The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power | Amazon Prime Video - September 2, 2022

Alatar said:

So to set expectations properly: I’m keenly aware that the author is not Tolkien! Matching that level of quality would be like expecting for a stone monument to rival the great pyramid of Giza. Of course it won’t be that. No, rather RoP is essentially above average (which is not a high bar I’m pretty sure) fanfic, albeit with way higher production value than would ordinarily be possible.

I love the lore of Middle Earth so much that I can forgive a lot. So accepting this series for what it is, I’m actually finding myself entertained. It’s fun, for me anyway.

Spoiler below for episode 4:

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It may be a spoiler but dunno these details and sort of skating through this thread, still hoping to binge the whole thing so dunno what's going on, except maybe there were some orc babies at some point.

Hopefully nobody's gonna adopt an orc baby and do the Loki "lovely son" thing.

And apparently a number of Y-tubers are having a field day, but haven't watched those either. I've been into epic fantasy since being a kid, so I'll roll with a lot. In any event, I've seen what del Toro had planned for the Hobbit including metal orcs or something. However exhausted PJ was, I'm still glad del Toro left the Hobbit, IMO it would have been too weird. At least this series has some aesthetic sense. Maybe the elves will start having, like, long hair.

Sassafras said:

It may be a spoiler but dunno these details and sort of skating through this thread, still hoping to binge the whole thing so dunno what's going on, except maybe there were some orc babies at some point.

Hopefully nobody's gonna adopt an orc baby and do the Loki "lovely son" thing.

And apparently a number of Y-tubers are having a field day, but haven't watched those either. I've been into epic fantasy since being a kid, so I'll roll with a lot. In any event, I've seen what del Toro had planned for the Hobbit including metal orcs or something. However exhausted PJ was, I'm still glad del Toro left the Hobbit, IMO it would have been too weird. At least this series has some aesthetic sense. Maybe the elves will start having, like, long hair.

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I’m not a fan of the Internet culture that seems to get off on bashing creative works. It’s not like it isn’t fair game when someone makes a movie or TV series for mass consumption. I can relate to the humor sometimes and don’t consider myself self-serious. But I’m put off by it for the most part.

Things like orcs having babies doesn’t bother me much. Or short hair on an elf. For me those are minor quibbles, really.

Fortunately the content in this series has to get approval from the Tolkien estate, and it was reportedly agreed that some artistic liberties may be taken as long as it’s consistent with Tolkien’s writings and canon. So the idea that we can get some high quality fanfic about the blue wizards, Rhun, and Harad is very appealing to me!

ScoutingForToys said:

https://www.joe.co.uk/entertainment...to-be-cancelled-due-to-poor-viewership-456985

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https://deadline.com/2024/09/lord-o...-power-season-2-viewership-amazon-1236083470/

Season 2 is their 5th biggest viewership in history, currently with only 4 episodes.

Also Bezos is personally invested in this show, so I don't see it being cancelled honestly.

1. Rings of Power (Season 1)
2. Fallout (Season 1)
3. Reacher (Season 2)
4. The Boys (Season 4)
5. Rings of Power (Season 2)

So which is it?

Someone is lying.

WHO!?

chrisstbh said:

https://deadline.com/2024/09/lord-o...-power-season-2-viewership-amazon-1236083470/

Season 2 is their 5th biggest viewership in history, currently with only 4 episodes.

Also Bezos is personally invested in this show, so I don't see it being cancelled honestly.

1. Rings of Power (Season 1)
2. Fallout (Season 1)
3. Reacher (Season 2)
4. The Boys (Season 4)
5. Rings of Power (Season 2)

So which is it?

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Makes no odds to me, I don't watch this insult to Tolkien. Just saw the article and found it interesting.
Frankly don't believe Amazon reporting on their own viewing figures.
Disney tried to claim Acolyte was doing amazingly buy we know how that ended.

Amazon also tried to claim something similar with season 1 until it was revealed they lost nearly 70% of viewers before the finale.

So how are all these people tuning in for season 2 if they haven't finished season 1?

Wor-Gar said:

Someone is lying.

