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Let's sort of ground a perspective here: Peter Jackson's trilogy adaptation was nominated for 30 Academy Award categories and won 17. The movie trilogy is based on Tolkien, probably one of fantasy writings' greatest achievements. That's the benchmark to aim for, ROP has some redeeming qualities, but it is sorely disappointing. Right off the bat, you'll appreciate the grandeur of ROP, there's sweeping vista and sceneries, it's epic in scale, and if you don't have to wonder how $16 million dollars were spent on each episode -- you see great visuals! But then watching the first episode I found myself bored. I was shocked to find myself wanting to fast-forward. I really, really tried to like it, but I couldn't get into the characters, there was little emotional investment or character development. There were things in Jackson's LOTR that made us aware of what elves sound like, how they acted, how they spoke, how they fought and they were special. Same with the hobbits, dwarves, and men. The hobbits were innocent, naive, and sweet while the dwarves were gruff, burly, unkempt and brash. ROP everyone is the same and you cannot distinguish the differences. Jackson had great details like Legolas the Elf walking on the snow while the men, hobbits would sink and I caught that and it made me think, "Elves can do that?". In Jackson's trilogy, Galadriel has an almost divine presence and otherwordly mystique and beauty. This version is grumpy like a teenager. ROP's inability to establish the culture of dwarves, elves, and men is bad. Tolkien developed actual new languages for the elves, but the elves of ROP are just people with pointy ears. Didn't matter what Middle Earth race we are talking about, all the same. The acting isn't consistent and shocking at times not very good. Some of the actors or actresses didn't cast well. The dialogue is so bad at times. There isn't much of an effort to develop the characters which immediately discourages the viewer from making an investment in the series. If you don't hate or love the character you're not going to ride this train. Is it watchable? Sort of. But for a billion dollars paid, and taking source material from one of fantasy's greatest writers this is a franchise that is forgettable. If this WAS NOT Tolkien and someone came up with this I would not be so critical. If you are a big Tolkien fan and a fan of Peter Jackon's trilogy you will find many things wrong with this. If you're a fantasy fan for the first time, watch it, you may enjoy it, but you owe it yourself to read the novels.