‘The Wheel of Time’ Season 3 premiere review: “To Race the Shadow”

“To Race the Shadow” kicks off The Wheel of Time Season 3 with stunning action, rich character moments, and some bold new storylines.

The Wheel of Time is back for Season 3, and somehow, impossibly, it’s gotten a whole lot better.

That’s not to say the first two seasons were bad, exactly—they were more like that friend who talks a lot about the original Robert Jordan books and swears it’ll all make sense once you get to Book 14. And yeah, season 2 absolutely showed major improvement, especially in character development and emotional stakes. But Season 3, starting with the premiere “To Race the Shadow,” feels like the show has finally taken the leap from “fantasy with potential” to “actual capital-F Fantasy Television.” Complete with slow-mo spear dancing, brutal inner-circle betrayals, and at least one scene where a character monologues about destiny while staring into the middle distance.

And yet, for all its triumphs, the show is still trying to do so much, and the seams are starting to fray.

A shakeup at the White Tower.

The hour-long premiere (sorry, 1 hour 9 minutes) opens with a bang. Literally, if you count the explosive fallout of Liandrin’s betrayal. The White Tower has never looked so unstable, both figuratively and emotionally. This isn’t a subtle political breakdown. It’s a full-blown catfight with spells, and I mean that in the most respectful, feminist, “burn-the-patriarchy” way. Moiraine (Rosamund Pike) is still serving “elegant woman one bad day away from burning down a library,” while Alanna (Priyanka Bose) suddenly feels like the emotional heart of the Tower, grappling with sisterhood and the fracturing of trust.

Liandrin’s arc continues to be a highlight. Kate Fleetwood has been eating this role like it’s a three-course meal without silverware, and the writers are finally giving her layers beyond “scary mage with suspicious eyebrows.” The confrontation between her and the other Aes Sedai is one of the strongest moments of the episode. It’s raw. Personal. Tense. The show nails the emotional resonance and tragic inevitability, here.

Subtext becomes canon.

Meanwhile, Rand (Josha Stradowski) continues his ascension as the Dragon Reborn, and he’s starting to act like it. There’s a confidence in his performance now that feels earned, not forced. His storyline, focusing on winning over the Aiel and embracing prophecy, gives the show some much-needed forward momentum. The Aiel themselves are a highlight: visually stunning, culturally distinct, and played with gravitas. If the show can keep up this energy with their arc, we might be looking at its Dothraki-but-with-actual-depth moment.

And then there’s the kiss. Yes, that kiss. Elayne and Aviendha.

It’s no longer subtext. It’s text. Big, bold, glorious sapphic text. Easily the best change from the books by far, especially considering source material’s, ahem, harem tendencies.

The show’s choice to lean into their relationship rather than leave it ambiguous isn’t just bold—it’s wildly smart. Representation in fantasy can often feel like an afterthought, but this coming together was emotionally charged, narratively earned, and blessedly free of awkward over-explaining. The chemistry between Ceara Coveney and Ayoola Smart is undeniable, and their dynamic already feels like it has real potential beyond fan-service. More of this, please.

So much lore, so little time.

But while the character work is often stellar, the episode’s structure is a bit of a mess. Like, bless them for trying, but To Race the Shadow crams so much lore into its hour-plus runtime (which includes a lengthy recap to be fair) that even book fans might feel like they’re playing catch-up. You’ve got Aes Sedai drama, Aiel drinking games, Mat leaning into newfound fame, Perrin and Loial being best friends forever, and the shadowy maneuverings of Lanfear and Moghedien, who feel like the goth Mean Girls of the Forsaken. Morraine can be their third.

It’s a lot.

Sometimes the show handles these threads well—like the haunting mirror sequence, which is grotesque, suspenseful, and genuinely chilling. But other times, it feels like the script is frantically flipping between tabs labeled “Worldbuilding,” “Character Arcs,” and “Fans Will Riot If We Cut This.” The result is uneven pacing and occasional tonal whiplash.

Balancing the power-struggle.

One scene will be a poetic meditation on power and trauma, and the next will involve someone explaining the history of a knife forged in the Age of Legends by an ancient Forsaken using shadowy spirit magic and a little bit of, I don’t know, resentment?

To be fair, this has always been Wheel of Time’s deal. The books are famously dense and coy. But the show’s writing room has to decide whether it’s adapting The Wheel of Time or assembling a televised Wikipedia page with the occasional emotional payoff. In this episode, it’s doing both, and only getting away with it because the performances and visuals are so consistently good. And I do have to applaud the writing for not being afraid to move a few book events out of order when it does make sense.

Overall, I came away impressed. This is, probably, the best episode of the show so far. It feels like everyone involved—from the actors to the fight choreographers to the VFX artists—has leveled up. The stakes feel real. The characters feel lived in. I’m invested in what happens next. The world feels more dangerous, more beautiful, and more weird than ever.

Room to grow.

“To Race the Shadow” doesn’t solve every problem the show has. It still over-explains and under-focuses. It still has trouble choosing which stories deserve the spotlight. But it finally feels like the wheel is spinning fast enough to matter.

And if Season 3 keeps this up, we might finally be watching the fantasy epic Amazon always wanted to make. Rather than being the lower-budget backup to Rings of Power. I have a feeling this is the mode Rafe Judkins was always going for but just needed some time to weave into a convincing pattern. With more emotional depth, more coherent worldbuilding, and a bisexual knife-wielding polycule threatening to tear reality apart.

What’s not to love?

The first three episodes of The Wheel of Time Season 3, including “To Race the Shadow,” are available to stream now on Prime Video. Watch the Season 3 trailer here.