REVIEW: ‘The Wheel Of Time’ Season 3 Highlights Its Ambition

Based on the fantasy series by author Robert Jordan, which spans 14 books, well over 10k pages, and has endless characters that appear throughout, The Wheel of Time continues to be a monumental task to adapt. The world is rich and endless, set in a distant future where the earth has been repeatedly broken and remade through tireless good and evil forces. While Season 2 brought greater depth to the world and its textured designs, The Wheel of Time Season 3 further cements itself as one of the most interesting and best-looking fantasy series on television (the color!) despite its unignorable missteps.

The Wheel of Time Season 3 picks up a month after where it left off in Season 2, with the gang back together in Tar Valon. Aes Sedai Morraine (Rosamund Pike) and her Warder Lan (Daniel Henney) have gathered the Two Rivers folk — Rand (Josha Stradowski), Egwene (Madeleine Madden), Mat (Dónal Finn), Perrin (Marcus Rutherford), and Nynaeve (Zoë Robins)—along with their most recent friends, including Elayne and Aviendha, to plan how to tackle the truth in the prophecy of Rand being the Dragon Reborn. However, the world is falling apart as power struggles ignite in the White Tower.

Rand must decide where he’ll go, and that decision will have rippling effects on his friends and allies as well as his new and forgotten enemies. As our characters once again split up to go on their own journeys with a plan to convalesce at a later date, Season 3 jumpstarts their travels with action and bloodshed, an imminent threat that will stalk them throughout.

While it’s a shame that the characters are once again forced to traverse their own paths, the series smartly ensures that each group has a point of interest. The Wheel of Time series famously splits the story into different perspectives. Ironically, considering how much her point of view dominates the series, it’s Morraine only who never receives her perspective chapter. But as the series progressed, so too did the number of characters in control of the narrative perspective until that ever-growing glossary at the end of the book became less of a fun suggestion and more of a necessary tool.

The Wheel of Time Season 3 breaks up the main group once again. 

The Wheel of Time Season 3 pares down who gets the focus while continuing to build the ensemble. Rand, Morraine, Lan, Egwene, and Aviendha (Ayoola Smart) are heading out of the city to the Aiel Waste. Perrin, Loial (Hammed Animashaun), and two Maidens of the Spear travel to the Two Rivers. Nynaeve, Elayne (Ceara Coveney), Min (Kae Alexander), and Mat win out on the most fun storyline of the season as they work at the White Tower before traveling to Tanchico on their mission. While not every thread is as interesting, there’s at least some character or some element to each narrative that maintains our interest.

And, as always, it’s the antagonists who deliver some of the best, most riveting sequences. Lanfear (Natasha O’Keeffe), a forsaken, continues demonstrating her clutch on Rand and Morraine. Her love for Rand and the history he’s tied to makes for an engaging, undeniably evil character. Meanwhile, Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood) remains an MVP, especially as we learn more about his tragic upbringing and what led her to become a Black Ajah in the first place. O’Keeffe and Fleetwood are phenomenal, adding greater poignancy to their characters.

The acting is strong across the supporting cast, with Sophie Okonedo as Amyrlin Seat and Siuan and Shohreh Aghdashloo as Red Ajah Elaida delivering magnetic, powerful turns as characters who withhold their intent. As for the main cast. Zoë Robins continues to impress as Nynaeve, both in her softer, playful moments and especially when we see Nynaeve’s power resting beneath the surface. Though of the main Two Rivers cast, Dónal Finn rises to the occasion, beautifully embodying the forlorn chaos that reigns supreme in Mat’s mind. He’s clearly having fun, and it’s infectious, bolstering otherwise stilted scenes and instilling the right amount of off-kilter charisma.

It’s a shame, then, that some of the main cast continue to falter through a combination of awkward writing or peculiar acting choices. Daniel Henney is at his best when the writers remember Lan’s stoicism and leave the sentimentality and tears behind. It’s not actively bad that the series has decided to allow Lan and, by extension, Morraine a wider pallet of emotions to play with. What works on the page won’t always adapt perfectly to the screen, and to like these characters, we need flashes of interiority and vulnerability. But Lan’s characterization is all over the place, and Henney is lost.

Certain performances experience growing pains. 

But it’s Josha Strawdowski as Rand al’Thor, the Dragon Reborn, the Car’a’carn who will both destroy and remake the world, who is the series weakest element. Strawdowski is at his best when playing to Rand’s sweetness rather than sober severity. The Wheel of Time Season 3 throws countless challenges at Rand’s character as he adapts to his new place and the way in which the world turns to him, yet Strawdoski never quite convinces us that Rand deserves to be the main character. For such a powerful character who drives the fate of those around him, there must be more spark in the performance.

But it’s not some of the performances that fail to live up to the story. The editing is odd and clunky at times as it tries to figure out how everyone’s timelines run together. And for such a lavish production, sometimes the direction veers strongly into an overt glossiness that steals texture from more barren scenes. While many of the changes creator Rafe Judkins has made have been for the best (LGBTQ+ pairings and representation), some of the writing, omissions, and divergences make for puzzling decisions.

The Wheel of Time Season 3 remains an engrossing, beautifully dressed experience. It’s a high-concept fantasy that leans into the otherwordly, uncanny setting where, despite the suggestion of it taking place in some post-apocalyptic world, it exists out of place and out of time. Everything is an amalgamation of eras and cultures as the world grows and tries to stave off the most significant threats of its past.

The set design and especially the costuming remain a notable highlight. Each character is distinctive in how they dress, especially in the White Tower, where colors are weaponized as notices of stature and public opinion. From high collars and great swaths of draping cloth to bold adornments and rich textiles, the costuming gorgeously breathes fervent life into the world.

Wielding more potent darkness, The Wheel of Time Season 3 is an explosive return to this fantastical, ever-expanding world. Through its strong world-building and detailed production, the series showcases its ambitious vision. Not everything is executed perfectly, but what works keeps us entangled in the story it weaves.

The Wheel of Time Season 3 premieres March 13 on Prime Video.