from Star Wars: A New Hope).
A (quick) Defense of the ShowA quick defense of this post (and the show): one of the (many) reasons that I stopped blogging on regular basis was that I saw the numbers on what my post did on disliking Shaun of the Dead. While not my most popular post (my posts on the “Working Draft” and various ways that I draft are shockingly my most popular posts, with old series where I noticed “little known” actors a close second), the Shaun of the Dead post did ENORMOUS numbers for about 3 months straight. That really unnerved me because it was such a massive boost in such a short time, so the temptation was there to go really negative for the “numbers.” As any YouTuber will tell you, “hate generates clicks” as does controversy.
There is a cottage industry of YouTubers (among others on social media) who have fallen into that trap, especially for Wheel of Time (the show). They are almost too numerous to mention: Daniel Greene, Disparu, Sword and Pen Reflections, and Bookborn come to mind. Luckily, there were other reactors who watched the show and had a more appropriate touch, some more critical than others, but all seemed to actively watch the show . . . as a show, for its good and bad elements, not as something to actively hate on for views/clicks: Tori Talks with Dr. S., Unraveling the Pattern, JK Reacts, and Nerdly Nightly come to mind, in addition to several other channels that feature African American reactors or smaller, less visible channels. If you must watch reactions, I urge you to move away from the toxic channels to the more balanced channels that I’ve linked above. They are not all praise and offer their fair share of criticism, but at least they seem to enjoy the content that they are watching and reacting to, rather than (as one TEDTalk participant once put it) “creating a dystopia just to make people click.”
Season 3Absolutely loved it! Was it perfect? Absolutely not! I didn’t care for the characterization of Elayne’s brothers, for example, at all. It was the single, sour, clanging note of dissonance from the season for me. Do I understand WHY the changes were made? Yes, but I felt like they should have been done slightly differently than was presented. Don’t get me wrong–I liked the actors and felt that they did a good job in portraying the characters as presented, but the characters were not only wrong from the by the way the show had set up Morgase and Elaida. Both were absolutely ruthless and there’s no way, sons or not, that both brothers would have been allowed to have been a foppish as they were portrayed under two such powerful and utterly ruthless women, monarchs, and Aes Sedai.
CharactersI thought that this season, the characterization, which was mostly on point, but sometimes off in places, really hit its stride. Most of the character, outside of Elayne’s brothers, really hit their stride in this season. All the characters, when together, felt like friends, and when apart, seemed like fully realized versions of themselves.
Joshua Stadowski as Rand al Thor was a standout for me this season. I really liked the way Joshua inhabited multiple versions of his line in the Rhuidean storyline. Priyanka Bose as Alanna Sedai was also really cool as her character got to experience a strong character arc. Kate Fleetwood as Liandrin was pretty amazing as we got to see her character arc and Shohreh Aghdashloo (who was amazing as Chrisjen Avasarala from The Expanse). Marcus Rutherford as Perrin was amazing this season and I love how they brought in Falcon/Faile with Isabella Bucceri. There are two songs in the show, Sing of Manetheren (Season 1) and it makes a return in Season 3 with Perrin singing it in preparation for the Two Rivers battle. The Hills of Tanchico (Season 3) was appropriately bawdy, but very much in keeping with the characters and how they needed to deflect suspicion of Elayne’s heritage in their undercover search for Liandrin. And speaking of Elayne, Ceara Coveney does a wonderful job in bringing Elayne’s character to life. Yes, again, she’s different from her book character, but there’s still much more of her that’s close to the book characterization AND the changes that were made for the show make sense based on who her mother is and how her mother is portrayed (Elayne both rebels against Morgase but also is very committed to the Lion Throne. Almost forgot Matt, Lanfear, and of course, Moiraine
StorylinesWhile I can’t go into too much detail here because of spoilers, I really felt that this season shone in that it set up many of the storylines from the book, both in the book as well as in the show. I like how they brought many of the narratives from books 4, 5, and 6 in season 3. There are lots of things that they had to cut out, but I really enjoyed what they included.
