Not Enough People Are Watching The Wheel of Time 

These days, it's all The White Lotus this, or The Last of Us that, but no one is talking about The Wheel of Time, and it belongs in the same conversation. This is one of the best fantasy series on TV right now, and it feels like no one is watching it.

To give you a quick plot rundown, The Wheel of Time is set in a fictional fantasy future. It follows Moiraine Damodred, a magic-wielder from the powerful female organisation known as the Aes Sedai, who sets out on a quest to find the Dragon Reborn, a powerful magical channeller who it's believed will either save the world or break it once again. Moiraine finds five potential candidates in a small town in the Two Rivers and takes them on a vast and dangerous journey to the Eye of the World to determine which of them is the chosen one.

The Wheel of Time has so many of the same ingredients as shows like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. It's based on a highly successful series of books by a legacy fantasy author (Robert Jordan) with deep mythology, creative worldbuilding and interweaving character narratives. It has a trifecta of magic, action, and political drama, and while there are no dragons, there are wolves. The show has an epic cast–it's literally led by an Academy Award nominee, Rosamund Pike, which is more than I can say for The Witcher or The Rings of Power–plus it has an array of young, relatively unknown, actors in its ensemble who are all poised to be breakout successes. Lastly, it has insane production value. The Wheel of Time films in the most stunning locations around Europe, and it has some of the most detailed set pieces, special effects, and costumes on TV right now.

So why isn't The Wheel of Time garnering the same level of attention as these other big fantasy shows?

It's a question I do not know the answer to. Perhaps the heyday of fantasy has run its course. There was an influx of fantasy shows off the back of Game of Thrones (including two Game of Thrones spin-offs) that all competed for the same air. So maybe, like the zombie or vampire genres, the world is in need of a break from the fantasy genre. Maybe there is only space for one fantasy series in people's lives these days (and it's probably House of the Dragon). Maybe it's that no one wants to fork out for an Amazon Prime Video subscription while shows like The White Lotus are on HBO or Andor is on Disney+, taking up prime subscription space. Or perhaps it comes down to a more complex issue: the source material.

Like with any adaptation of a beloved book, there are bound to be changes made, and with that, there also comes opposition to those changes. The Wheel of Time has made many changes in the adaptation process, but let's remember that there are fourteen books in this series, and they average 800 pages each. Even with Amazon's money, there was no way the show was getting 14 seasons to faithfully adapt each and every word, so the series had no choice but to get creative. Speaking from a non-book-reader perspective, I think the writers have done an excellent job of making such dense and complex source material accessible. I've watched plenty of my favourite books gutted when they get to screen, so I respect a book fan's opinion on this matter, but I think the story being told in this show remains pretty exceptional despite its changes.

What's impressed me even more about The Wheel of Time is its modernisation of this source material. The Wheel of Time is easily the most progressive fantasy show on television. There are actors of all ethnicities in its cast, the female characters hold the power, and there are depictions of open and queer relationships with zero homophobia. While the source material was never so open about all of this (it was written in the 1990s after all), the series has done an excellent job in making these subtleties defining features in The Wheel of Time. The showrunner, Rafe Judkins, has been adamant in interviews that he wanted people who weren’t seeing themselves in other fantasy shows to be able to see themselves in The Wheel of Time and, as a result, it's advanced the fantasy genre by decades.

Whatever the reason ends up being, I think it's a damn shame that The Wheel of Time isn't getting more attention, to the point that it's now on the bubble for a potential renewal.

See, up until this point, the series has always been lucky enough to be renewed well ahead of its season premiere. Season 2 began filming even before Season 1 had aired, and Season 3 was in production over a year before Season 2 debuted. But now, Season 3 has come and gone, and there's been no word of Season 4. Which is wild to me, because if anything proved that The Wheel of Time was a show worth renewing, it was Season 3.

In my opinion, the eight episodes in this latest season were the best of the entire show (and I promise I'm not just saying that, there's a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes and 65 verified critics who agree with me). For one, Season 3 received a significant upgrade in production value. We went from the desert to the forest and from fantasy to sci-fi in a single episode. The show felt like it had finally nailed its special effects aesthetic - the weaves of the magical One Power never looked better. And in the costume department, the series deserves a renewal for Moiraine's sun hat alone. Season 3 of The Wheel of Time was also more daring in its storytelling. Major characters were killed off in the opening episodes, fan-favourite relationships crashed and burned, and one particular episode explored at least a dozen different timelines. There was even a battle bottle episode that rivals those in House of the Dragon or The Witcher.

These are all things that make it worthy of the weekly water cooler conversation. The Wheel of Time is one of those shows that deserves to be the subject of watch parties or meme round-ups on social media. And yet, I can count on one hand the number of people I know personally who are religiously keeping up with this show. Amazon hasn't gone public with The Wheel of Time's numbers, so I have no real metrics to judge whether people are watching this show or not, but the lack of an early renewal does not fill me with confidence. This show still has so many books in the series to cover, and there are cliffhangers from Season 3 that need to be resolved. If there's one thing that's worse than this seemingly low interest in The Wheel of Time, it would be cancelling it now, effectively ruining it for all the people who are invested in it.

So if you don't want one of the most underrated television shows to go to waste, I'd suggest checking out The Wheel of Time before it's too late.