The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

It has all the cool visuals and pretty music that a billion dollars can buy, but not much more - and certainly not any actual writing talent. The spirit of Tolkien is completely absent here, replaced with unlikeable characters, the "clever" narrative tricks beloved by hacky modern writers (play spot-the-Sauron with your friends!), and (*sigh*) yet more Current Year Politics. I hope this show was worth it to you, Bezos, but my time is worth more to me than this.

This glittering, goofy abomination is Tolkien in name only: a confused billion dollar fan-fiction that is quite transparently designed to evoke Peter Jackson's (superior) LOTR trilogy at every turn. Even if you ignore the cheap looking costumes, unlikable characters, awful casting, cringe-inducing dialogue, and complete disregard for Tolkien's lore, Amazon's Rings of Power is just a subpar generic fantasy story. Great score and visual effects, but everything else is so deeply disappointing.

Odd show to approach. It is by far the most expensive TV show of all time ($465 mil season budget) and looks fittingly amazing by TV standards. As a lifelong fantasy fan I can enjoy that visual aspect. But I also sympathize with Tolkien aficionados who find it to be appalling fanfiction. Shows how discourse has degraded in ten years that criticizing Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy for Tolkien divergence was perfectly legitimate, but the exact same avenue of criticism is now treated as a hate crime.

Made it through episode 1. It opens with a beautiful sequence, which would have been perfect if it weren't for the narrator describing to us what we're already seeing (try it without narration). Then we meet Galadriel; no one believes her that Sauron is alive, and it is repeated with no end for the entire episode. The only competent people are either women or minorities (just like in real life!). The one group of only-white villagers are racist and used to be allied with the villain.

So, this is what the last season of Game of Thrones felt like. Collapses under the weight of its own import - like the villain of its own story, it pretends at greatness, but it seems to know it’ll fall apart after even a whiff of self-examination. Putting the concept through an A.I. algorithm would’ve resulted in more original ideas and execution. I doubt I'll give subsequent seasons a shot.

Everything I had hoped it would be and more. Highlights include casting, production values and Durin and The Stranger's plotlines (1 season)

What a terrible story! It's so boring that I unknowingly started to type "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!".. One of the worst betrayals to the source material.

Film-making by committee might work for Marvel (although less and less so), but it certainly didn't for whatever this is supposed to be. For all that money, they couldn't find a decent screenwriter? Or anyone who ever read Tolkien for that matter?

An okay start. There isn't really a single character I care much about, but I am interested in the larger story. I only wish they had focused more on character development. They often feel so lifeless and oversimplified. Far too many motivational speeches and a lot of style over substance to ensure a full hour of runtime. And yet, despite that and despite not really looking forward to this show after that bland marketing campaign, I did like it overall what can I say.

Definitely not timeless - plays into Current Year so hard it comes with a side of ricotta toast. But! It's aiiiight. Captures a sprinkle of the mythology of Tolkien and the majesty of his huge themes (will, power, good/evil, burden etc). (Season 2 is not an improvement..)