WHO!?

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Looking at the above .GIF I just realized Colin Farrell is doing Robert De Niro doing The Penguin.

ZE_501 said:

Looking at the above .GIF I just realized Colin Farrell is doing Robert De Niro doing The Penguin.

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Colin Farrell doing Gandolfini doing DeNiro doing the Penguin.

chrisstbh said:

https://deadline.com/2024/09/lord-o...-power-season-2-viewership-amazon-1236083470/

Season 2 is their 5th biggest viewership in history, currently with only 4 episodes.

Also Bezos is personally invested in this show, so I don't see it being cancelled honestly.

1. Rings of Power (Season 1)
2. Fallout (Season 1)
3. Reacher (Season 2)
4. The Boys (Season 4)
5. Rings of Power (Season 2)

So which is it?

Click to expand...

-Shrug-

Didn't see any facts in this article. Anyone can assume a show might be cancelled because of low viewership. Then there's Netflix who notoriously cancels shows even with a strong fan base.

I haven't watched 'coz I wanna binge it. Unfortunately IMO the real problem is - is this something I'd REWATCH unlike Netflix's Sandman. So far I haven't felt the slightest urge to rewatch Season 1 - because, IMO, there was so much stupidness. Actually thought some of the design work was OK, and having an Istari having to find his feet is an interesting idea, so there are things that don't totally suck.

But shipping Galadriel and Sauron sure did, as well as making Celebrimbor behave like a nervous tailor or something. It's like - if Cirdan the Shipwright showed up, these writers would make him appear as a jolly plump Popeye type with tats.

No interest in this after Season 1's disappointing and directionless storyline.

If there's a single episode that is good and has people talking, I'll watch that. But the ins-and-outs of "someone" conning the Dwarves and Elves into making rings just has no grab for me, especially as an eight or nine-part "season".

Probably the best episode so far. The show is at its best when you see Sauron up to no good.

chrisstbh said:

Probably the best episode so far. The show is at its best when you see Sauron up to no good.

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which episode? maybe I'll watch this one.

Alatar said:

Things like orcs having babies doesn’t bother me much. Or short hair on an elf. For me those are minor quibbles, really.

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Orcs having babies and attempting to make them sympathetic is a lagging indicator that the showrunners and writers have no clue on the only element of the current show with real narrative juice.

The relationship between Elrond and Durin / Durin and his father / the tension between Dwarves and Elves , that's plenty to have a good solid show on it's own. That ROP had a long enough break after S1 to shift directions, and yet didn't to the only storyline that resonated with fans, is indefensible.

Basic Screenwriting 101 - Complex characters and painfully simple plot > Simplistic characters and complex plot

Too many characters. Too many storylines. Too many plot points. No one cares about the Harfoots. No one cares about fledgling Gandalf. No one cares about the humans on the show. A lot of people find the Sauron narrative to be predictable and exhausting. I like Arondir, I like the idea of a rank and file warrior elf who gives that perspective of a grunt. Where did that go? Nowhere. Where did his love interest storyline go? Nowhere. How interesting is making super magic jewelry? Not so interesting unfortunately.

Spending way more time with Durin's father and Durin, that conflict, that interplay of tension plus the fate of the elves and their survival, that's plenty. That's interesting to fans. It even has some background with Jackson's films. Fans can relate to the struggle of a child vs parent in their own lives. The "cold war" between Elves and Dwarves is not so detached from actual geopolitical reality in the real day to day world.

Why try to reinvent the wheel here?

MeatHookGekko said:

Orcs having babies and attempting to make them sympathetic is a lagging indicator that the showrunners and writers have no clue on the only element of the current show with real narrative juice.

