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When Galadriel comes on the boat at the end is proper cheesy cringe. Have to say I won't be watching anymore.
I think It's great so far.
I think the stranger has to be Sauron, with him killing the fireflies by accident and the when the hobbits Half foots go into the forrest and comment that thrers no growth, it's like death is following him.
Also the Weird white cultists that appear to be trying to track him down.
There's a fair bit of fluff with the story and plot, and some poor acting, but overall i'm enjoying it for what it is, i think the next episode could be the start of the battles, so will start getting more interesting.
I still use the harfoot storyline as a time to make a coffee, honestly they seem pointless, bar the whole stranger thing, it's just a waste of minutes in the episode when so much else is happening.
If it's to improve though, the glaring thing for me, more than the issues with the script, is the level of acting across the piece, you can get away with a few wooden performances, but this show has quite a few, probably because there are so many young actors in it, who are all pretty new to acting as well, maybe if it's getting a second season, bring in a few better actors to even out the poorer ones.
you can get away with a few wooden performances, but this show has quite a few,
Especially with the Harfoots, its like watching a high school play.
When Galadriel comes on the boat at the end is proper cheesy cringe. Have to say I won’t be watching anymore
not just me then
For me the casting and tone are well off.
If Bromwyn the outrageously, distractingly attractive healer dies, I'm out
I'm glad I stuck with it; lots of very cool action in this episode
not watched it yet. shush
Lots of good stuff, but also lots of stuff that suffered a bit from poor writing, plot or tempo, it can be forgiven as it did quite a lot in the space of one episode!
I do see it's getting slaughtered online though, lots want to see this series fail, not sure why, guessing 'wokeness' or whatever, have to say i've seen a lot less issues around this than was being stated, it's not exactly ramming politics or causes down our throats, it's definitely not doing a disney either, and i struggle to see the standard folk complaining are holding this series, the films weren't exactly hugely different in their setup and output.
If there is something you could be petty about, it's the breakaway from Tolkiens history of events, but again, they're not exactly being shy about breaking away from the Tolkien timelines and events, which i have to say i'm not that bothered about.
I enjoyed that one:
A no score draw this week in the Galadriel vs Halbrand "who can be the more damaged and brooding" stakes.
A big shout out to Arondir. A bit like Legolas only much more badass and a lot less annoying (someone will be along shortly to argue that one I'm sure, but in my opinion all the sterling work he did in the LOTR films was undone in the Hobbit)
Another candidate emerges in the "Guess who"s Saruman?" contest.
Oh and spoiler alert: Oooh doesn't that mountain look a bit like Mount D...
'If Bromwyn the outrageously, distractingly attractive healer dies, I’m out'
Do we really need this?
That was a good episode and yeah, that was Mt D. It’s finally starting to come together a bit.
I do see it’s getting slaughtered online though, lots want to see this series fail, not sure why, guessing ‘wokeness’
Not sure of its "woke" credentials as surely casting the Harfoots as simple minded Irish bogtrotters is the epitome of anti-woke or is that OK as long as one of them is Lenny Henry. Maybe woke doesn't include Irish...or Scots as apparently all us Scots are Dwarfs and our women have sideburns. Actually I don't have a big problem with that (except the sideburns) becuase like the Scots the dwarfs don't give a sh!t who you are they'll kick your @rse.
Hmmm... We're losing the love for it here. Just quite weak and wandering. Adar is our favourite character 😂
My wife just sent me a link to this review. Pretty much sums it up for me. https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2022/09/30/the-rings-of-power-episode-6-review-not-even-a-battle-can-save-this-dumpster-fire/
I do see it’s getting slaughtered online though, lots want to see this series fail, not sure why, guessing ‘wokeness’ or whatever,
Apparently, it's is historically and scientifically inaccurate that Hobbits were dark skinned.
If it was scientifically accurate wouldn't all the elves be dark skinned as they come from the land of light.
If it was scientifically accurate someone in middle earth would have invented pot noodle by now...
...actually following on from that, as LOTR is set 4000 years later, surely all the humans should be walking around in jeans and trainers, the Elves would have invented the Internet, The Dwarves would have electric lighting and pneumatic drills, and the Orcs would have at least invented soap and deodorant or possibly a dating agency so they can find some girlfriends.
