Lord of the Rings TV Series Purchased by Amazon

[Khaza-R]

I think my favorite part is people didn't get half as mad over a mid Lotr video game a few years back, with lazier writing. Feels like it's not really about the writing....

Honestly I just think it's it's funny how many people show their ass trying to hate on a TV show. We've moved way past hate watching into hate watching circle jerk orgies of misery. It's really funny. And incredibly sad.

Not really comparable though. The video game wasn't trying to retell one of Tolkien's stories. It just used the setting as a backdrop. Which quite honestly, Amazon might have been better off doing.

One of the large issues with this show is its messy teetering between trying to be faithful to the source material but also deviating and trying to tell its own story. They probably would of gotten less backlash had they not tried to have their cake and eat it too.

[rhorle]

Not really comparable though. The video game wasn't trying to retell one of Tolkien's stories. It just used the setting as a backdrop. Which quite honestly, Amazon might have been better off doing.

Shadows of Mordor and Shadow of War both change Tolkien's story into something of their own. This is one of the large issues with some fans. They create an arbitrary excuse for why X thing is fine but is not okay when Y thing does it.

[Syegfryed]

I think my favorite part is people didn't get half as mad over a mid Lotr video game a few years back, with lazier writing.

The range of a videogame to a different show are different.

Many people don't even know this game exist, i sure don't know which one you are talking about, i only played one from ps2 who re-enact the movies and a RTS one

The show have bigger range, and it had bigger expectations, cause the movies.

Honestly I just think it's it's funny how many people show their ass trying to hate on a TV show. We've moved way past hate watching into hate watching circle jerk orgies of misery. It's really funny. And incredibly sad.

And there is always people who think they are above all, but still in the orgy as well.

[Shambooo]

This episode was amazing

[Fabinas]

That's a healthy way to do it. If you manage to get past the "Oooh it has to be lore accurate even if it's based on a few pages" stuff, Season 2 really stepped up the game. Annatar and Celebrimbor is fantastic, Tom Bombadil is great (but the Rhun/Hobbit storyline is a bit lackluster as of now) and the show is really finding it's footing. New Adar actor is actually killing it, even if I prefered the more demented version of Season 1.

Watch it as a "generic fantasy series" loosely based on Tolkien and you'll soon realize there's a lot more depth and "Tolkien" in it than it first seems.

With that said, Season 2 still suffers from the same odd cliche writing season 1 had, but it was also written and finished to start filming before Season 1 aired. Guessing we'll see an ever bigger step up in Season 3.

Rofl. 25 minutes watching is enough to judge a TV series. That is not healthy. That is dumb.

I don't defend this shit show. I actually endured the whole of its first season, not because i hatewatched it, but i wanted to give it the benefit of a doubt, considering it was made by largely inexperienced people and had mostly a cast not full of celebrities.

But i suppose watching a whole episode, or 2 or 3 to have an even better idea is such a waste of anyone's time, despite loving Tokien's work.

[SilverLion]

Not really comparable though. The video game wasn't trying to retell one of Tolkien's stories. It just used the setting as a backdrop. Which quite honestly, Amazon might have been better off doing.

One of the large issues with this show is its messy teetering between trying to be faithful to the source material but also deviating and trying to tell its own story. They probably would of gotten less backlash had they not tried to have their cake and eat it too.

Tolkien never crystallized the story being told by the show. It's literally no different. They used it as a backdrop to tell their own middle earth story. That's it

The range of a videogame to a different show are different.

Many people don't even know this game exist, i sure don't know which one you are talking about, i only played one from ps2 who re-enact the movies and a RTS one

The show have bigger range, and it had bigger expectations, cause the movies.

Calling bullshit. Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War are the two biggest lotr game properties outside of the MMO. It was well known and it was panned for its fan fiction nature, particularly the second game. But here's what happened: People forgot and moved on because it's not a big deal.

