Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, TV series on Amazon Prime TV, Sept 2,2022

[Thom]

 

[azrael]

As it's SDCC time...

 

[Big s]

Toothy talking time

[Raikkonen]

This show so keeps youtubers employed. 🤣

[Thom]

Looking forward to see how it goes.

[electric indigo]

You can see where the money went, it looks pretty good. I have no investment in the lore, so I might enjoy it.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, electric indigo said:

You can see where the money went, it looks pretty good. I have no investment in the lore, so I might enjoy it.

That probably helps since most people know who Sauron is, but Thouron would be like a brand new character to someone not in the know. Although I’m not super into the lore and I thought season one was pretty bad, maybe Acolyte bad possibly worse. It’s definitely Amazon Primes low point as far as original shows

[Big s]

15 hours ago, Raikkonen said:

This show so keeps youtubers employed. 🤣

I think it might be the other way around 

[no3Ljm]

 

[Old_Nash_II]

In the lands of Mordor

 

[electric indigo]

Say what you want, it looks good IMO.

[TangledThorns]

Reviews are out... oof.

Don't think I have the interest in this series anymore.

Hope PRIME learned its very very expensive lesson.

Edited August 29 by TangledThorns

[Big s]

1 hour ago, TangledThorns said:

Reviews are out... oof.

Don't think I have the interest in this series anymore.

Hope PRIME learned its very very expensive lesson.

They should have learned it after the first season 

[mechaninac]

On 8/29/2024 at 8:00 AM, TangledThorns said:

Reviews are out... oof.

Don't think I have the interest in this series anymore.

Hope PRIME learned its very very expensive lesson.

Judging by the more colorful reviews available, not only did PRIME and everyone else involved learn nothing, they doubled down.  Wonder how many of the 30% who bothered to finish the 1st season will come back for the 2nd and stick with it to the end... and, as I understand it, Amazon is contracted for five seasons of this financial hemorrhage. 

[Big s]

51 minutes ago, mechaninac said:

Judging by the more colorful reviews available, not only did PRIME and everyone else involved learn nothing, they doubled down.  Wonder how many of the 30% who bothered to finish the 1st season will come back for the 2nd and stick with it to the end... and, as I understand it, Amazon is contracted for five seasons of this financial hemorrhage. 

I tried the first episode and it’s mostly showing stuff they told us about in the last season and Sauron rolling down a hill like a turd in the wind. It’s a bit early to tell if the whole season will suck, but it’s not off to a good start 

[Duke Togo]

For being the most expensive show on TV, it sure suffers from looking like a mix between a video game cutscene and something shot on a soundstage.

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Duke Togo said:

For being the most expensive show on TV, it sure suffers from looking like a mix between a video game cutscene and something shot on a soundstage.

I actually think that from what I’ve watched, it actually looks worse than season one. I still haven’t been able to convince myself to watch the second episode of this season yet after how bad the first episode was.

the first season was bad, but there were some good looking moments here and there. This one doesn’t seem to have spent as much money on its sets and locations or something. It just seems off in that department, along with the writing. 

[Duke Togo]

The show isn't bad; it's just not terribly compelling. 

[Duke Togo]

I also don't like any of these characters.

But hey, I'll probably keep watching.

[TangledThorns]

1 hour ago, Duke Togo said:

I also don't like any of these characters.

But hey, I'll probably keep watching.

I think I'll watch just to see how bad it is, lol.

[Big s]

3 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

The show isn't bad; it's just not terribly compelling. 

Nah, it’s bad. I’ve never wanted Sauron to win, but I almost want him to but I don’t even really like him either. I’ll try and get myself to watch more, but so far it makes the acolyte seem like a decent show 

[jvmacross]

The first minute of the LOTR Trilogy 'recap' is better than everything we have seen so far in the Rings of Power....

 

 

Edited September 2 by jvmacross

[snakerbot]

17 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

The show isn't bad; it's just not terribly compelling. 

