(minor spoilers)

Moiraine, Lan, Nynaeve, Egwene, Perrin and Mat find themselves more alone than ever.

Season 1 of the Wheel of Time was, overall, a great show. It grew from a slightly shaky beginning to establish its characters, give them arcs and provide interesting takes on evil, epic fantasy and the battles to come.

The source material is loved but has… dated a little and the show also did a great job of reworking that for a more modern sensibility.

Season 2 picks up a few months after the end of Season 1. The core group from the Two Rivers are spread across the world, separated from each other and each pretty unsure of their place in things.

I like this uncertainty – they are young people with unknown futures ahead of them. They were promised big things but, regardless, they’ve had no preparation mentally or socially for what other people have laid upon them. The first two episodes remind us that purpose is often found in the intimate, the small and focused, the personal. It is a rare person who can hold on to a world shattering idea as their purpose, perhaps it is also a frightening person.

Nevertheless, the show takes our characters and slow reintroduces them in their new situations.

Only Rand falters a little, thrust into a brooding set of circumstances where, of all of them, his situation doesn’t quite make sense (at least at first).

The others – Egwene, Matt, Nynaeve and Perrin – each have their journeys and they make sense in their own context. The consequences of the first season hanging over their shoulders and obscuring their futures as much as anything else they face.

As for Morraine and Lan? They are scattered too. Sheltering with allies and trying to heal from their own losses.

As an ensemble piece where the ensemble have been split apart it works pretty well. The design decisions remain excellent and if it doesn’t have quite the eye for beautiful images as some other shows (Ahsoka for instance), it stills looks very pretty and the special effects have definitely improved on the last series.

Overall, this is a solid entry into season 2. The world continues to feel lived in and the story is ramping up without revealing too much.

Rating? 7 fade out of 10.

Stewart Hotston