Here’s the thing… if this wasn’t middle earth this show would definitely have raving reviews. But it is! So people aren’t happy when a single tiny little thing is changed from the books and say “They should have stopped at Peter Jackson’s films”. Well Peter Jackson changed A LOT from the books into the movies so he could make an actual coherent interesting plot. And they’ve done that here as well. If you’re don’t a lord of the rings die hard fan and are not one of those butt hurt fans that will never like any thing new, if you’re none of those you will probably love this show! If you go into this with a fresh mind and think “this is based off of Tolkiens world” you will enjoy this & still find the things that are the same from Tolkien so enjoyable.