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Spoilers Lord of the Rings TV series

Devil's advocate: people of a different era are incapable of hewing to an author's attitude/expectations as closely as possible?
They can, but they if want to be successful they need to do it in a way that will still meet modern audiences expectations.
 
As for the sex, this is a different group of people, writing in a different era, with different expectations, so obviously they're not going to do
Nor should they. I'm cautiously optimistic on this series and the use of sex and sexuality will be an aspect that will be under intense scrutiny. Not for it's inclusion, since any society will have attitudes regarding the subject and it's expression. How it's used in the story is more my interest.
 
Yeah, I don't mind sex and nudity in stuff I watch as long as it's done well and makes sense for the story. But it does start to get a bit annoying when it's shoved in there for no reason. The constant overuse of sex and nudity that really served no purpose to the story was a big part of why gave up on Game of Thrones.
 
It is something of a shame that unique flavor gets sucked out because of this notion that pandering to the LCD is vital.
 
OK, thanks.
It is something of a shame that unique flavor gets sucked out because of this notion that pandering to the LCD is vital.
I don't think I'd got that far, but you still want to at least make a show that enough people are going to want to watch for it to be successful. You can't just appeal to Tolkien fans, you need to get people who've never read a single word he wrote to watch the show too.
 
Ok, I missed the intimacy consultant thing. Game of Thrones really has ruined Fantasy on TV, hasn't it? Can't make a fantasy series without nudity and sex anymore, even though LOTR even in the books is basically completely sexless. I wonder if it will beat GOT's rape per episode ratio :barf2: I was only going to watch the show out of morbid curiosity, but I don't watch GOT style stuff, so I won't be wasting time on this show.

Its sad to see how little the Tolkien estate gives a shit about LOTR, the second Tolkien's son is dead it sells out completely. Its a good thing that the Chronicles of Narnia is almost exclusively about children, otherwise I'd shudder to think what would become of future adaptations of it at this point.
 
OK, thanks.

I don't think I'd got that far, but you still want to at least make a show that enough people are going to want to watch for it to be successful. You can't just appeal to Tolkien fans, you need to get people who've never read a single word he wrote to watch the show too.

I understand that adaptations - to a certain extent - are designed to bring in the uninitiated, but...T&A as standard issue, though? It this a money (i.e. production) thing or a contemporary (televised?) fantasy thing?

Ok, I missed the intimacy consultant thing. Game of Thrones really has ruined Fantasy on TV, hasn't it? Can't make a fantasy series without nudity and sex anymore, even though LOTR even in the books is basically completely sexless. I wonder if it will beat GOT's rape per episode ratio :barf2: I was only going to watch the show out of morbid curiosity, but I don't watch GOT style stuff, so I won't be wasting time on this show.

I'm not ready to write off this attempt just yet; if nothing else, it'll probably have decent set design...eye candy aplenty. However, I am tired of holding my breath every time a live-action adaptation is announced. There is another literary franchise that I am solidly invested in that was given the silver screen treatment a few years back and *it* ended up being way off the mark; my tolerance for quote un quote "creative liberties" diminishes every year.
 
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I don't have time to find the interview, but didn't one of the producers say that the show will still be somewhat family-friendly?
 
Yeah, I don't mind sex and nudity in stuff I watch as long as it's done well and makes sense for the story. But it does start to get a bit annoying when it's shoved in there for no reason. The constant overuse of sex and nudity that really served no purpose to the story was a big part of why gave up on Game of Thrones.
Same here.
I don't think I'd got that far, but you still want to at least make a show that enough people are going to want to watch for it to be successful. You can't just appeal to Tolkien fans, you need to get people who've never read a single word he wrote to watch the show too.
Exactly.

And let's be clear-sex has been a part of the fantasy genre for a long time. The idea that Lord of the Rings should be spared it because Tolkien never explicitly wrote it is, well, fanciful. I get that people want an adaptation that strives towards faithfulness, but there is also the simple reality that cultures will have sex and sexual attitudes. Those things actually inform a huge part of current cultures and how people interact, from standards of beauty to unconscious attitudes of what makes some things OK and not OK.

The reality is that modern drama has carved out an effort to approach relationships with an actual real life sensibility, including romance, fights and conflict within the relationship. This includes sex and sexuality and ignoring it and treating it like it does not exist is actually a quite way to alter suspension of disbelief.

Now, to be blunt, do I like this? Not really, because I think sex is a very private thing. But, that would be ignorant of how people actually engage in relationship and how they treat media.
 
Cleaver, Addams or Manson?
I found the quote in the Vanity Fair article:
So will there be Westerosi levels of violence and sex in Amazon’s Middle-earth? In short, no. McKay says the goal was “to make a show for everyone, for kids who are 11, 12, and 13, even though sometimes they might have to pull the blanket up over their eyes if it’s a little too scary. We talked about the tone in Tolkien’s books. This is material that is sometimes scary—and sometimes very intense, sometimes quite political, sometimes quite sophisticated—but it’s also heartwarming and life-affirming and optimistic. It’s about friendship and it’s about brotherhood and underdogs overcoming great darkness.”
 
I understand that adaptations - to a certain extent - are designed to bring in the uninitiated, but...T&A as standard issue, though? It this a money (i.e. production) thing or a contemporary (televised?) fantasy thing?

So, are you saying for a show to be liked by a modern audience, it has to have sex?
No, I'm not saying you have to have sex and nudity in a show for it to be successful, all I meant is that the show is going be made according to modern sensibilities, which include sex and nudity for streaming shows going for an adult audience.
And sex and nudity don't automatically mean it's going to be Game of Thrones, at this point for all we know it could be on 20 second scene in one episode with a quick flash of half a butt cheek or a little bit of side boob.
 
And sex and nudity don't automatically mean it's going to be Game of Thrones, at this point for all we know it could be on 20 second scene in one episode with a quick flash of half a butt cheek or a little bit of side boob.
Yup. Daredevil had a brief flash and had a rating of M for mature (or something like that) for nudity and violence.

Once scene.

The violence I get as it was rough. But, the nudity rating? :vulcan:
 
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