I haven't seen any of the second season, but this is how I felt about the first. Something I think the movies were really good at was giving a sense of scale and consequence. It really felt like these were world-changing events we were seeing. I didn't find the first season bad, but it felt so much smaller than the movies.

[azrael]

18 hours ago, Duke Togo said:

The show isn't bad; it's just not terribly compelling. 

'Tried sitting through episode 1 of this season and that's the feeling I got. The production values are good but it makes it hard to sit through when the story is just, meh (it's not bad, but it's just not good, or I should say good enough).

[Thom]

So far, so good. Not much action happening yet, but there is more than enough intrigue to keep me watching. Is it as good as the movies? No. But that's a pretty high bar and up to episode three this is doing pretty good.

Spoiler

I thought it was neat how they had Pharazôn steal Mirial's moment, misrepresenting the arrival of the Eagle as though it was for him. Really hoping Eärien lives long enough to regret what she's done

.

[azrael]

3 hours ago, Thom said:

So far, so good. Not much action happening yet, but there is more than enough intrigue to keep me watching. Is it as good as the movies? No. But that's a pretty high bar and up to episode three this is doing pretty good.

  Hide contents

I thought it was neat how they had Pharazôn steal Mirial's moment, misrepresenting the arrival of the Eagle as though it was for him. Really hoping Eärien lives long enough to regret what she's done

In case people haven't read the Appendices or The Silmarillion...

Spoiler

Gotta give the audience a reason why the Numenoreans backed Pharazôn seeing as he will lead them to their doom. He takes Mirial as his "political" wife to lay a claim to the throne, brings the Numenoreans to Middle-Earth only the meet Sauron who corrupts him, declare war on the Valar, only then to be b*tched slap by them and gets all of Numenor drowned.

 

[Thom]

13 hours ago, azrael said:

In case people haven't read the Appendices or The Silmarillion...

  Reveal hidden contents

Gotta give the audience a reason why the Numenoreans backed Pharazôn seeing as he will lead them to their doom. He takes Mirial as his "political" wife to lay a claim to the throne, brings the Numenoreans to Middle-Earth only the meet Sauron who corrupts him, declare war on the Valar, only then to be b*tched slap by them and gets all of Numenor drowned.

 

The Amazon show is alt-universe stuff. If they were to do it exactly as in the Silmaillion, it would take twenty* seasons.

Spoiler

And who knows, he might end up forcing her into marriage in the next episode.

 

*this is just an offhand guess, but maybe not too far off.

[Duke Togo]

2 hours ago, Thom said:

The Amazon show is alt-universe stuff. If they were to do it exactly as in the Silmarillion, it would take twenty* seasons.

They don't have any rights to anything in the Silmarillion. They can only pull from the LotR novels and the appendices.

Edited September 4 by Duke Togo

[Big s]

6 hours ago, Thom said:

Spoiler

And who knows, he might end up forcing her into marriage in the next episode.

 

*this is just an offhand guess, but maybe not too far off.

This Sauron isn’t capable of anything like that. He’s so sad that he can only hint at things and hope they go his way. And when they don’t, he gets a little pouty and dyes his hair.

 

Got about halfway through episode 3 of this season. It’s really good if you need sleep cause this show is so slow. It’s really good at ruining your perception of how characters and creatures of This franchise have been from the stories to the adaptations that came previously. 
 

Spoiler

Hobbits will let you die if you fall behind, Sauron is the most sad pathetic that ever became a dark lord,Galadriel is annoying and Orcs got feelings too. The Orc family thing is just weird.

I don’t remember the books really getting too much into how Orcs come to be other than being tortured corrupted elves or something. And eventually there’s talk of Orc breeding pits, but I don’t think that was a place where you shoved some orcs into a hole and expected them to come out as happy families afterwards that care deeply about their children and female companions 

 

[jvmacross]

46 minutes ago, Big s said:

Got about halfway through episode 3 of this season. It’s really good if you need sleep cause this show is so slow. 
 

