Noam Ziv

So far, it’s pretty amazing! In all honesty, I don’t understand the statements that it is against Tolkien’s spirit. In fact, it is very much aligned with the pessimistic tone of the Silmarillion (and the appendix). And the idolizing of Peter Jacksons movies as the ‘right’ way to do Tolkien is appalling. The subtlety in the books is replaced by bombastic, cringy scenes (think of Gandalf’s wrath scene in Bilbo’s dwelling, or Galadriel’s scary scene when offered the one ring). Even worse, the Nature vs. Industrial world theme was completely botched, for example, when the Ents uprising after the entmoot – one of the most dramatic turning points in the books – was replaced with them essentially surrendering (not to mention the rendition of Ents as big bumbling idiots). In contrast, so far, in spite of plot changes, the TV series has not made blundering errors. In short, a bit of patience might be called for but I think we are in for a treat!