Joshua Hagen

It's impressive to see so many 4 or 5 stars reviews that only watched the fist 2 episodes. I wonder if their opinions have changed? After watching the full season I can safely say this show has a lot of problems and is even laughably bad in places. When I first watched the trailer for this series I was a little worried because there seemed to be a focus on the diversity of the cast and cinematic shots and not so much on story. As someone who has never read the source material, I was confused what the plot of the show would be. Nevertheless, I watched the first two episodes and was surprisingly engaged with the story. Starting up episode 3 I remember thinking "ok, we've set up the multiple plot lines and introduced all the characters. Let's see where we're going." And then . . . yet another plotline with Numenor was introduced along with a host of new characters. And the show only went downhill from there for me. Everyone talks about toxic reviwers online, and there definitely are some, but no one talks about toxic positivity. If you truly believe this show is a 4 or 5 star show, I have no idea what to say. Not every review comes from a place of toxicity, racism against the diverse cast, or bigotry. I read the positive reviews but they just seem so fake and make me feel like I am taking crazy pills. The pacing issues, irrational characters, forced drama that is repeated again and again (the wizard), scale issues, and very unlikable main character really drag this show down. Unfortunately there is a character limit here otherwise I would post my full rant review from Amazon. If you enjoyed the show then I am happy for you. For me, I don't see how this can be turned around unless they get completely new showrunners. I think the cinematography is great and the show has the potential to be good, even if it is nothing like what we have seen from LOTR media in the past. The original trilogy was near perfect and will always be a masterpiece in my book but times change and so does the media we consume. Just because it changes though, does not mean our standards for what is good should too.