I might be over-thinking it all a bit.
Not sure of its “woke” credentials as surely casting the Harfoots as simple minded Irish bogtrotters is the epitome of anti-woke or is that OK as long as one of them is Lenny Henry. Maybe woke doesn’t include Irish…or Scots as apparently all us Scots are Dwarfs and our women have sideburns. Actually I don’t have a big problem with that (except the sideburns) becuase like the Scots the dwarfs don’t give a sh!t who you are they’ll kick your @rse
Yeah, it's why it makes me laugh a bit, as someone said, the Elves are posh, Dwarves are angry scots, the Harfoots are irish travellers and the Orcs act and sound like they're filming a Danny Dyer footy film 😂
As for this weeks episode, i thought it was fine, i get the feeling people are expecting this to be as good as Game of Thrones, but it's a completely different setup and show, out of this and House of Dragons i prefer this, as it's just easier to watch and enjoy, there's actual intrigue in some of the stuff we don't understand, like who/what is Halbrand, who is the stranger going to be, what reason are we even interested in Harfoots and so on.
I'm loving this series, so much better than the house of dragons tosh.
I’m loving this series, so much better than the house of dragons tosh.
Yep.
If it was scientifically accurate wouldn’t all the elves be dark skinned as they come from the land of light.
Eru Ilúvatar provided them with some pretty strong sunblock.
I though we’d have a waterfall free episode! The designers of the program seem to think that fantasy landscapes must have epic waterfalls, and lots of them 🤷♂️. But no they couldn’t resist it could they 😂😵💫
I thought the stranger was Gandalf?
The online slating is quite intriguing, I think the 'woke' aspect was picked up by some righty Americans and that led to an onslaught online. Then what I've noticed more, being a bit of a fantasy fan, is that the Tolkien(ites?) are in a tizz about accuracy and deviations from canon. I'm sure the expense and Bezos aspect also riles people too. Wooden dialogue is often cited, but I remember watching the original trilogy and loving it then rewatching after GoT and found it a bit cringy, I don't think this is any worse.
Anyway I'm still enjoying it.
If it was scientifically accurate wouldn’t all the elves be dark skinned as they come from the land of light.
Im going to have to search for this now, as Im sure the Elves "awoke" under starlight in Middle Earth?
It's not perfect, but I'm enjoying it (especially the subplot about 'orcs having rights too').
(I think some folk on the interweb take this stuff far too seriously.)
As above, there's lots of issues with it, simple one this week was how many ships and their size that the Numenoreans had and how many horses they then seemed to have later on 😂
But it's season 1 of what could be a massive series, it'll grow, i'm not bothered about canon either, they've pretty much nailed their colours on this one, which is a good thing for me, makes it more open to surprises, which House of the Dragon suffers from. Have to say it is starting to break away so much i'm starting to doubt if the stranger might well be an earlier Gandalf, i still think he isn't, it's just too much of a jump away, but Galadriel is completely different, Elrond as well, and we're seeing events happening in weeks that happened in decades or hundreds of years in the canon!
If they followed canon nothing would happens as all the important events are way too spread out. I still hope the stranger is one of the two blue wizards and the constellation is showing him where the other landed. I reckon Halbrand will become the Witch King at some point.
I'm sure I read somewhere that five series have been planned, but not sure if that means 5 series each dealing with a specific part of the Second Age or just one long story arc spread over all five. The pacing of this series would suggest the latter.
I think the end point of the series could be the ending of the second age, so the battle, then some aftermath and so on.
If that's the case, then there can't really be any time jumps, we have the main protagonists in the cast already, we are awaiting the antagonist though, and of course some seriously big events, if they are to be kept, reality is there is a ton of stuff they'd need to do in such a short time, i'm not sure they'll manage it all, i can't even fathom how they can do the big events and the slow burner things in another 4 seasons!
I must admit I haven’t quite made it through the first episode yet myself! Love to know what Amazon were smoking when they decided to drop so much money on this 😂 It’s like they have no idea a) what makes a great TV show or b) why the LOTR films were so successful. This has absolutely no mainstream appeal whatsoever, the target audience is literally just nerds!