I honestly feel like the writing just compounds the other issues. That's the problem. People are willing to overlook bad or mid writing IF other elements are there. I and many others enjoyed Tolkien's original works as they were written. I feel like if the show runners would have respected the lore and done the show more in the vein of the actual books instead of feeling like they knew-better, then the show wouldn't have garnered so much backlash.

There are literally TONS of videos pointing out the various incongruities and missteps of the show. Now if you want to chock that all up to salty folks just venting/whatever, then that's fine. But you don't get so many people going through such effort for nothing. If you only took one or two points from each of those videos/posts as legit and said the rest were sanctimonious blather, then you would still have a lot of issues in your bucket.

So the argument that "there's a lot of criticism so it must mean there's issues" isn't a good position. Especially since I don't think anyone is saying there aren't issues.

[Triceron]

Shadows of Mordor and Shadow of War both change Tolkien's story into something of their own. This is one of the large issues with some fans. They create an arbitrary excuse for why X thing is fine but is not okay when Y thing does it.

But they were never presented as tying in to the movies or to LOTR. It just told its own story, which is why people aren't overly fussed about it not being authentic. The creators were even very transparent about doing their own thing.

RoP was never promoted as being its own thing. From the beginning they tried to make it an extension of the movie verse and implying it was going to be true to Tolkien's works. I think it would have been more acceptable to fans if it were presented as its own thing from the start.

[DarkAmbient]

Watched episodes 6 and 7. Elrond kissed his future mother-in-law Galadriel. That actually happened. The showrunners found an excuse for that fanservice by using the kiss as a means for Elrond to use his oral skills to pass a key to Galadriel in plain sight of her captors, allowing her to escape. Probably the worst moment in the entire show for me.

I wonder if Ar-Pharazon is going to force Tar-Miriel to be his Queen after the stunt she and Elendil pulled, just to punish and humiliate them both whilst also securing his own position in the face of rising unrest. It would at least represent an effort to remain faithful to the story.

Thankfully there was little of the Harfoots.

I'm honestly trying to think of positives here. In terms of action and pacing they were probably the most entertaining episodes so far. It felt like stuff was actually happening. I am enjoying Charlie Vickers as Annatar/Sauron. It is difficult to reconcile this version of him with the mysterious eldritch horror we saw in the Jackson trilogy, but then Sauron wasn't always a floating eyeball. The battle scenes weren't great though, and characters were teleporting all over the place.

Eh, I could pick it apart but I can't be arsed. The show is what it is. At least we'll get to see balrog next episode.

[MCMLXXXII]

This really was one of the better episodes. Pacing was right, screenplay okay. Still some really awkward moments, like Celimbrimbor counting the 9 rings out loud, but this was the best episode of season 2.

[Syegfryed]

Watched episodes 6 and 7. Elrond kissed his future mother-in-law Galadriel. That actually happened..

You are joking, that did not happened.

[melodramocracy]

Haven't watched E7 yet. The show is has a weird shallowness to it, like I simply don't buy into some of these characters, and most of that has to do with the writing itself. New Adar to me is a downgrade from the S1 version. It's not all bad of course... Durin is top notch (and good lord does this show do a better job with dwarves than the Hobbit flicks did), and Elendil has been solid up to this point.

I have a hard time getting past what a buffoon Celebrimbor is, even after calling out Annatar for his bullshit, he goes along with it anyhow. They could have approached the forgings from a bunch of angles, and this just seems rushed or not very well thought out.

[Kumorii]

You are joking, that did not happened.

Not only that... They played this huge triumphant music when they kissed.
I actually laughed a bit because it felt like such a big moment as if it was a romantic drama and this was the culmination of them finally getting together.

But, I have to agree this is one of the better episodes. Things actually started to happen at a somewhat pace.
The 'betrayal' was pretty well done imo
Arondir dying I think was the best outcome for him, unless it's a fake out. He didn't seem to have any real purpose now that Bronwyn is gone, he just showed up at proper timings to save the day otherwise he was a ghost.

