Streaming Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power

[Brick Loosener]

It looks like the first three episodes have been released. Unless I'm told that the show has dramatically improved since S1 I'm not going to watch it. I kept watching The Acolyte because it was so bad it was funny but this show is bad and also boring.

The IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes scores might be inflated because only people who liked S1 will tune in. Only 37% who started watching S1 finished it.

Only 37% Of Viewers Finished Amazon's 'Rings Of Power,' Which Is Very Bad

Despite a billion dollar spend, the report says that just 37% of viewers finished Amazon's Rings of Power.

www.forbes.com

You can skip it mate.

 

[Mayestro]

I watched the first two episodes. Very good without being top tier. It’s telling an interesting story that I’m invested in.

 

[Vader]

Just watch it yourself without getting your needle moved either way

Too many sheep wait for someone else to say its good or bad . Watch it yourself

I suspect there are many out there like myself - people who watched the first season for themselves, and found themselves bored out of their brains.

I'm not going to waste my time watching the second series if it's even remotely as bad as the first. To this end, we need some poor saps who are willing to invest their own time, to give us an honest (not studio inflated) opinion of the show. Maybe the 2nd season will be a huge upgrade on the 1st - but I'm not willing to spend my own time finding out, if someone hasn't given me good news first.

 

[MC Bad Genius]

I suspect there are many out there like myself - people who watched the first season for themselves, and found themselves bored out of their brains.

I'm not going to waste my time watching the second series if it's even remotely as bad as the first. To this end, we need some poor saps who are willing to invest their own time, to give us an honest (not studio inflated) opinion of the show. Maybe the 2nd season will be a huge upgrade on the 1st - but I'm not willing to spend my own time finding out, if someone hasn't given me good news first.

I've only watched the first episode of the new season so far and I enjoyed it. I thought particularly that the opening 10-15 minutes telling the backstory of Sauron leading up to when he met Galadriel in Season 1 was really great.

It feels like the show is finding its feet a bit more, but a lot of the reviews are saying it's pretty much the same as Season 1 in terms of strengths (world-building, the actual look of the whole show etc) and weaknesses (stilted dialogue, pacing etc). So I'm interested to see how I feel after watching the other two episodes that are available now.

 

[Vader]

I've only watched the first episode of the new season so far and I enjoyed it. I thought particularly that the opening 10-15 minutes telling the backstory of Sauron leading up to when he met Galadriel in Season 1 was really great.

It feels like the show is finding its feet a bit more, but a lot of the reviews are saying it's pretty much the same as Season 1 in terms of strengths (world-building, the actual look of the whole show etc) and weaknesses (stilted dialogue, pacing etc). So I'm interested to see how I feel after watching the other two episodes that are available now.

I thought the cinematography was great in S1... but the plotting was poor - it committed the cardinal sin of being boring.

I also wasn't a fan of the colour blind casting, which I found to be completely nonsensical in many cases. For example, they had one black elf character. This makes no sense. You can have a group of black elves, but you can't have a single black elf among an entire race of white elves.

Between LotR:TRoP and Wheel of Time, Amazon have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on badly written fan fiction, based very loosely on some outstanding IP from world leading authors. It's astounding that they did such a poor job on both shows. Even moreso, given that these shows were greenlit in an attempt to cash in on the success of Game of Thrones - so they really should have learned the lessons from the way HBO completely stuffed up the latter GoT seasons.

 

[GreyCrow]

I also wasn't a fan of the colour blind casting, which I found to be completely nonsensical in many cases. For example, they had one black elf character. This makes no sense. You can have a group of black elves, but you can't have a single black elf among an entire race of white elves.

Open your eyes there is more than 1

Im trying to ascertain if people are showing a racist bias when they complain about colour blind casting or they are so stuck in the world view they built when reading the books that they cant envision anything that doesnt conform to their minds picture

I said in the other thread its been 20 years since I watched LOTR - I dont watch it year after year - I never read the books.