This has absolutely no mainstream appeal whatsoever, the target audience is literally just nerds!
No mainstream appeal whatsoever? 😉
https://www.benzinga.com/general/entertainment/22/09/29098574/game-of-thrones-vs-lord-of-rings-heres-who-nielsen-said-came-out-on-top
Amazon says the first two episodes of “The Rings of Power” were watched by 25 million people worldwide in their fist day of availability. That set an Amazon Prime Video record.
The first two episodes of “The Rings of Power” had 1.25 billion minutes of streaming for the week of Aug. 29 through Sept. 4, ranking the show from Amazon.com Inc. as the most streamed program for the week.
“House of the Dragon” ranked fifth on the Nielsen list with 781 million minutes viewed for the week. The show comes from Warner Bros.
. The original “Game of Thrones” show also ranked fourth on the list with 812 million minutes of viewership for the week.
or Scots as apparently all us Scots are Dwarfs and our women have sideburns.
Sounds like they modeled them on Dundee folk.
The audience figures for RoP sound impressive, until you actually think about them. Amazon haven’t said how they arrived at their figure - it could well include people who only watched it for 2 minutes (Netflix had backlash for doing exactly that). They also, notably, don’t mention figures beyond the initial 2 episodes, so I suspect they’ve peaked, whereas HotD (not that that is amazing, either!) is snowballing and now pulling in over 30m per episode, according to variety.
1.25bn minutes sounds incredible too, although over 2 hours my bag-of-fag-paper maths makes that the equivalent of just over 10 million people actually sitting through the whole of both episodes. Doubt the Amazon accountants are particularly happy given they’ve apparently spent £400m on just season 1!
Sounds like they modeled them on Dundee folk.
Not really, the Dwarves tend to have jobs and there weren't any grannies in their late 20s on the show, but they do seem to enjoy a nice peh 😂
Half way through Ep6, and I think it's my last one. The director's need to have endless 5 min sections of instantly forgettable non plot sub-Tolkien-esque derivative dialogue over "rousing" music is getting on my tits just too much. There's just far far too much filler in between the story being driven forwards in a coherent way. I get that TV series aren't films and they can spend time "world building" but this is just an excuse for flabbiness.
TL:DR. It's too boring, and I don't care about any of the characters
Well I like it and think it's way more gripping than HotD.
The old switcharoo with the broken sword at the end of the last episode, the bastard!
I'm finding, much like 95% of everything I watch these days, that it seems to be written for, and acted in the style, of petulant teenagers and young adults.
Characters are either moronic, overly emotional for their circumstances or make inexplicable decisions that appear delusional.
Are we really expected to believe that Galadriel, who at the time of RoP is over 3000yo, really hasn't yet mastered herself so that she has a temper tantrum at the queen of Numenor and gets imprisoned? There are loads of little moments like this from the first episode.
It erodes the gravitas and epic fantasy of the source material and its own credibility.
But, I suspect TV has always been like this and its my advancing years making me curmudgeonly.
At least its better than Shannara. That was a complete travesty for all the same reasons.
It's got a lot of weaknesses, but it is moving forward and the ending of the last episode is a turning point now, so it should kick on a bit, unless we, god forbid, end up with the harfoots again for an episode 😂
The biggest issue for me is the writing is a bit suspect, they're trying so hard to be like Tolkien, that they're making the script pretty corny and forced, which is why i kind of cut Galadriel some slack, she does have the worst of it from poor scriptwriting! But, this can be improved, they need to take the criticism and work on it, there's a lot of good plots and storylines that they can focus on more, and a lot of chaff they could reduce or cut, season 2 will be the make or break for me.
Its like the original LOTR in that the Hobbit/Harfoot story arc is the least interesting compared to the rest of the story lines going on.
Oh I dunno.. The boat people, I would say are pretty on board with the 'kill the baddies' thing.
Are they predecessors of rohan I wonder? They obviously like their horse's.
reached episode 4 last night, it was supposed to be one of the rare shows we agreed on and could watch together so we both kept our mouths shut. Turns out we do agree about it! It just goes on and on so when something does happen you no longer care.
