Z Tonkin

The reviews that state this show has gotten history wrong or that Robin should not be a pagan etc are incredibly ignorant. Normans and Saxons were living together with the facade of peace for centuries. And pagans still exist in this country so it’s very plausible that there were pagans living at that time too, especially those who lived in forests or away from towns/cities. There is still clear discrepancy over any truth behind Robin Hoods story, similar to that of King Arthur, so this interpretation of historical fiction is not where the show should be ridiculed. The issues with this show are the ways it creates a facade of attempting historical accuracy at a half-baked rate. Everyone has a posh English accent, although being not only from the northern midlands, but also of Norman or Saxon decent. Not even Sean Bean appears to be allowed more of his native tongue… Everyone is also white, but the casting hasn’t gone as far as choosing those with Norman/Saxon characteristics. When you are not trying hard to be historically accurate then the fact this show has been whitewashed in today’s world is frankly baffling. The scripting is basic, the music unoriginal and the casting seems budget aside from Hugh and the Sheriff. I am a huge fan of Sean Bean and of the anthropomorphic personification that is Robin Hood, so will watch this to the end, but don’t think it make any ground breaking impact beyond Taran Egerton’s version. So far the best versions are Men in Tights and the BBC series. Just sad that when you have so much material to learn from they have chosen to make something that initially feels quite bland.

This new show is a shining light in a world full of “decent” animated shows based on previous material. A&O has now been relentlessly remade for decades and I strongly believe this new show has found the sweetest of sweetspots to hit. The animation is not only perfected to the smallest detail, but the (Uk) casting is exceptionally chosen and performed all-round. The storyline and scripting is fantastically adapted from the original comics, the tone being honest and true to the originals with some wonderful nuances that provide some very well placed modern takes on the classic humour. Music and soundtrack is superb, especially the tasteful inclusion of Pomplamoose’s cover of MIKA’s Grace Kelly and even a Sly and The Family Stone classic. This show really sets the bar for any animated comedy historical fiction show and really any new animation of adaptations. Perfect for all the family. I hope beyond hope that Netflix sees the truth that this is a team of creators that deserve to be applauded and honoured for creating something that has filed this nostalgic and very cynical fans soul with reinvigorated hope for the future of remakes. An absolute triumph of a show, the only downfall is there isn’t MORE! The gauntlet has literally been thrown Disney/Pixar etc - take many, many notes and very very carefully choose your next moves, as it will take some serious work to beat what this show has achieved!!

To be as brief and to the point as possible. This is just another attempt at diluting something because there is a shortage of real creativity in the TV industry. Beyond Paradise had its quirks and a strong choice to follow a storyline from DiP, but RtP is the equivalent of The Traitors Aus to the original, basic, shallow, unoriginal, obvious and tacky. My main point is this though: why do we now have 3 shows, around 15 series worth of episodes and every single lead actor is white? This is a show that has no need for that and flooding the secondary casting with “diversity” is not an excuse. This show really is becoming a reflection of modern society in the sense of “imply surface-level equality and people won’t notice the reality that there is still sever white privilege.” As well as the current “take a good idea and squeeze it until it’s so overdone people start to hate it, then we know it’s finished.” Stick to the main series or keep making actual spin-offs like BP, but don’t waste your time watching this trailer trash.

This series is not what it could have been, but overall I think it has achieved a degree of what it set out to. Overall, as is standard nowadays, the scripting is incredibly basic, with no room for audience interpretation. (“I am sad that I have been exiled and so I will find the avatar to not be sad any more” type of language) This is disappointing, but less so than most other shows as it is right to attempt to tailor for younger viewers as was the animation originally. They have changed certain things, but they have kept a lot of the core elements (pun intended) and utilised them fairly well. The visuals are, of course, breathtaking and the choreo is generally very good. Although they did miss out some great aspects of S1, which they probably didn’t need to, we did get some crucial character building for Zuko and Azumi etc. Bumi was a great casting and Omashu’s condensed version was very good. There are aspects of the live action-CGI crossover that were noticeably clunky, but if you keep an open mind (as if watching Star Wars Ep 7 for the first time) then you can still enjoy the way this show has been visualised from a cartoon origin. The casting is generally good. I wasn’t convinced at the start, but most of the characters grew on me, although some remain fairly diluted so hoping they expand upon the seemingly shallow approach to non-central characters in S2&3. Overall I would say it could have been better, BUT it is by no means a failure and I look forward to S2 with hope that they will iron out some of the dilution and basic scripting to make this a really stand out adaptation. People recreating an already great work really don’t have any excuses to not make it high level. It baffles me just how many “screen writers and producers” manage to create garbage out of gold so often. This show is closer to brass out of platinum… A little disappointing, but overall you’d still have a nice door knob.