I enter this with a bare bones knowledge of the end and I'm enjoying it.

I also noted the stilted language but wont turn it off because of it

 

[FlowersByIrene]

I think the episode was overall positive. However there are so many foundational issues of the show that just sour the taste in my mouth when trying to watch it.

The most critical one is that Sauron / Halbrand was involved in the making of the three rings, and this faked concern about them, their 'alluring' presence similar to the One Ring that drives the elves to make rash decisions. That is all fan fiction crap. Sauron was never involved in the making of the three elvish rings. This entire plot is made up to create fake tension and it just feels so fake because of it. Plus it drives characters to make bad decisions that theyre book counterpart wouldn't make, like Gil Galad and Galadriel.

I know its silly but I still just can't get over Galadriel's height, she looks like a dwarf, why they didn't cast a taller actress is beyond me.

The DEI casting just takes you completely out of the show, you have no sense of place or homogeny when everyone just looks like they're an extra pulled off the streets of LA with zero thought to their appearance in the context of the Lord of the Rings mythology.

I haven't watched episodes 2 and 3 yet but I understand the show appears to be confusing Rhun with Harad or intentionally combining the two. Which is again hilarious in the context of the DEI casting that two of the areas of Middle Earth with the most unique and diverse people they seem to have just lumped together and blackwashed.

 

[GreyCrow]

Watched the 1st 2 episodes of season 2 and did enjoy the opening. ( some time travel issues arose ) Though there was some confusion that a quick subtitle might have fixed

Enjoyed them and will continue to watch and ignore the book readers waah waah

 

[Vader]

Open your eyes there is more than 1

Im trying to ascertain if people are showing a racist bias when they complain about colour blind casting or they are so stuck in the world view they built when reading the books that they cant envision anything that doesnt conform to their minds picture

I said in the other thread its been 20 years since I watched LOTR - I dont watch it year after year - I never read the books.

I enter this with a bare bones knowledge of the end and I'm enjoying it.

I also noted the stilted language but wont turn it off because of it

I have read the LotR & Hobbit books multiple times, and watched the LotR movies many times (the Hobbit movies are awful beyond words). However, I haven't read the other Tolkien books, upon which TRoP is based.

Putting all this aside... I really didn't enjoy TRoP season 1 - so I would need to hear "word of mouth" that S2 was a massive upgrade, before I would be willing to commit to giving it another chance.

 

[GreyCrow]

I have read the LotR & Hobbit books multiple times, and watched the LotR movies many times (the Hobbit movies are awful beyond words). However, I haven't read the other Tolkien books, upon which TRoP is based.

Putting all this aside... I really didn't enjoy TRoP season 1 - so I would need to hear "word of mouth" that S2 was a massive upgrade, before I would be willing to commit to giving it another chance.

Yes you've said this twice now

It wasnt that important to know the 1st time

 

[Vader]

Yes you've said this twice now

It wasnt that important to know the 1st time

My comment was in direct response to your own writings:

Just watch it yourself without getting your needle moved either way

Too many sheep wait for someone else to say its good or bad . Watch it yourself

I guess, by extension then, you're saying that your own comment wasn't important to read.

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Open your eyes there is more than 1

Im trying to ascertain if people are showing a racist bias when they complain about colour blind casting or they are so stuck in the world view they built when reading the books that they cant envision anything that doesnt conform to their minds picture

I said in the other thread its been 20 years since I watched LOTR - I dont watch it year after year - I never read the books.

I enter this with a bare bones knowledge of the end and I'm enjoying it.

I also noted the stilted language but wont turn it off because of it

It's been explained a number of times, pretty clearly it appears you just don't get it.