It erodes the gravitas and epic fantasy of the source material and its own credibility.
This.
I disengaged my Tolkien geek episodes ago and have just been trying to enjoy it for what it is. Theres just too many liberties being taken. I happened to watch The Fellowship of the Ring over the weekend, and I realised what it is. Theres absolutely no sense of the depth of history and story in this that Jackson managed to capture in his trilogy.
The biggest issue for me is the writing is a bit suspect,
100% this
The boat people, I would say are pretty on board with the ‘kill the baddies’ thing.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">Are they predecessors of rohan I wonder? They obviously like their horse’s</span>
I found this odd, for a seafaring island people, that seem to have only one city, I wouldn't have thought horses would be so prominent in their culture. An example of the poor writing I thought.
Bit too much harfoots in this one, not sure where they’re going with a couple of these plot lines though, lots to do before the season ending to o say the least
Oh I dunno.. The boat people, I would say are pretty on board with the ‘kill the baddies’ thing.
Are they predecessors of rohan I wonder? They obviously like their horse’s.
Gondor.
Gondor
I'm not so sure...
Horses.. Check.
Blonde horse hair plumage on the Rohan-esque helmets?
Which do you mean by the boat people, numenor & elendil is the start of Gondor if I remember LOTR correctly.
I’ve more or less enjoyed this, but with one episode left I feel we are going to be left wanting a fair bit of info.
I quite like the Harfoot stuff - gives a bit of balance to the program.
Yeah, one more episode with so many strands, if they have an 18 month break between seasons it could be a killer for a show like this, and if they have so many unanswered plotlines working at the same time.
The Harfoots are just added fluff with so many plots going on, again it just makes this series look like a rinse and repeat of Fellowship with so many direct read across characters, especially the way they're written.
It's dull as **** and everybody knows it. If it does get another series (I think they're filming now?) it had better pull it's finger out.
The Harfoots "going on a journey" to find Gandalf (we all know it's him, right?) was really the low point of the writing so far.
Don’t think he’s Gandalf. Seems too obvious. I originally thought he was going to be one of the two blue wizards but I’m not so sure now.
I don't mind it, liberties taken but it looks good and it's tipping along enough to keep me interested. Some of the dodgy accents do take a bit of willpower to gloss over though.
I’m not so sure…
Horses.. Check.
Blonde horse hair plumage on the Rohan-esque helmets?
Gondor was founded by the Dunedain, those are the (spoiler) from the (spoiler) of Numenor, Aragorn being one of their descendants.
The Rohirrim are the descendants of Northmen.
Jeez, I need to get out more …
I’m finding the whole thing just about good enough to keep me watching, but never looking forward to the next episode, which I guess is damming with feint praise?
The only decent character is Adar, don’t think it was the writers intention, but I’m now routing for the orcs!
The writer who's responsible for Harfoot songs should also be sent back to CBeebies before season 2!
Theres absolutely no sense of the depth of history and story in this that Jackson managed to capture in his trilogy.
Whilst I am really enjoying it, I think you are right here. Every Elf acts like they are still in their teens rather than some of the oldest and wisest that ever existed, and there's little to no sense of what has been lost.
I also think it massively under plays the power the elves would have had in the 2nd age, versus what we see in LotR. Unless the rings of power are supposed to have restored them, rather than stemmed the waning (as I always interpreted it).
Still, plenty to work with in future series, though the timelines are messed up.
I think Joseph Mawle is excellent, best thing in it so far, and a very underrated actor.
The Harfoots are just annoying, I want the Orcs to eat them all.
Episode 6 was good, the formation of Mount doom was well done. Some of the fighting was pretty gruesome, orc blood from the eye hole! I thought the reveal they'd been killing humans hit hard, the downfall of man fighting between themselves.
Episode 7 was alright, a bit bored with the Hargoots, think that storyline will get better now there's a small group? Still hoping it's not Gandalf, seems too obvious
Intrigued by the evil elf people, leader looks like Eminem 😅
Is the sword Galadrial gave Theo relevant? Seem to be a lingering shot of it...
