What I’ve Been Watching: January 2022

Between all the snow we’ve had lately and going back to alternating telework days I’ve had plenty of opportunities to pop on a show or movie while I work on other things. I thought it would be fun to share my thoughts on some recent adaptations!

First up, The Wheel of Time. While I only ever read the first three books and it’s been probably a decade since, I recall enjoying them and as a fantasy reader I was excited about the adaptation. I’m pleasantly surprised I overall enjoyed the first season. I thought it was slow to start and noticed some of the big deviations from the books (Perrin’s wife). It also felt a little… shabby as far as costumes and overall appearance go which I found odd since it had a tremendous budget apparently. That being said, I did like it and tuned in right away for every new episode. And Rosamund Pike is a lovely Moiraine, but she looked like she never knew what to do with her hands. I thought Lan was fabulous and the increased focus on Egwene and Nynaeve and the constant implication that one of them could definitely be the Dragon was kind of fun.

I also decided to binge watch The Chestnut Man on Netflix! The book was very well reviewed, but I never quite got around to picking it up. I thought this was fantastic, but obviously I can’t say how true to the book it is. It was a bit creepy, very suspenseful, and I thought the actors did a great job. It is originally in Danish with subtitles, but it’s also available dubbed in English which is what I watched. Occasionally there were moments where the dialogue felt a bit stiff due to the translation. Great ending!

And of course I finally got around to watching season 2 of The Witcher! It was AWESOME. Got to see lots of Ciri, the other witchers, and there were politics aplenty. And tons of great actions scenes! Ohhhh and the final episode had a wild reveal! I haven’t played much of the games and only read one of the books, so I’m unfamiliar with the overarching plot so all the reveals are pretty exciting. I love the aesthetic and I’m so glad they changed the Nilfgaardian armor to something more fitting. But the colored contacts kill me – everyone has such a dead stare!

I’m just going to give a shoutout to The Book of Boba Fett since I’ve only watched two of the four available episodes. The first one was so boring and the second was somewhat better. I’ve heard that episodes 3 and 4 improve, but I think Disney really half-assed this one but it remains a lucrative cash grab since Boba is such a popular character.