Ethan Edholm

The whole time there is a little voice that keeps asking, why? Why does this exist, and there is no imagery so beautiful (it is), music so sweet (it is bland), or acting so charming (it is not) that can disguise the dollar value answer to this question. The result is a ponderous thing that wishes it were deeper, but in the trappings of its many inexplicable modernisms, this story is blind to the fundamentals of Tolkien's masterpiece which made that work great, and this only a pale and saccharine imitation. I'd say this show had stolen it's grandeur, and that would be true, except for the monumental price tag attached to it. A final thought, for all this show's claims of representation, I was surprised that in the pursuit of welcoming a broader range of ethnic identities into the cast (in an effort not to alienate diverse audiences from what is ostensibly an Anglosaxon mythology), I could be forgiven for assuming there is no presence, even amongst the extras, of the broader Asiatic communities, or have they been shunted off the map as the still othered Easterlings? A single star for treading with such foolish self importance on holy grounds. Is the orginal trilogy flawed? Yes, but it had the good grace to remove the sandals from its feet before entering the temple.