Streaming Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power

[TheGreatBarryB]

I love the detail in Sauron and Celembrimbor’s ‘relationship’. The story of Numenor, Elendil and Isildur. The Dwarves and Elves. Legendary Stories that were touched on in LOR and playing out in detail in this show.

Never read the books/appendices whatever the hell they were. Just read LOTR and loved it like most others. Enjoying this show a lot..don’t mind other commenting they don’t like it as some interesting stuff anyway. But do find the animosity quite amusing at times

 

[crafty_bernardo]

I finally figured out what's been really jarring to me watching season 2 in particular and it's really preventing me from immersing myself into the show.



Dude looks like he works in finance and wears RM Williams but is cheaply cosplaying for a toga toga party and this goes similarlyfor a lot of the background actors too.

 

[MC Bad Genius]

I finally figured out what's been really jarring to me watching season 2 in particular and it's really preventing me from immersing myself into the show.

View attachment 2113624

Dude looks like he works in finance and wears RM Williams but is cheaply cosplaying for a toga toga party and this goes similarlyfor a lot of the background actors too.

Yeah, he's the one that I was saying is really hamming it up in the Numenor storyline.

 

[Brick Loosener]

If you don't like the show, don't watch it. It's simple. We (people who like the show) really don't give a crap that you don't like it and the reasons why you don't like it.

That always works.

 

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

That always works.

View attachment 2113654

Unlike The Acolyte, we are going to get five seasons of this show (at this stage). Don't get me wrong; I don't mind people critiquing an episode and pointing out its flaws, etc. But this internet thing of just being negative for the sake of being negative just gets old. Very few TV shows are perfect. This one does have flaws, but I still find it OK.

 

[Frank Bunn]

Unlike The Acolyte, we are going to get five seasons of this show (at this stage). Don't get me wrong; I don't mind people critiquing an episode and pointing out its flaws, etc. But this internet thing of just being negative for the sake of being negative just gets old. Very few TV shows are perfect. This one does have flaws, but I still find it OK.

Amazon have to keep making noises that there will be further seasons otherwise the viewership of season 2 will drop off a cliff. But season 3 hasn't been greenlit so far. It's a very expensive show and if the viewing figures are low there will be pressure to cancel it.

Viewing figures appear to be well down on season 1 and declining as the season progresses. The first three episodes of season 2 were the second-most-watched streaming original series in the US. It was beaten by Worst Ex Ever, which is a cheaply made documentary series. RoP has now sunk to 4th place in the rankings with apparently half the audience dropping out.

Luminate Streaming Ratings: ‘Rings of Power’ Falls to No. 4 as ‘Perfect Couple’ Leads With 3.4 Billion Minutes Watched

As 'Rings of Power' viewership dropped by more than 50%, 'The Perfect Couple' led Luminate's weekly streaming rankings.

variety.com

 

[Brick Loosener]

Amazon have to keep making noises that there will be further seasons otherwise the viewership of season 2 will drop off a cliff. But season 3 hasn't been greenlit so far. It's a very expensive show and if the viewing figures are low there will be pressure to cancel it.

Viewing figures appear to be well down on season 1 and declining as the season progresses. The first three episodes of season 2 were the second-most-watched streaming original series in the US. It was beaten by Worst Ex Ever, which is a cheaply made documentary series. RoP has now sunk to 4th place in the rankings with apparently half the audience dropping out.

Luminate Streaming Ratings: ‘Rings of Power’ Falls to No. 4 as ‘Perfect Couple’ Leads With 3.4 Billion Minutes Watched

As 'Rings of Power' viewership dropped by more than 50%, 'The Perfect Couple' led Luminate's weekly streaming rankings.

variety.com

It's getting beaten by this in the UK.

 

[BlakeyNoFlakey]

Viewing figures appear to be well down on season 1

Honestly, who gives a crap. If Amazon decides to cancel it, then that's on them. But until then, those of us who like the show will go on watching it.

 

[Aristotle Pickett]

This is a common criticism and (i think) the only position to take from the show.

The issue is the story is just not what it should be. We know what happens with 'The Rings of Power'. Sauron influences their creation from the shadows, eventually forming the one ring to control them. The age of elves begins to fade, while the empire of Numenor rises as the geo-political power house in Middle Earth. But with Sauron in control of the One, Numenor and men alone cannot stand against him, so the Elves and Men team up, defeat Sauron, cutting the One from his finger and ending the Second Age.

Like any prequel (the Star Wars prequels being the most infamous) we have the key issue in that we know where the story is going. We can't be surprised by Sauron's rise and his eventual defeat. So how do you tell this story?

I think the best part of that story is to tell it as it was intended, a quasi-religious, historical epic with the rise of great men and their fall, a focus on the epic poetry of history, the magic of the world and the might of the people within it. Tell the story as a tragedy where we know what is to happen but the pain and excitement comes from seeing how it plays out and impacts our characters.

The other alternative is to focus rather than on the epic themes of the history as a spectrum, and instead on the interpersonal conflicts and issues that caused the key moments throughout the second age - the corruption of the rings, the rise and fall of numenor, the fading of the elves etc.

Amazon has done neither. Their story is not thematic or grand, it is founded in the minutiae of certain characters, including a focus (seemingly driven out of a desire to copy the format of the Lord of the Rings, a story set in a completely different age with different themes and influences) on the everyday person, the insignificant, the Harfoot children, the Southland single mothers, the Numenorean nepotistic interns etc. Why do we care about these characters in the overarching story that we are being told of Sauron's rise and fall and the efforts of elves and men against them? We don't because they're fake, designed to be something new but given absolutely nothing to do of worth or interest.

When they do take on the lives and times of the Age's key players, Galadriel, Gil Galad, Celembrimbor, Sauron, the Numenoreans etc, they fail at achieving any high-tense politicking, cause and effect or success and failure. The dialogue and motivations are written as if for a CW show, or worse. A far cry from early seasons Game of Thrones which is what they are trying to do with these charachters, the motivations are paper machete, they lack agency with their actions largely being driven by plot contrivances rather than realistic response or established desires.

The show's key focus appears to set up a bunch of mystery boxes. Amazon think, we know where the story ultimately goes, so we'll replace the twists and turns of the grander narrative with a bunch of mystery boxes. Who is the Stranger? Who is Halbrand? Will Celembrimbor know Halbrand is Sauron like we do? When will the Balrog destroy Khazad Dhum? Who is the Dark Wizard, etc etc. And these mystery boxes are done with barely any nuance or grace, plus Amazon has a habit of dropping red herrings which are intentionally misleading and designed to play on the viewer's knowledge of Lord of the Rings only to snap the reveal away from you as if to say "oh you thought you were so smart for knowing Tolkien didn't you, well that was just a lie".

To top it off, they are constantly sprinkling "memberberries" throughout the show with zero rhyme or reason. They think the lack of good narrative and the absence of meaningful dialogue can be rectified by harvesting lines from the Peter Jackson trilogy and dropping them into the show at random. "OH MY GOD SHE SAID GO BACK TO THE SHADOW". It's so asinine.

Overall, the show lacks to tell this story from either an epic, thematic perspective, nor from an interpersonal perspective. It lacks characters with interesting stories and relies on poor reflections of the Jackson trilogy both in characters and dialogue to paper over its failures. It is entirely without merit.

It's a children's fantasy show, don't try to over analyze it.

 

[Mayestro]

Only two episodes to go for the season but building really well. So far it’s an improvement on last season which was itself very good.