Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticAmazon Prime Video’s new television series “The Wheel of Time,” based on the series of novels by Robert Jordan, draws upon a rich, deep history.
Or so this viewer, unfamiliar with Jordan’s work, was left to presume when the show began with Rosamund Pike explaining the backstory and the stakes in rushed voice-over.There’s nothing wrong with voice-over in principle: It can be used well or poorly.
But there is a sense, from this show’s first moments, that it’s bursting out with story, so much so that it can’t tell it all subtly, or using the tools of dialogue and characterization.
The result is a show that may well please Jordan’s core fandom from the first but which makes for a frustrating watch for viewers.
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