I found the first season of Amazon Prime’s The Wheel of Time adaptation to be a bit of a mixed bag.
There were changes that I liked and changes that I did not.
The latter was especially apparent with the first and final episodes of the season, with a lot of the creative decisions in those two episodes being quite poor, in my opinion.
Despite this, I did like the season enough to be interested in seeing Season Two.
The fact that this season would be adapting my favourite book in the series, The Great Hunt, certainly helped.
Well, it pleases me to say that Season Two of The Wheel of Time is a substantial improvement from the first.
Yes, the show is still nowhere near the quality of the books but it is still a good show all on its own.

Once again developed by Rafe Judkins, the show picks up from where the previous season left off, with everyone thinking Rand (Josha Stradowski) is dead.
The Dragon Reborn is trying to learn how to channel from Logain (Álvaro Morte), while forming a relationship with the mysterious Selene (Natasha O’Keeffe)  
As for Rand’s friends, they are split up for most of the season.
Egwene (Madeleine Madden) and Nynaeve (Zoë Robins) go to the White Tower to train as Aes Sedai, Lan (Daniel Henney) is trying to help Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) after she was stilled, Perrin (Marcus Rutherfod) goes hunting for Padan Fayne (Johan Myers) who stole the Horn of Valere, and Mat is being held captive by Liandrin (Kate Fleetwood).
Speaking of Mat, I was interested to see how Dònal Finn would portray the character since Barney Harris left part-way through Season One for unknown reasons.
I loved Harris’ portrayal of Mat so Finn certainly certainly had big shoes to fill but by the light does he fill them. 

Mat is not the best character of the season for me though, no, that title goes to Egwene.
When I first read The Great Hunt, I was absolutely horrified by the Seanchan’s treatment of her.
This is the one area where I think Season Two matches the books in terms of quality because of just how horrifying Egwene’s experience is directed, along with the incredible performance from Madeleine Madden.
I was just as disgusted with what the Seanchan were doing as I was in the books.

Almost as good were the interactions of the Foresaken.
I was constantly enjoying the mind games that Ishamael (Fares Fares) and Lanfear played, and the Forsaken teased at the end of the season has me excited for what is to come. 
While the rest of the season does not quite match the dramatic highs of Egwene and the Forsakens’ scenes, it is still solid with there being only a few hiccups.

For one thing, the opening scene in Episode Seven has some pretty horrendous acting.
Then there is the Horn of Valere, which I do not think the show sold the importance of enough.
Yes, I found the scene with it in the final episode to be triumphant, however, that was mostly because of my experience as a book reader.
Had I been a show only watcher, then I would have lacked a lot of context.
Also, I think the show has not really sold Rand’s power as the Dragon Reborn yet.
Characters like Egwene already appear much stronger than him.
However, I understand that they are trying to do a gradual build up to Rand realising his full potential so hopefully that will come later. 

Probably my biggest criticism of the season though is Lan and Moiraine’s storyline.
The conflict between them was very predictable as to how it would end, a lot of Lan’s storyline dragged, and Moiraine never learned something important about her family so a plotline surrounding that felt like a waste.
Other than this and a few other issues, Season Two is solid and a substantial improvement from Season One.
It might not be as great as the book it is adapting, but The Wheel of Time adaptation finally feels like it is getting on the right track.