I think the Forsaken plot line was awesome as was the Rhuidien. The Three-Fold Land was very well done as well as getting to Tanchico. I think what I really enjoyed was seeing much more of the book and the book’s world come to life. Unfortunately, the series had to a LOT of character building and world building in the first two seasons. The fact that there were MAJOR issues during these first two years, such as Covid and one of the major stars not returning once lockdown had been lifted, really hurt the ability of the show to be a more faithful adaptation of the books, especially in that “rocky” first season.
If the Show Was So Good, Why Is It Cancelled?There are a LOT of reasons; I don’t think any one thing “killed” the show, especially as Season 3 was so good. Season 3 was widely hailed, even amongst its most harshest critics (warning: SPOILERS), that it was the best season of the show to date. While I have read up and could potentially source the much of the following information, I’m low on time, so I’ll just link a generic search of why The Wheel of Time was cancelled, and you can follow up on your own if you so choose.
Money: Fantasy (and Science Fiction) shows are EXPENSIVE. When you consider costuming, actor salaries (ensemble show with multiple characters), CGI, in addition to the normal production budget, its easy to cut the “Speculative Fiction” shows when money gets tight.
New “Regime”: From my understanding, a new set of upper level executives also came in and when that happens, shows under the old regime are often first to go if they don’t fit with the new regime’s priorities.
Identity Politics: Let’s be honest, there’s a LOT that the show creator changed. While I would argue that most of the changes are for the better, there are a LOT of disgruntled fans who only want to see ONE version of society that fits their vision of what society should be. Take Perrin, for instance. Marcus Rutherford’s Perrin IS Perrin, a gentle giant who struggles with violence and its effects. The fact that Perrin in the books is Caucasian shouldn’t matter — but for some it does. The fact that Perrin didn’t have a wife in the books shouldn’t matter — but for some it does. The show needed a VISUAL CUE that Perrin struggles with violence and its effects and would probably follow the Way of the Leaf if the Pattern allowed — and adding in wife and the effects of what happens to her in Season 1, Episode 1 does EXACTLY the same thing that Perrin’s ambivalence in the book accomplishes. That Perrin in the book is a white young man doesn’t mean that Rutherford’s Perrin can’t display the same ambivalence, the same self-revulsion, the conflict towards his outward wolf-like appearance and inner gentle giant tendencies as Jordan’s “version” of Perrin, but because some seem to not want anyone but their own group to be portrayed in stories, we have the sturm und drang of the YouTubers (and other “keyboard warriors”).
Rings of Power: Finally, Amazon already has a fantasy show in Rings of Power. From my understanding, it is one of the most expensive shows out there AND from what I understand, it also has a guaranteed five (5) season run. So, if you have two expensive shows and one’s got to go (or one’s up for renewal and is on the chopping block) . . .
Ratings: Oops! This really is the final reason. Ratings. It always comes down to ratings. Ratings are not nearly as transparent through streaming as they are through regular/broadcast TV, but supposedly, the ratings weren’t the greatest. I was, unfortunately, knee deep in trying to get through all of Star Trek Discovery, a show that I’d only seen bits and pieces of when Paramount put the first season on CBS several years ago. Now that summer has come around, I finally had a chance to catch up with Season 3 of Wheel of Time and was blown away! My favorite season bar none!
RatingSeason 3 (4.75 Stars/5 Stars)
Show as a Whole (4/5 Stars)
I really think, like most people who watched the show who weren’t “hate watching” it like the YouTubers and keyboard warriors that mentioned earlier, that the show found its footing in Season 3 and really should have been given 5 seasons (with the understanding that the show would end at Season 5 unless the Ratings numbers REALLY exploded). This would have given the show’s creator and the actors time to created something truly magical and maybe even would have made Amazon Prime TV a destination place, like AppleTV, Netflix, and other streaming services are working towards, where Amazon seems to want to relegate itself to an also-ran service that can’t capitalize on the power and creativity of their talent.
Have a great week — and go watch some Wheel of Time (especially, Season 3 if you’ve not yet seen it, or watch it all over again, or for the very first time!)
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