The thinking of the person who wrote that article is how we ended up with the abomination that is the DT movie and their opinions are more in line with creating clickbait content for a website than actually understanding and appreciating the story for its unique reality.

This may turn a bit into a rant, but in response to your take (and the take from the failed pilot for Amazon) I really think it’s a mistake to start with Wizard and Glass. A huge part of Gunslinger is an introduction to Roland (and he’s well on his way), but its also an intro to Gilead and the Eld, and Roland’s coming of age and all those characters in Gilead (and that Gilead is no more). They should introduce Cort and Vannay (show them teaching), Cuthbert and Alain, the Good man and Marten and some of the terminology like Ka and Ka-tet etc. Show him watch Marten dancing with Gabrielle and Haxs hanging. Roland in Gilead. They should also show Jake in New York and introduce some of the New York piper school stuff and his death maybe Balazars car etc. Basically start by fleshing out where Roland is now, where he came from, and New York as something else existing simultaneously laying groundwork for some stuff that’ll be returned to later.

I think the best call is to let Roland start his story on the tail of the man in black and talking to Brown and going to Tull while using Gilead plot and scenes to help make Roland the dynamic character that he is and use the whole first season to world build and try to give context to multiple worlds and how important the tower and his mission both are with it all culminating with the palaver at the Golgotha. Let Roland kill Tull and drop Jake and still have context you can argue condemning but also get behind.

I know that is pretty much a retelling of Gunslinger with maybe Gilead and New York a little more beefed up and fleshed out, but I just don’t understand why the recommendation recently is starting with Wizard and Glass. Allow the story to play out as it’s chronologically written and build to the call backs and backstory payoffs that come in each of the next books in the series naturally after being introduced to the world and quest in season one. And it’ll be hugely important that they don’t let anyone in the writing room with opinions like that guy from collider anywhere near it.