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is the acting in this show bad? yes.
is the writing bad? yes
is it boring? sometimes
convoluted yes
cringe at times? yeah
are the humans AWFUL? YESSSSS

do I love Galadriel? always
do I love every single scene with the elves? yes yes
do I love the scenes with orcs? yes

this episode had no galadriel. I was mad. but I love the dwarves axlot. I love them. I love them as much as the elves.
the dwarf stuff was very good.
I'm really loving the dwarf plot

Television (or streaming) has changed and serialized/episodic screenwriting has changed with it over the last 25+ years. Simple plots with a monolithic linearity are just not happening any longer. Characters aren't chasing one singular objective to a logical conclusion. Writers are flexing as much literary muscle as they can, because these shows in this format have allowed them that license. Not all writers are good at it, though, and you can see how formulaic all of these shows have become to the point of being often irritating.

Much of this can be traced back to the heavyweight game-changer cable shows like Sopranos, Six Feet Under, then more recently Mad Men, Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. Shows that grew increasingly complex and convoluted as seasons progressed, but also folded up under the weight of their literary intentions. You saw more and more characters added, more frayed plot lines, more overlapping of under/over current plot threads, and possibly more dilution of the concept. That doesn't mean the shows failed, well some did "jump the shark", it's just that they established a format for tele-novel screenwriting that is largely inescapable now. I think the difference is new shows are becoming a bit messy right from the first season, maybe only a few episodes in, but that's just what you have expect from the format now, because these aren't features films or mini-series'. Let's be honest, these are the modern late-night soap operas and now every new show/series follows that format and structure.

It's worth noting that the Lord of the Rings books (and Dune too) are very messy atypical forms of literature. It's what makes them kind of great, but they tend not to follow the rules of literary convention. In a way I'm not surprised the shows resist following any simple rules of cinematic/televised storytelling. The source material really allows them to go wild with imagining various ideas and threads of writing. Writers have to stick to rules when producing for the big screen, but television and the success of the format that was established 25+ years ago has mostly liberated them from strict rules. We just have to get used to shows having tons of characters, varying purposes for those characters, plots and subplots, different tones moods and energies of plot threads (some emotional, some comedic, some deeply dramatic, some merely expository), long and short story arcs all happening simultaneously, and always a near-guarantee of no strict meaningful linearity. We know where everything is leading in this (and every other) series, and it's almost irrelevant to fixate on any sense of conclusiveness, so now we're expected to sit and wade through all the filler until we get to the end. Maybe we get to enjoy some bits and pieces of that protracted story along the way. Writers love to flex their literary muscle and heap as much as they can onto the series and they will pile it both deep and high until it spills out the sides like the most ambitious and disgusting new menu item at Taco Bell.

MeatHookGekko said:

Basic Screenwriting 101 - Complex characters and painfully simple plot > Simplistic characters and complex plot

Too many characters. Too many storylines. Too many plot points. No one cares about the Harfoots. No one cares about fledgling Gandalf. No one cares about the humans on the show. A lot of people find the Sauron narrative to be predictable and exhausting. I like Arondir, I like the idea of a rank and file warrior elf who gives that perspective of a grunt. Where did that go? Nowhere. Where did his love interest storyline go? Nowhere. How interesting is making super magic jewelry? Not so interesting unfortunately.

Why try to reinvent the wheel here?

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Regarding the Arondir/Bronwyn romance going nowhere, there’s a real world reason it ended so abruptly.

https://screenrant.com/why-bronwyn-not-in-rings-of-power-season-2-death-nazanin-boniadi/

The Buffinator said:

Regarding the Arondir/Bronwyn romance going nowhere, there’s a real world reason it ended so abruptly.

https://screenrant.com/why-bronwyn-not-in-rings-of-power-season-2-death-nazanin-boniadi/

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I still haven't watched it.

But, I don't care. That's a real problem for this show if folks can't connect to any of the characters.
Imagine some folks do. But this wasn't a character IMO that had any presence. It's like watching the Acolyte where I didn't care either.

Sassafras said:

I still haven't watched it.

But, I don't care. That's a real problem for this show if folks can't connect to any of the characters.
Imagine some folks do. But this wasn't a character IMO that had any presence. It's like watching the Acolyte where I didn't care either.

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If you haven't watched the show, how did you reach that conclusion about her character? Or is the "it" you're referring to Season 2? I actually liked the her, but then I remembered liking the actress in Homeland so I was probably predisposed to giving her the benefit of the doubt.