I’m watching it with my son who loves it. He thinks it’s quite scary in places. Yeah there are a few issues around pacing and some of the story lines are a lot weaker than others but it looks gorgeous and the last couple of episodes were pretty good. Plus it’s better than the awful Hobbit adaptations and far more enjoyable than House of Dragons.
The "boat people" are Numenorean, who are the people that founded Gondor. Elendil and Isildur are both amongst them, who might have been mentioned once or twice in the books and films...
I need to get out more too...
far more enjoyable than House of Dragons.
Yep.
Given the diversity of the harfoots, and the lack of diversity in hobbits...There must have been some awful event in their past.
From what i've read i do get the feeling the harfoots were the wandering hobbits who were darker, to be fair diversity of the harfoots isn't the issue, it's the acting levels, Lennie Henry is fine, but there's not much more in there, the younger ones look like they've been plucked off the street without any acting background!
Intrigued by the evil elf people
Yeah, who are they meant to be?
Lenny Henry is definitely doing his somerset/devon accent
I'd disagree with that - It's Irish along with all the other Harfoots. Not terrible either - much better that Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York
much better that Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York
This is the kinds of quote they need to add to the posters for this series 😂
Bit of oooh,nah,thought so etc in this one. Still a thumbs up from me.
A couple of reveals and a red herring! Not a bad finale
Well, it's better than that other soap opera with people muttering in dimly lit castles.
The Harfoots' dialogue was just badly written. Maybe the rest was too, but top level actors can deliver clunky lines and make them sound ok. The kids playing the Harfoots couldn't, it just sounded lame and cliched.
What's with all the Harfoot hate??
Just because they're short and don't have cool weapon skills, and are pretty much shit at everything except hiding..
As stated previously, the Harfoots are the weakest written characters and some of the poorest actors are in there, they just feel like they've been shoved in this show to pay homage to hobbits, they had no real part in the tale until the third age as well, but then again the show is doing a few things way earlier and some things way later than in the timeline.
As for the finale, lots going on, lots not getting explained, they'll need to up the ante in the second season to really get this show focused, definitely think they needed to get a few more high level actors in the cast, it's a very inexperienced cast at the top, and it shows at times, yeah the scripts aren't great, but they don't seem to have the Charles Dance/Sean Bean/Aiden Gillen/Jonathan Pryce/etc that GoT's had whilst they blooded a lot of younger actors, even Dragons has renowned folk in key areas to do the same.
Again, still enjoying it, but to survive the negativity they need to up the game a bit, so much going on at the same time will be a huge strain for the next season.
Ooh why wasn't the rest of the series like that final episode!
Quite enjoyed it all to be honest. Maybe I've developed a penchant for slow TV in my old age? They do need to up the ante regarding writing / acting in the second series though.
In the end, you knew from the moment he said 'oh is this the workshop of Celebrimbor'
But pretty good in all.
Hopefully series 2 isn't the fun adventures of wizard and comedy sidekick, and instead we get more sauron mind games.
Didn't want it to be, but HOTD is better
Overall I was disappointed with it but I’ll continue to watch it as new series are released. Looks like the stranger is Gandalf which makes no sense. Halbrand as Sauron happened way too quickly and what about the remaining 17 rings? Slow yet somehow rushed too. Just felt disjointed and never seemed to find its feet.
Maybe I’ve developed a penchant for slow TV in my old age?
I think this is me, started watching Ozark and felt exhausted after an episode.
Well, that was a bit better. I think I was relieved that they stopped teasing us and went for at least a bit of a reveal. I had my doubts about Halbrand all along, but as soon as he said "consider it a gift", the game was up.
Still not sure who the Istar is. Was it confirmed Gandalf, or just heavily hinted?
what about the remaining 17 rings?
Didn't Sauron make and gift those himself? But, the canon is all over the place here, didn't the 3 rings get made to oppose the one ring? Can't really remember.
The three rings were made by the elves, Sauron made the rest.
top level actors can deliver clunky lines and make them sound ok
True. Though I’m not sure I’ve experienced this in RoP.
I gave up with S01E06 when the boat approaches land at sunrise. I just could not bear any more pompous elven blah blah, nor the caricature accent nonsense throughout.