Lord of the Rings, and particularly Second Age Middle Earth is a mythological, quasi-history, that is founded in a deep canon of history and logical consistency. The races of Middle Earth are distinct and separate. There is factual, foundational limits on trade and emigration / immigration that cause these distinct cultures that play out throughout the Second Age and into the Lord of the Rings books. Characters ancestry and culture mean something. You are able to, and in a faithful telling of the story should be able to, tell the difference between a Numenorean and a man, tell apart a man from Gondor and a Rhohirrim, know which people grew up in Eriador and which hail from Rhun or Harad. The child of a king from a homogenous isolated island society should resemble each other.

But Rings of Power casting decisions is to make every one of these distinct cultures look like a role call of the patrons of a Starbucks on Hollywood Blvd. As if the Second Age of Middle Earth has modern day global immigration and multiculturalism. Those casting decisions are purely meta-textual and are not founded in the reality of the show. There is no explanation for why all these groups are so diverse, other than meta-textual casting decisions.

It makes no sense in a fantasy context and grounds the element of fantasy in a contemporary time that in unappealing. The same way that referencing a pop-culture trend in a pop-song dates it. It takes you out of the story and alienates the audience.

 

[Vader]

The scripts (both dialog & pacing) and casting were so bad for season 1 that they would have been better off jettisoning both into the sun, and just showing 10 hours of drone footage, showing the stunningly beautiful NZ landscapes. They could/should have marketed it as a slow-TV show (think The Ghan on SBS), calling it "Middle Earth". Thus they would have retained the only good feature of the show (outstanding cinematography), while removing everything they got wrong (everything else).

 

[MC Bad Genius]

I thought the cinematography was great in S1... but the plotting was poor - it committed the cardinal sin of being boring.

I also wasn't a fan of the colour blind casting, which I found to be completely nonsensical in many cases. For example, they had one black elf character. This makes no sense. You can have a group of black elves, but you can't have a single black elf among an entire race of white elves.

Between LotR:TRoP and Wheel of Time, Amazon have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on badly written fan fiction, based very loosely on some outstanding IP from world leading authors. It's astounding that they did such a poor job on both shows. Even moreso, given that these shows were greenlit in an attempt to cash in on the success of Game of Thrones - so they really should have learned the lessons from the way HBO completely stuffed up the latter GoT seasons.

I'll keep you updated on whether it is an improvement with regards to plotting etc. Like I said, the reviews seem fairly consistent that those issues remain from the last season, but (I think) they have only seen the first 3 episodes. I read an interview with one of the directors where they said it builds up to some massive battles over the last few episodes with set piece after set piece, so that will hopefully quell that issue.

The diverse casting isn't an issue for me like it is for you and others. I understand some of the arguments that people have made, but in the end it doesn't bother me at all.

Wheel Of Time was hot garbage and much, much worse than Rings Of Power. I wasn't familiar with the source material at all, but I can only imagine that fans of the books were much more critical of it than I was. Interestingly though, I think it's not that they haven't heeded the lessons from the later GoT seasons, but have overcorrected from the major criticism that they rushed it and tried to tie everything up too quickly.

 

[eth-dog]

I'm enjoying it. It's still in a world building phase though

 

[GreyCrow]

It's been explained a number of times, pretty clearly it appears you just don't get it.

Lord of the Rings, and particularly Second Age Middle Earth is a mythological, quasi-history, that is founded in a deep canon of history and logical consistency. The races of Middle Earth are distinct and separate. There is factual, foundational limits on trade and emigration / immigration that cause these distinct cultures that play out throughout the Second Age and into the Lord of the Rings books. Characters ancestry and culture mean something. You are able to, and in a faithful telling of the story should be able to, tell the difference between a Numenorean and a man, tell apart a man from Gondor and a Rhohirrim, know which people grew up in Eriador and which hail from Rhun or Harad. The child of a king from a homogenous isolated island society should resemble each other.