Indeed it is.....so far I managed to get through the part where the elves take possession of the three rings....barely...

The series is mind-numbingly boring.....I'd rather watch an endless loop of Aragorn & Co running across massive landscapes....at least the music would be enjoyable....

[Big s]

1 hour ago, jvmacross said:

The series is mind-numbingly boring.....I'd rather watch an endless loop of Aragorn & Co running across massive landscapes....at least the music would be enjoyable....

Definitely a better choice. At least in those scenes they were beautifully filmed, kinda overdone but looks way better than what this show tries for.

I honestly don’t know where the money went in this show. There’s no big name stars or even highly regarded directors or writers and the backgrounds look like they just used AI to figure it out. The biggest special effect in the show so far was a horrible scene of a sad turd rolling down a mountain and the animation for it was sub par at best. Annoyingly enough that was also the closest thing to an exciting scene.

[Duke Togo]

Episode 4:

Spoiler

I'm not sure I like what they're doing with Bombadil. Ok, I can understand an argument for toning him down, but he just seems a bit too involved here.

 

[Thom]

That was a good episode.

Spoiler

I don't know how far this Bombadil is from the book version, but I'm liking this portrayal as some extremely elder being. Loved the look of the wraiths, and Elrond in for the save by knowing how to defeat them. My one gripe is that the others elves with them should have been introduced early in the season, or even last season. You just know they are red shirts without the red shirts.

 

[Big s]

Episode 4 took me a while to get through. I think I hate the characters in this show. Most of them are either bi…es or weenies. And I really hate the not hobbits. Those characters even got so annoying that they’re nothing more than gender swapped Sam and Frodo but somehow less mentally capable. Tom is the odd one in that he’s a character that most book fans had really wanted to see, but this version is kind of its own character.

episode 5 is a bit better since there’s more action to distract from the stupidity. But the show at this point feels very very rushed. I think they knew they probably won’t get another season and are pushing things really quickly here.

Spoiler

With all the speed that the dwarves have walking, It makes you wonder why the elves haven’t seen the ring maker yet. They could have been there at least three times by now and probably more if they were smart enough to bring horses.

the ghosts in the forest were figured out a bit easy. I know Elrond remembered the “Lore”, but they seemed to figure out which weapons went to which ghost easily.

and it feels like a lot of the rushing is getting in the way of the story. Like the rings instantly corrupted the dwarf king. And even though in this version of the story, they already know the Balrog is deep in the mountain, the king doesn’t care. I was always under the assumption that they didn’t know he was under them. 
It also seems goofy that these idiot dwarves didn’t realize that they needed sunlight to grow certain crops for food. It makes you wonder how they hadn’t already starved to death.

I’d still say that episode 5 is the best of the season, but still not great.

[Thom]

Good episode 5. I agree with @Big s that it does feel like events are moving a little fast.
 

Spoiler

The Dwarves moving so fast between Khazad-dûm and the elves is similar to how fast everyone was moving around Westeros near the end. I think it would have helped if they had interspersed the events on Númenor, just to give a mental break and fabricate some time between events.

Good point about needing to know which weapons to use on which Wraith. Would have made the fight more interesting if they'd had to figure that out too. It was still good, IMO.

As to how fast the Seven rings corrupt, do we just have the One Ring to compare to? Using most Men as example, it takes hold pretty quickly, and judging by how it corrupts, by trying to do good, and the dwarve's desperate need to reopen the tunnels may only have sped up the effects.

I like how Sauron intimates that the corruption of the Seven is due to Celebrimbor's lying to Gil-Gallad, and him intimating to the blonde she-elf in the Forge, that the vision of evil she saw was Celebrimbor and not him.

And poor Valandil. Just goes to show, never turn your back on your enemy. I wonder if this will have any effect on Eärien, not that it isn't too late already.