The Wheel of Time was cancelled before I bothered to watch it.

At $15 million per episode, it was expensive to produce, but got quite a bit of buzz and has an IMDB rating of 7.2.  Just look at that promotional poster.  Why would I bother?

I like fantasy epics, but the cast wasn’t appealing. So many people love the book series it was based on by Robert Jordan, I decided to try the books to see what was so good about them.

I am currently on the fourth book, The Shadow Rising, and it is good.  Not up to The Lord of the Rings or The Game of Thrones, but it has room to grow.

Getting this far into the books, I can understand the complaints about the TV series.

My complaint is, where are the good looking women?

This is Selene.  She is described as the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen.

Selene is a temptress from the dark side.  This is a glamour, so not what the character actually looks like, and the best they could do is a harsh looking 39 year-old?

These three principle characters are all described as being in their 20’s, and very fetching.

I just don’t see it.  Would it kill them to feature the occasional heaving bosom?

Now that I am three knuckles deep into the series, I watched a few Youtube reviews to understand how the screen adaptation holds to the books.  According to Greg Owen, Wheel of Time failed because Modern Writers Don’t Know People.

The premise is that five young people from the hinterlands are to play a major role in the events unfolding in this iteration of the wheel of time.

Maybe in the hinterlands, those women are considered attractive.  The gal in green, on the left, is not from the village and is attractive.

The three women shown above, and three guys from the village, are the main characters in the saga. 

The three women have witchie powers.  Of the guys, Rand is the primary hero as  ‘The Dragon Reborn’, Perrin is a big, thoughtful fellow with a connection to wolves, and Mat is the pranky jokester who has exceptionally good luck.

Do you believe this character is a merry prankster who likes a little slap-and-tickle with a scullery maid?

I don’t.  He looks like a guy loaded with self-doubt and dark thoughts.

In the books, the women do have agency and purpose.  In fact, they treat the guys like shit most of the time.  In one case, Mat rescues the women from a prison, and their response is to nearly say, “Shut up Mat, the grown-ups are talking.”  Women act like boss bitches to show that they are capable, but the guys are often selfless and heroic.

Apparently in the TV show, Rand’s hero journey is minimized, and women are shown to be able to get out of their own scrapes often enough.

They didn’t have to do much to make The Wheel of Time TV show a success.  Start by casting appealing characters.  The women could show a little leg once in a while.  Be faithful to the books.  That’s it.