WARNING: There are spoilers ahead! Last week’s episode of The Wheel of Time — Season 3, Episode 4, “The Road to the Spear” — was the best the show has seen yet, and everyone from critics and fans to the cast and crew are rightfully celebrating it on social media. However, the greatness of this installment is emblematic of the show’s overall missed potential, and the way studios are holding back the fantasy genre on TV in general. The shortened seasons and longer production times of TV shows had sparked a lot of discussion in recent months, and The Wheel of Time may suffer from this gradual trend more than any other show. Without more episodes, Amazon entirely misses the point of adapting one of the longest fantasy epics ever published.
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“The Road to the Spear” is the longest Wheel of Time episode yet, and it uses every minute to great effect. It depicts Rand al’Thor’s visit to the ancient, abandoned city of Rhuidean — a magical ruin in the middle of the Aiel Waste which is sacred to the Aiel people. The episode dedicates its entire runtime to this event, without visiting any of its other characters or storylines, and it pulls out all the stops so that this climactic event will make sense narratively and visually.
Like most viewers (judging by social media), I was enthralled for all 69 minutes of this episode, and elated to see this show reach such a high point. However, the “Inside Episode” segment afterward put the triumph in a new perspective, and served as a bit of a buzzkill. There, showrunner Rafe Judkins, EP and star Rosamund Pike, and star Josha Stradowski talked together about the immense challenge of this episode — not just logistically, but in terms of timing.
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“We only have eight episodes every year, and so, how you use that time is the biggest thing we’re ever up against,” Judkins said, “and this one, we were like, ‘This is a story worth telling.’ It takes a lot of maneuvering right from the beginning stages in the writers’ room, but we felt like, ‘We’re going to move other stuff around so that we can really see this journey that Rand is on, and that Moiraine is on, together,’ because that relationship is so central to this season, and to the entire series. And so, we should give that hour to them and what they’re experiencing.”
Hearing him address the pressure to cram plot points in so plainly can be disheartening, in a way, as it calls to mind all the other Rhuidean-level events that might not make it into this adaptation. Meanwhile, Pike spoke as a producer, saying, “I think it’s a very exciting episode that you wrote — Rafe wrote that one — and then, I think it has the experimental scope that I always craved an wanted for this show right from the word go.”
Return on Investment
Everyone wishes their favorite series had more episodes and more seasons, and many showrunners likely feel the same pressure that Judkins is describing. For The Wheel of Time, however, the length of this meandering tale is really the fundamental point of it all. The original series consists of 15 novels, written almost entirely by Robert Jordan with Brandon Sanderson stepping in to finish the series based on Jordan’s notes after the author passed away. That’s millions of words, thousands of pages, hundreds of hours of audiobook — all spent fully immersed in the Westlands.
Even the most die-hard fans of The Wheel of Time would agree that the series simply didn’t need to be that long to get its story and its themes across. The excessive length is a feature, not a bug — especially for those who picked up the books when they were finished or close to finished. Fans of epic fantasy and sci-fi often seek out these extra-long series because, when done right, they can provide more return on your investment of time and attention. You meet the characters, learn the rules of the magic system, begin to memorize the map, the bestiary, the made-up words, etc., and you want to spend more time in that setting to enjoy your newfound expertise.
This is a big part of the reason why fantasy adaptations work so much better as TV shows than as movies. However, if you stop and think about it, Amazon hasn’t given Pike and Judkins much more time than a movie per book. Season 1 included elements of the first three novels in the series, while Season 2 completed the adaptation of the second and third books. Season 3 is expected to cover the fourth and fifth books in this series in just eight episodes. That’s an average of four hours per book — no more than the Extended Editions of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.
Length is This Series’ Strength
That’s a shame, because the novel series really does make the most of its excessive length. The story meanders and takes its characters on seemingly unimportant side quests, which expose their true natures and prepare them for the real trials to come. It gets to explore almost every corner of the fantasy world Jordan has meticulously mapped and cataloged — almost, because systematically exploring it would feel unnatural, as Jordan likely realized.
Despite its length, the series doesn’t get bogged down with overly complicated magical rules, fictional linguistics, or other pitfalls of the genre. It always stays focused on the organic growth of its characters, and that’s what buoys the reader through even the most boring moments in the plot — the fandom affectionately refers to books seven through 10 as “the slog.” A boring day spent with a friend is better than a boring day on your own, and the same is true of a boring chapter spent marching alongside Mat Cauthon and the Band of the Red Hand.
The length of the series is likely one of the main reasons fans responded positively to the last three books, written by a relatively unknown Sanderson after Jordan passed away, with the blessing of Jordan’s wife and collaborator, Harriet McDougal. By the time we got around to the Final Battle, we had been through trials by fire with all these characters multiple times, and we had seen their true grit and determination spelled out on screen. The culmination of the story was certainly cathartic, but it almost didn’t matter after years spent honing these characters into capable heroes.
That’s not to say that The Wheel of Time has no unique points to make or themes to flesh out — only that those themes didn’t require 15 novels. The show has done an excellent job at highlighting the best parts of Jordan’s worldbuilding, while also making it clear that this series was his homage to the likes of Tolkien. Still, I can’t help but feel like someone watching the show would struggle to care about Heron-marked swords and Ter’angreals without plodding through the novels one word at a time, and developing a sense of belonging in this world.
No Solution
The episode count and pacing has been a concern for fans since The Wheel of Time first started — back then, I marveled that the producers weren’t planning at least one season per book, sweet summer child that I was. I bring it up now so that we can discuss it as a high point, rather than at the end of a season. “The Road to the Spear” was so excellent, and in another turning of the Wheel, every episode might have left us feeling that way.
This is especially important for critics to keep in mind, and those on social media prone to assigning “blame” when their favorite shows don’t go the way they’d like. It’s clearer than ever that Judkins, Pike, and everyone else involved are pouring their hearts and souls into this project, and working under immense constraints that they don’t seem to like. They know as well as us that condensing Jordan’s verbose descriptions and character tics down for TV fundamentally changes the tone of the story, but it’s the task Amazon has set them. We should remember that the cast, crew, and creators started as fans of the series, while studios get involved only because franchise name recognition often leads to profit.
we should also acknowledge that it may not be possible for a show like The Wheel of Time to get a lengthy adaptation of this caliber. Prime Video has not disclosed much information on the show’s budget or its viewership results, but it seems safe to assume it is an expensive production, and money is the key limiting factor on its episode count. If Amazon simply can’t afford to give the show more screentime, that’s part of a broader issue with the streaming business model in general.
Meanwhile, the intense labor of the cast and crew are a consideration as well. Fans lashed out hard at the showrunners of Game of Thrones when it ended, noting that HBO had asked them to extend the show but they had declined. However, just last year, star Kit Harington told an interviewer that he wasn’t sure he could have gone on at the show’s breakneck pace. He entered rehab as the final season was ending, and it does seem unfair for these creators to sacrifice their health and their personal lives just so we can get a new season of prestige TV every year.
Thankfully, whatever doesn’t make it onto the TV show will still exist in the books, and it’s there waiting for us anytime. The Wheel of Time Season 3 has four more episodes to go, airing on Thursdays on Prime Video through April 17th. The novels are available in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