But Rings of Power casting decisions is to make every one of these distinct cultures look like a role call of the patrons of a Starbucks on Hollywood Blvd. As if the Second Age of Middle Earth has modern day global immigration and multiculturalism. Those casting decisions are purely meta-textual and are not founded in the reality of the show. There is no explanation for why all these groups are so diverse, other than meta-textual casting decisions.

It makes no sense in a fantasy context and grounds the element of fantasy in a contemporary time that in unappealing. The same way that referencing a pop-culture trend in a pop-song dates it. It takes you out of the story and alienates the audience.

Its a television show

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Its a television show

Yep! And a shit one because it doesn't respect the elements of story making that develop a world or the characters, emotion and weight of events within it.

I honestly can't comprehend people who say shit like "its a television show", "it's just a movie"... do you just watch any slop that is put in front of you?

Do you eat food? Can you tell the difference between good food and bad food? Or do you just eat whatever gruel that is placed in front of you as if it were parfait.

If "it's just a television show" or "its just music" or "its just food" or "its just a movie" then why don't you sit in a white canvassed room, watching a film of paint drying with a bowl of cold porridge and the shrieks of tyres recorded on a loop on repeat.

 

[GreyCrow]

Yep! And a shit one because it doesn't respect the elements of story making that develop a world or the characters, emotion and weight of events within it.

I honestly can't comprehend people who say shit like "its a television show", "it's just a movie"... do you just watch any slop that is put in front of you?

Do you eat food? Can you tell the difference between good food and bad food? Or do you just eat whatever gruel that is placed in front of you as if it were parfait.

If "it's just a television show" or "its just music" or "its just food" or "its just a movie" then why don't you sit in a white canvassed room, watching a film of paint drying with a bowl of cold porridge and the shrieks of tyres recorded on a loop on repeat.

Point in case

Why are you so upset? You dont live in Middle Earth. You dont have a Professorship of Tolkein studies. You are a nerd on a footy website

Its just a television show

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Point in case

Why are you so upset? You dont live in Middle Earth. You dont have a Professorship of Tolkein studies. You are a nerd on a footy website

Its just a television show

Ah the "too cool" defense. If it's just a television show why are you discussing it? My apologies that I have standards for the content I enjoy. I'll remember that you don't care next time you say something and ignore you accordingly.

 

[GreyCrow]

Ah the "too cool" defense. If it's just a television show why are you discussing it? My apologies that I have standards for the content I enjoy. I'll remember that you don't care next time you say something and ignore you accordingly.

Im discussing it because Im enjoying it

Thats how critiques work. You either like it or hate it and present your point of view

Then others can decide if your POV is valid.

 

[FlowersByIrene]

Im discussing it because Im enjoying it

Thats how critiques work. You either like it or hate it and present your point of view

Then others can decide if your POV is valid.

To borrow your phrase, point in case.

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

The books are fiction aren’t they? Show is based on the books.

Tolkien I heard was a bit of a **** anyway.

Back to the show.. really enjoyed the first three episodes of the new season. Terrific

 

[Brick Loosener]

The books are fiction aren’t they? Show is based on the books.

Tolkien I heard was a bit of a **** anyway.

Back to the show.. really enjoyed the first three episodes of the new season. Terrific

Show is based on appendices.

 

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

Actually, the producers of this show never got the rights to the stories it is based on because of the usual recalcitrance of the Tolkien estate. So, while it is based on those stories, it can't actually follow them 100%, which is why it differs in some ways considerably.

Anyway, having watched all three first eps now, I liked it. It's not going to be the greatest show ever, but it is still very watchable and some nice fantasy fiction. Is it perfect? No. Actually, finding a perfect TV show is extremely rare. But Season 1, and what we have seen of this season, is better than some of the crap that's been released this year. The visuals are beautiful, and the performances are sincere.

I really don't get why some people insist that a TV show meets their list of demands first or else they won't watch it. Watch it. Don't watch it. Nobody cares.

 

[mellowyellow]

Solid start to season 2 Has me invested and intrigued as to where it goes