I'm not sure why this show keeps feeling small. The Battle started big with the big lineup of horsemens, but then after that it's like you see 20 people at most.

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I have a hard time getting past what a buffoon Celebrimbor is, even after calling out Annatar for his bullshit, he goes along with it anyhow. They could have approached the forgings from a bunch of angles, and this just seems rushed or not very well thought out.

Yeah, I was kinda hopeful since they seemed to go on about the deceiving part, though very slowly. Droning on for a bit too long... and in the end they get basically made through force rather than deception.

[Dezerte]

But they were never presented as tying in to the movies or to LOTR. It just told its own story, which is why people aren't overly fussed about it not being authentic. The creators were even very transparent about doing their own thing.

RoP was never promoted as being its own thing. From the beginning they tried to make it an extension of the movie verse and implying it was going to be true to Tolkien's works. I think it would have been more acceptable to fans if it were presented as its own thing from the start.

I think the issue is more so that it's bad, not that they tried to do their own take on it. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with changing or adapting the source material if you can make it just as good or even better.

Take The Witcher. The books were beloved. The game changed and adapted things but was still great. The show did the same but it did it worse then the source.

[Orby]

I think my favorite part is people didn't get half as mad over a mid Lotr video game a few years back, with lazier writing. Feels like it's not really about the writing....

Honestly I just think it's it's funny how many people show their ass trying to hate on a TV show. We've moved way past hate watching into hate watching circle jerk orgies of misery. It's really funny. And incredibly sad.

Did you miss the sexy Shelob controversy. No one liked that. There was alot of complaints about how they pretty much threw the books out the window, especially by the time of the second game which literally just said fuck it. :P

At least the gameplay was fun (well the first one was) even if the story was very fan fiction. The ebst thing about those middle earth games were the satisfaction of killing orcs and the brilliant Nemesis system. I would be shocked if anyone praised the story lol

also I stopped watching the show... I think if I did continue to watch it would be hatewatching, so I stopped 3 episodes ago. There was alot to like about the show, but overall the awfulness of it outweighed the good. although if you enjoy it good for you dude, I envy you I wish I could enjoy it. Do I think it's the worst thing ever? No, Its not even the worst Tolkien thing, ever. Its just very dull.

Take The Witcher. The books were beloved. The game changed and adapted things but was still great. The show did the same but it did it worse then the source.

Lets not go crazy, people perceive to like them but a lot of them more so the later books are not that great. The games in my opinion actually do better than the books as far as characters and story adaptation if not surpass the source material, not sure thats a hot take.

[En Sabah Nur]

Nielsen Streaming Top 10: ‘Rings of Power’ Takes Second Place With 1.2 Billion Minutes Watched as ‘Prison Break’ Holds No. 1

“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” took the second position of Nielsen’s weekly streaming rankings for Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, during which the first three episodes of Season 2 were available for four days. The Amazon Prime Video series was watched for 1 billion minutes during that time.

This does, however, mark a drop in viewership from the opening of Season 1. In 2022, the series debuted with 1.3 billion minutes watched — and that was spread across only two episodes. If Season 1 had dropped with three episodes as Season 2 did, its total would have been even higher. Additionally, the new billion-minute total also accounts for all viewership of Season 1 during the week of Aug. 26 to Sept. 1, during which many viewers were likely rewatching earlier episodes or discovering them for the first time.

To the series’ credit, Nielsen only accounts for viewership in the U.S., and Amazon consistently touts that “The Rings of Power” is especially popular in other countries, though data to support that claim has not been provided.

The only title to beat “The Rings of Power” during this viewing window was “Prison Break,” which has seen a resurgence in popularity since its addition to Netflix. The long-concluded Fox drama landed at No. 1 for the fourth week in a row, this time with 1.2 billion minutes watched across Netflix and Hulu.

[exochaft]

I think the issue is more so that it's bad, not that they tried to do their own take on it. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with changing or adapting the source material if you can make it just as good or even better.

Take The Witcher. The books were beloved. The game changed and adapted things but was still great. The show did the same but it did it worse then the source.

