Spoilers Lord of the Rings TV series

[Locutus of Bored]

Amazon had to suspend user ratings on Rings of Power because of "review bombing", but that still means there is a whole group of people incensed enough about the show to go review it negatively, or even to write bots to do so. This doesn't bode well for the future of this show, or its legacy. Looks like we won't be seeing many seasons of this.

Oh and before the usual "everything is actually fine" suspects jump in, here is an excerpt from Hollywood Reporter:

For those of us who want this to be a show longer than 2 seasons this is REALLY bad news.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t...ngs-of-power-amazon-review-bombed-1235211190/

Or you could, you know, just enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts without being a constant Chicken Little downer for yourself and everyone else in the meantime? If it gets canceled at some point, I'll be bummed, but for the time being I'm grateful for what we've got and don't really feel like it's productive or conducive to discussion to constantly be shouting about how the sky is falling.

Especially when you've got someone like Bezos who has so much F.U-money and is such a nerd he'd be willing to keep funding this even at a loss. It sort of takes normal financial concerns out of the equation to an extent (not totally, but more than a normal studio) when you're dealing with some dude who has his own spacecraft.

 

[fireproof78]

but for the time being I'm grateful for what we've got and don't really feel like it's productive or conducive to discussion to constantly be shouting about how the sky is falling.

Indeed. I'd rather be grateful for what entertainment I get than worried. I worry enough as it is.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

I watched the first episode last night and liked it. I thought Morfydd Clark made a good Galadriel and even looked like a younger Cate Blanchett and Robert Aramayo reminded me of a younger Hugo Weaving.

I've not read all 70 pages of this thread, and I'm not familiar with the extended lore of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but I got the feeling that King Gil-galad is either Sauron or works for Sauron (like Saruman). He seemed all too eager to disband the warrior Elves and send them to Valinor.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well I liked it. The story drew me in and the cast was quite good. I've never read anything beyond the Hobbit and the trilogy so it's all new to me and I've no "lore" or canon to weigh me down.

 

[FPAlpha]

I watched the first episode last night and liked it. I thought Morfydd Clark made a good Galadriel and even looked like a younger Cate Blanchett and Robert Aramayo reminded me of a younger Hugo Weaving.

I've not read all 70 pages of this thread, and I'm not familiar with the extended lore of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, but I got the feeling that King Gil-galad is either Sauron or works for Sauron (like Saruman). He seemed all too eager to disband the warrior Elves and send them to Valinor.

Gil Galad is not Sauron, he is a famed Elven leader and can even be seen in the battle scene at the beginning of the Lord of the Rings ( he's the one you see in a split second spearing an Orc into the ground).

Sauron was the right hand Lieutenant ( so to speak) of Morgoth, who was once one of the highest beings that helped create the world until he grew jealous and became evil. He was cast out of "heaven" and fled to Middle Earth, where he was only stopped at huge cost ( we see a flash of this final battle early in the first episode). Sauron fled after that defeat and became the new "prime" evil of Middle Earth.

What Gil Galad did in the show is simply squash any last traces of evil and have his people believe it's all done and they can live in peace. Galadriel is about the last one who's not satisfied and has reasonable grounds for her suspicions but she is "promoted" out of the way and into a position where she's not heard from anymore, so she can't ruffle feathers. It's kind of like in our reality where uncomfortable people in the military, who constantly reveal flaws, are transferred to some remote base so no one hears from them anymore and the higher ups won't have to actually deal with what they found out to be wrong.

 

[Nerys Myk]

What about Gil Gerard? Is he Sauron?

 

[Greylock Crescent]

What about Gil Gerard? Is he Sauron?

Possibly. But I’m more concerned about the secret identity of Gil Gadot. Rumor has it that, whoever she is, she’s wonderful.

 

[Verteron]

I enjoyed the first two episodes!

I am not super deep in the details of the texts, I haven't read them since my teen years (which were a long time ago) so I can't speak to whether there are changes vs the source material. But there were changes in the movies too, so I don't know why people are getting so upset about that.