I wish there were reviews on the reviews written because so many people are painfully ignorant in their approach to writing a review. There are too many people expecting a replication of the books and way too many people being almost racist in their opinions of the casting. This show is not a great capture of the books, but it doesn’t try very hard to be as the books are not fit for modern TV adaptation. The overall atmosphere is good as it gives a more honest historical impression of the dark ages than any previous Arthurian story. The scripting is fairly basic and much of it shouldn’t have made the cut, but it was never going to replicate the book’s dialogue so should have taken a different approach. The casting is good, but it is the scripting that often lets the cast down. Peoples views about Merlin are naive at best as there was no way he would be a replication of the books after how badly the Druid depiction failed in the Brittania series. People don’t want to see the weird and “crazy” and the relentless angle of most of Cornwell’s books being anti-Christian would never have made it onto the big screen, just like Last Kingdom was watered down. The biggest failure of this series is that it is slow. There are exciting and engaging characters and stories cut from the script to facilitate basic dialogue scenes and romance scenes between A&G that are useless in the plot progression as we all know their love story. All the reviewers thinking it should have been from Derfels perspective are ignorant to the fact this would have made every close encounter involving Derfel tedious and inevitable. But to focus on Arthur’s perspective, while cutting out Lancelot and Galahad is the most naive move of all. I hope it gets renewed for a second season so they can correct their failures. People need to remember The Last Kingdom grew with each season, so support shows like this rather than moan with your personal preferences based on a lack of understanding of book adaptation capability. Would we not rather these fantastic books are being made into shows than the poor attempts at creating new stories by screen writers like The Rings of Power is giving us??

Thanks to these reviews, my desire to begin reviewing my favourite shows/films has ignited... I consider myself a lifelong LOTR fan. Still doing my best to read all the books and learn as much lore as possible. In honesty, I am very far from an expert, but have a huge love for Tolkien and his worlds. Against the grain, I was as much a fan of TH as I was LOTR films. If anything it made me feel the original trilogy now has scope for a remake and proper embellishment. #tombombadil #khraniteli 🤪 The Rings of Power hasn’t filled me with huge confidence so far as it really does not adhere to Tolkien lore as such. However, I was not turned off by the first two episodes at all and (to be clear, they were filmed as a cinematic opening for red carpet release so fans analysing the pace of part 1 are being pretty harsh) look forward to seeing how this new story unfolds. The Galadriel issue I am actually a supporter of as she was always defined as a warrior type by Tolkien in her youth. Her involvement in LOTR and TH films created the scope for a backstory so it didn’t surprise me she is the lead. I’m hoping we get at least some definition of her being/becoming Elrond's mother-in-law as it’s not touched on before, but will be bitterly disappointed if they don’t introduce Celeborn as they should already be together in the 2nd Age. I was initially sceptical about Elrond more, but warmed to him during his visit to the Dwarves. The casting and acting generally has been very strong. #lennyhenry 🤪 The music is good, but is still to find one theme that holds up to LOTR, but Howard Shaw struggles with new themes in TH so I wasn’t surprised. Hopefully as Sauron emerges and the story unfolds he will incorporate more of the old themes somehow to lift the intensity and grandeur. The visuals still very much take you back to Middle Earth which was good to see. A GOT type of opening credits to display the map of the 2nd Age clearer would help the map cutscenes in episodes, but I am also very much a cartographic reader so could be personal preference. The scripting is as you should expect from Tolkien characters. I would say the lack of an over powering story so far leaves too many characters attempting classic LOTR comedic, profound statements or poignant exchanges for the first two episodes. I urge fans to remember, what we have SEEN so far has been two VERY similar stories in terms of lead roles. Both have been Baggins journeys, with strong secondary roles such as Gandalf and Sam-Wise etc... So to introduce a new storyline that spans 1000 years may take some time to define the pace and general atmosphere. (The Silmarillion also struggles with scripting and a strong lead arc) My deduction is all these current storylines will intertwine or consolidate which would be an interesting change of angle to the film series. I look forward to seeing where they go with this story, Yes, new/changed lore is a shame, but from my experience of Tolkien fans there is usually a warm, supportive community atmosphere, so the real shame is to see a lot of hate so early on. Compared to Disney’s destruction of the Star Wars lore, while the creator actually still lives, this could help give fans an option to learn a simpler history than originally intended, but not one that would tarnish Tolkien’s legacy. Let’s see how it goes shall we...?

As a big Marvel fan I was sceptical, but this film was brilliant. Great plot line, decent scripting, a unique vibe compared to the main Marvel Timeline, really great pace to the whole film and great music. Would have given it 5 stars, but Marvel introducing Harry Styles into the acting world like this is disgusting, disrespectful, distasteful and makes me feel like they don’t really care about the audience or even talented actors any more. Marvel, you should know better.

NOT VEGAN PROPAGANDA. If people will be so naive as to think fishing and mass killing of animals is sustainable then I think we should make all fisherman/meat producers need a degree in sustainability before they get a licence... SUSTAINBLE FISHING IS THE ONLY MYTH IN THIS FILM... Basically stop eating fish unless you can fully explain how you will replace each fish with another back into the ocean. Fishing has killed the ocean. And Fisherman whining should go retrain like they told musicians/self employed people to last year... More action like this needs to be taken. Businesses need to die if the people running them won’t accept how much damage they have and are doing. But the only way they die and learn is STOP SUPPORTING THEM. And anyone saying the opposite is most likely connected to a company profiting off the fishing industry or similar. THE TRUTH IS fish are a conduit for all the beneficial substances we receive from them. We would literally be HEALTHIER EATING ALGIE DIRECTLY... So... FISH HAVE NO REAL HEALTH BENEFIT comparable to the destruction killing them takes. REMEMBER: Mainstream Media are funded by private corporations so they have a duty to brand all these scary truths as false. Just stop eating fish... and meat... then see how much better you feel, even though The Sun/NYTimes/BBC/FOX etc will pay anyone huge sums to dismiss this as false... if Covid has taught us anything it’s to STOP LISTENING TO GOVERNMENT CONTROLLED MEDIA!