Wow. This is just terrible. There's no other word for it other than that.
Firstly, the casting is just plain awful. Diversity for the sake of diversity takes its toll yet again, with people being cast into roles with the wrong ethnicity for that particular part. This is even more insulting considering the fact that the world all of this takes place in, already has tons of diversity in it to begin with. Don't shove it in where it doesn't belong!
Storywise... ooh boy. So much has been changed. And look, I get that book adaptations need certain elements changed in order to better fit a visual medium. And some changes they made, are fine. But let me just list some things that are completely wrong:
The whole concept of the Dragon. The show opens with a very brief description of who the Dragon is. The Dragon is the reincarnation of a male Aes Sedai who broke the world in ages past. Concise, but true. Good enough. But then they go on and say that this reincarnation could be either male or female? That makes no sense at all! The Dragon has to be male, because he's the reincarnation of a male Aes Sedai, and he will break the world a second time, just like he did before.
Finding the Dragon. Nobody knows who the Dragon Reborn is. People find out because he starts fulfilling the prophecies written about him just by being born in a certain place and on a certain time. That's how Moiraine narrows it down to the Two Rivers, by finding out about some young people there that fit those criteria. In this adaptation, all Aes Sedai have some sort of spidey sense that can pinpoint the Dragon. Lazy writing at its best.
The world itself. It should be winter, due to the Dark One's grasp increasing on the world. This is a big plot point, which causes visible distress with pretty much everyone, affecting their doings and thoughts, and in this adaptation they just dumb it down to "something drove the wolves down the mountain". It's spring in this version, and birds can be heard in pretty much every scene.
Characters not acting the way they should. Nynaeve is much too serene, Moiraine isn't serene enough, Egwene is much too mature, Perrin is much too jokey, Mat isn't jokey enough and much too responsible, and so on.
Characters' backstories changed to completely change their personality even further. Mat suddenly has abusive parents. Perrin, who is consistently described in the books as a shy, awkward, careful, peaceloving guy, not only has a girlfriend in this adaptation (his finding his first love in Faile Bashere later on is also a huge plot point that they dismissed by doing this), but he murders her in a fit of blind rage. Nynaeve is suddenly a "lost child", just so they could add her to the possible list of nonsensical Dragon candidates. Because suddenly the Aes Sedai spidey sense doesn't work anymore. Rand and Egwene having a full on sexual relationship while they're supposed to be a coming-of-age story that never works out for them.
Forced edginess. Nudity and sex scenes, while sparse, are shoved in your face so forcefully that you can just tell one of the producers saw Game of Thrones and told the script writers to shove "some of that" in there.
There is a LOT more wrong with this cesspool of an adaptation in terms of story, but those are some of the big ones. Also just overall bad acting and bad CGI. The CGI looks like a videogame from the mid 2010's.
I really wanted to like this, but no amount of goodwill can save this absolute mess of a show.
LIKE TRAIN TO BUSAN BEFORE THERE WERE TRAINS.
