James M

Was excited for this show, I read all of Tolkien's extended works when I was a kid and it has all stuck deep in my brain into adulthood. I knew it was going to take a lot of liberties when it came out that they were doing a narrative story set in the Second Age. The problem with Tolkien's Middle Earth works is that there really only is several actual narrative stories within it: LOTR, The Hobbit, the life of Feanor and the theft of the Silmarils, Beren and Luthien, Turin Turambar, Tar-Aldarion king of Numenor, and that's about it. Everything else from the pre First Age through to the end of the Third Age is almost just wikipedia history entries Tolkien made for his own universe. Therefore a show about the Rings of Power in the Second Age was always going to have a ridiculous amount of fanfiction inserted into it to create characters that are actually watcheable and emotionally investable for us the viewers. Not sure of four episodes so far if it is successful at achieving the above goals. It feels like too many storylines have been introduced rapidly, cliched paint-by-number romances, the elves just seem like humans from GoT westerosi noble houses, and the cinematography is pretty insipid, all full of bright colors and and overly lit scenes, the music is forgettable, would anyone want to blast the Rings of Power soundtrack from their loungeroom stereo like you would the Howard Shore LOTR score? It's just a shame to see so much money spent on something so meh at this point, i just hope it gets better