Robert Crussell

Nacutu said; "There's so much White mediocrity that gets celebrated, and black people, we have to be absolutely flawless". He couldn't even meet the racist standard of "White mediocrity".

TLDR; Mediocre. Great visuals, boring plot, slow pace I initially gave this show 2 stars, but in hindsight that was just a knee jerk reaction to my disappointment - here's a (hopefully) more level-headed review: If, like me, you grew up reading Tolkien's books and then enjoyed Peter Jackson's films, you will understand the special place that Middle Earth has the hearts of Tolkien fans. One of the things I love most about LOTR and the Hobbit is how well the characters were crafted - they jump out of the page/screen and you can't help but become invested in their fortunes. This has not been my experience of The Rings of Power. For the most part, the characters feel 2-dimensional and uninteresting. Do I dislike them? Not really. But neither do I really care what happens to them or what they do next. Equally, the plot so far is scrambled and unclear, and oh so slow. How is it all connected? 2 episodes in and I couldn't hazard a guess. All we know so far is that orcs are popping up and a man has fallen from the sky. It's a far cry from Tolkien's biggest works, which both featured clear exciting plots, so full of twists and turns that it was almost impossible to put the books down. There are exceptions of course - Durin and Elrond pull together to create a few enjoyable scenes. I'm mildly interested in the Harfoot storyline, although "random man falling from the sky" seems more sci-fi than Tolkien fantasy, and...that's about it. As for all of the complaints of wokeness - I haven't found that too distracting. While I don't think Tolkien ever envisaged black elves and hobbits in his universe, it doesn't really detract. Tolkien always featured strong female characters anyway, so the female leads aren't as avant garde as the writers probably think they are. One enjoyable aspect is the scenery and sets which are stunning. I assume that's where most of the billion dollar budget went. All in all, a mediocre show. Great visuals. Terrible writing. Boring plot. Slow pace. The actors do the best they can with what they are given.