‘Wheel of Time’ captures magic of classic novels
Also worth seeing: ‘Cowboy Bebop,’ ‘Tick, Tick ... Boom!,’ ‘Power of the Dog’
While Will Smith seeks to crash the Oscar sweepstakes with his portrayal of Serena and Venus Williams’ dad in “King Richard” (we’ll weigh in on that next week), streaming releases from Amazon Prime (“The Wheel of Time”) and Netflix (“Cowboy Bebop”) make for worthy viewing.
In more of a musical mood? Tune into “Tick, Tick ... Boom!”
Here’s our roundup:
“THE WHEEL OF TIME”
>> Whereas there was a lot of bloat in Peter Jackson’s “Hobbit” movies and a lot of gratuitous everything in HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” this vintage Amazon Prime adaptation of Robert Jordan’s towering fantasy novel series expertly hones in on the essentials and refuses to over-accessorize. What a relief.
The six-part adaptation — the first in what promises to be an ongoing series — leaves you wonderstruck. It’s a classically structured epic that respects the source material yet isn’t blindly reverential. Series creator Rafe Judkins is working on a massive scale, but succeeds, along with the cast — led by Rosamund Pike, Daniel Henney, Josha Stradwoski and Madeleine Madden — at making us care about the fates of the multi-dimensional characters.
Pike stars as Moiraine, who is on a mission to find the Dragon Reborn — a savior in a world that is threatened to be torn apart by the dark side, which includes fearsome beasts known as the Trollocs. The episodes speed along with the force of a hurricane and will leave you begging for more.
What makes “Wheel of Time “so special is how it is so adroit at world building, weaving in Jordan’s elements of religion and feminism into a classic good vs. evil storyline. It’s a crowning achievement in every way.
DETAILS >> \*\*\*\* out of 4; available Friday on Amazon Prime.
“COWBOY BEBOP” >> Whenever someone gets the hots to redo an iconic movie or series such as this one, not everyone within its ginormous vocal fansphere is gonna be happy. That’ll hold true to this mostly kick-ass, live-action adaptation of the Japanese animated series. The good news is that showrunner Andre Nemec’s 10-episode series gets its sea legs after a somewhat wobbly start. The cast — including an impressively buff and longhaired John Cho as former crime member Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir as hardworking former cop and Cowboy Bebop ship captain Jet Black and Daniella