Having finally caught up with season 2, I can adamantly say it's both: it's bad on its own, and it's bad when considered an extension of the PJ's cinematic version. Heck, season 2 is bad as a sequel to season 1, almost like they forgot what they wrote in many cases (although to be fair, some episodes in season 2 forget what it did in prior season 2 episodes, too). It's almost impressive how bad it is, where so much fails that it's hard to even process everything after a certain point because everything compounds upon itself. At this point I unironically think an AI would've done massively better if you gave it a few passes. I'll be fair and say there's some scenes and character moments that are actually decent to good and some of the landscapes look nice, but they're buried in a sea of issues to where it's not even worth considering.

The main difference between RoP and the Witcher situation you mentioned? The amount of money wasted... also I don't think The Witcher books were that popular, at least not as much as the game story was. I want to say The Witcher TV series has more redeeming features than RoP, especially season 1 of The Witcher, but the series devolved into a similar state towards the end (especially if we consider Blood Origins, which is probably the closest in terms of writing to RoP).

It's rather funny as RoP was getting so comically bad through the second season I started imagining it as an intentional comedy in the style of Blackadder, with the story mainly focusing on Rowan Atkinson as Sauron and the standard ensemble of actors from aforementioned show playing main characters (Tony Robins as Waldrig, Brian Blessed as Durin IV, Stephen Fry as Gilgalad, Elrond as Tim McInnenry, Miranda Richardson as Galadriel, Hugh Laurie as Celebrimbor, etc.). Was way more entertaining when you consider all the problems with the show being intentially done (events/plot being silly, characters constantly being idiots, etc.) and twisted into gags.

[Shadowferal]

...smoochies*


Hnf...nails mother-in-law...before marrying the daughter...such a guy thing to do.

[Syegfryed]

I have a hard time getting past what a buffoon Celebrimbor is, even after calling out Annatar for his bullshit, he goes along with it anyhow. They could have approached the forgings from a bunch of angles, and this just seems rushed or not very well thought out.

Thats because the writers are buffoons themselves, who don't know how to make a story complex enough to make Sauron a proper deceiver/manipulator, so they need to make everyone else retarded

Not only that... They played this huge triumphant music when they kissed.
I actually laughed a bit because it felt like such a big moment as if it was a romantic drama and this was the culmination of them finally getting together.

Jesus Christ, and i have to listen to some twats here saying this show in't a total perversion of tolkien work, its insulting

But, I have to agree this is one of the better episodes. Things actually started to happen at a somewhat pace.

I went to confirm if that shit was real, and i also read that Eregion already fallen, and the elves simple treat with the orcs, and they simple don't kill then when negotiations fail, seems like total bullshit to me.

If this is "the best"holy shit the others must be abysmal.

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Hnf...nails mother-in-law...before marrying the daughter...such a guy thing to do.

They wanted their game of thrones, and they did it, sick bastards

[rhorle]

They wanted their game of thrones, and they did it, sick bastards

Not even close. The context of the scene makes that clear. It was a distraction to hide the passing of a lock pick and her expression after wasn't anything close to romance . It is being cherry picked by the haters because it is easy to twist to their narrative. It is a common trope. Black Widow and Captain America did it as a distraction in The Winter Soldier.

https://youtu.be/aDA513-4LVo?t=85

[Syegfryed]

Not even close. The context of the scene makes that clear. It was a distraction to hide the passing of a lock pick and her expression after wasn't anything close to romance . It is being cherry picked by the haters because it is easy to twist to their narrative.

The context is shit my dude, just don't do it, its cringe and sick

They are the goddamn writers, don't make a fucking scene where Elrond kiss his mother-in-law, do in another fucking way, they went for this on purpose, the same fuckers who ship her with sauron, stop trying to defend this.

there is nothing to twist, because the writers already twisted everything, by making a perverted scene that did not exist

How the fuck she did even know he was going to do that? elven telepathy now?