As for the casting I think Morfydd Clark as Galadriel is promising, Markella Kavenagh as Nori is fantastic, Robert Aramayo as Elrond is okay, Ismael Cordova as Arondir is interesting.... but Lenny Henry is bad. Sorry, but I'm having difficulty believing his character in every scene he's in because of his comic typecasting. Plus his accent is all over the place. Sorry Lenny, I love you as a comedian, but I don't think this was the right opportunity to try serious acting.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

...but Lenny Henry is bad. Sorry, but I'm having difficulty believing his character in every scene he's in because of his comic typecasting. Plus his accent is all over the place. Sorry Lenny, I love you as a comedian, but I don't think this was the right opportunity to try serious acting.

I guess you haven't seen him on Doctor Who or Broadchurch or any of his theater productions. Hardly his first time.

To each their own but I think he's doing just fine in what little capacity we've seen him in so far.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

but Lenny Henry is bad. Sorry, but I'm having difficulty believing his character in every scene he's in because of his comic typecasting. Plus his accent is all over the place. Sorry Lenny, I love you as a comedian, but I don't think this was the right opportunity to try serious acting.

Having all the halflings doing Tom Cruise Irish accents is getting a bit of stick especially here in Ireland but Lenny is so likeable he gets away with it for me. It's not like he is "Up the Long Ladder" bad.

The rolling Rs getting a fair amount of stick from certain sections too (the type that use words like Mary Sue) but seem to have missed the fact that it has been in all the beloved movies too.

Added to that has anyone noticed the slow elevation or Enterprisation of the awful Hobbit movies all of a sudden.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

For those of us who want this to be a show longer than 2 seasons this is REALLY bad news.

It's just news. And barely so. In fact, this is little more than when the news gins up a conspiracy theory in order to "report" on the conspiracy theory.

Don't get caught up in that loop.

And again, I'm pretty sure Amazon, given their monetary investment and superior data tracking apparatus, isn't going to be swayed by something as superficial as review bombing.

but Lenny Henry is bad. Sorry, but I'm having difficulty believing his character in every scene he's in because of his comic typecasting.

Can't say I've had any prior exposure to him, so I've found his performance quite enjoyable.

 

[Verteron]

Fair enough, maybe I just need to give Lenny Henry a chance.

 

[fireproof78]

Added to that has anyone noticed the slow elevation or Enterprisation or the awful Hobbit movies all of a sudden.

Yup. Irritating.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Nostalgia is a heckuva drug.

 

[David cgc]

I've seen a few reviews which state that Amazon does not have the rights to the Silmarillion or The Unfinished Tales. I've yet to find an explicit link to support this, but it would go a long way to explain why the show isn't able to explicitly reference the detailed history contained in those works.

As such, this makes the adaptations and deviations from those works all the more understandable.

(And makes comparisons to them all the more hollow.)

The situation reminds me of the Foundation TV series, which specifically does not have the right to Asmiov's robot stories, which crossed over with Foundation, and may well be a contributing factor to some of the changes in the nature of robots from what Asimov established in the stories the TV show can't draw on. As for why they'd need to avoid even the appearance of adapting material outside their license, the Conan Doyle estate, which had a habit of coming down on unlicensed Sherlock Holmes adaptations based on the earlier, public domain stories. They would, without fail, claim that Holmes was depicted as feeling some sort of human emotion, an attribute which was not present until later stories which, as luck would have it, were still under copyright. Or, for that matter, the long, sad story of the Star Trek novels and the JJ Abrams reboot.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Fair enough, maybe I just need to give Lenny Henry a chance.

Lenny is a legend of British comedy practically an institution at this stage and a pioneer in terms of black comedy and celebrity in the UK.
Any performance of his I will be bias to so I can understand someone not aware of him seeing his performance differently.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

Yup. If they had cast George Carlin (RIP) as a Harfoot, I'm sure I'd be hard pressed to see beyond his standup persona.

 

[TimeIsAPredator]

Yup. If they had cast George Carlin (RIP) as a Harfoot, I'm sure I'd be hard pressed to see beyond his standup persona.

Perfect example as I know absolutely nothing about Carlin.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Perfect example as I know absolutely nothing about Carlin.

Stop what you're doing right now and go to YouTube.

You're welcome.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Any performance of his I will be bias to so I can understand someone not aware of him seeing his performance differently.

"biased", just curious, do you use speech-to-text because I see this so much now I was wondering if that is the source?