TAGGED AS: Fantasy, Prime Video, streaming, television, TV
Though season 1 of Prime Video’s adaptation of Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy book series has a Certified Fresh 81% Tomatometer score, early takes from critics are that The Wheel of Time season 2 improves on the first, despite debuting with a 63% score on its eight first reviews.
Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike) returns to guide her five young charges from the Two Rivers in the new season, but she’s been cut off from the magical One Power and they’re scattered. In season 1, Rand al’Thor (Josha Stradowski) discovered he is the Dragon Reborn, a powerful figure destined to either save or break their world. Egwene al’Vere (Madeleine Madden) and Nynaeve al’Meara (Zoë Robins) found themselves in training among the Aes Sedai in the White Tower of Tar Valon. Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford) and Mat Cauthon (Dónal Finn, who replaced season 1’s Barney Harris) are on their own paths, while Moiraine’s Warder, Lan Mandragoran (Daniel Henney), faces a crisis in their relationship.
Season 2 finds them all hunted by inner demons and real ones.
Read on to find out what critics are saying about season 2 of The Wheel of Time.
(Photo by Prime Video)
To put it bluntly, the second season is an improvement on the first, not least of all because it feels more assured.
—Kayleigh Dray, AV Club
Wheel of Time struggles to pull itself back into focus, & while it manages to find its footing, it is plagued by the same issues it faced in season 1.
—Graeme Guttmann, Screen Rant
A stellar example of fantasy at its most spectacular.
—Sabrina Barr, metro.co.uk
The show’s strange reluctance to let its characters become more than people-shaped plot points is so frustrating precisely because it’s so darn easy to see how much more it could become.
—Lacy Baugher, Paste Magazine
While The Wheel of Time’s first season started off unevenly and improved steadily throughout, Season 2 finds its footing right from the get-go. The gears are greased, the wheels are turning, and the epic fantasy show has settled into itself.
—Belen Edwards, Mashable
It all feels expectedly more epic, but that scale hasn’t come at the cost of production design, creature design or costuming, the latter of which in particular continues to be stunning.
—Amy West, Total Film
Despite elaborate costumes, brilliant VFX, and a visually arresting physical world to the Aes Sedai, this show doesn’t sustain interest because of its over-serious tone and overdone detailing.
—Abhishek Srivastava, The Times of India
The costumes still look fake, the sets have a cardboard sheen, and the pacing is all over the place.
—Ed Power, Daily Telegraph (UK)
The Wheel of Time Season 2 continues to embrace the riches of its source material’s lore and worldbuilding, diverting from the books when it makes the most sense to but never sacrificing depth of character and overarching plot.
—Carly Lane, Collider
The cast seem more comfortable now and the stakes ever higher in a smart, complicated adaptation that is taking worthwhile risks, while still holding on to what fans love about the books.
—Helen O’Hara, Empire Magazine
86%
The Wheel of Time: Season 2
(2023)
premieres Friday, September 1 on Prime Video.
