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Didn't know he was on that.

I'm firmly in the snobby ironic-watching Reacher camp and look down on CBS's Tracker knock-off, but whatever. Might have to give it a shot!

So. The first Episode of the second season of Rings of Power was objectively bad.

I try not to get too wound up by these things, but in trying to ‘humanise’ Sauron It’s just stripping everything of Tolkien’s Voice from the world it’s trying to present. It’s an absolute car crash.

It’s worse than that show that was a ‘modern interpretation’ of Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!’ and I never though I’d say that.

Heh. I was just about to post how much I enjoyed the start of the new season Rings of Power.

I find the conceit of filling in the blanks in the second age to be a great device. It alleviates the need for the writers to try (and inevitably fail) to be Tolkienesque. Instead they can stick to what they are good at, which from what I’ve seen means great character work, filling in the empty past of familiar characters, creating personas for characters that were only names, and creating new and interesting characters.

I think the writers are also doing a great job of coming up with scenarios to bridge the major events for which Tolkien only gave us broad strokes.

I am finding the story fascinating. I mean, we all know how it turns out, but the path to that destination is entertaining me. I particularly enjoy the ever changing relationship between Galadriel and Elrond, the no-nonsense pragmatism of Gil-galad, the seemingly boundless inner strength of Disa, and Gandalf’s awakening. Nori is cool, too.

So YMMV I guess.

I guess it must be cathartic for them. But with so much tv out there, past and present, it’s just weird to me.

I dunno, but speaking as someone who thought S1E1 was insultingly bad, fell asleep halfway through S1E2, and never went back for more punishment, hearing people's complaints about the rest is kinda fun in a "hearing second-hand about someone who made a scene at a party" kinda way.

"Really? And then the word 'Mordor' came on the screen in text? No way. No way. You're shitting me, what actually happened? I don't believe you. Well, no, obviously I'm not going to watch the show myself so I guess I have to believe you, but I still don't believe you."

Not started the second series of Rings of Power but I think me and my husband were some of the few who enjoyed the first series but I'm not really a massive LoTR fan boy. Also given how boring season two of House of Dragons was (no doubt well made and acted but it's basically an 8 hour trailer for season 3) I will just accept a fantasy show that has even a slither of action in it, anything at all.

Prime Video is like Game Pass; it doesn't matter if it's actually successful or not because Amazon' and Microsoft's core business revenue completely negate how much money they're burning up with their streaming services. Prime could put out a show that's nothing more than the last four winners of the Best Leading Actress Oscar farting in the woods and it wouldn't make a difference if anyone outside of the execs were watching it.

Whereas I think series 2 is immediately working better than the first series. The Mystery Box thing they had going on in series 1 just felt wrong to me, even though I thought the casting, performances, production design, direction and everything else other than the plotting was great.

They're doing a Villain Protagonist plot, which I think works a lot better. We know what will end up happening in Eregion and Numenor, and it requires him to successfully exploit other character's flaws - ambition, fear of death, desire for legacy etc. They laid those flaw in already in the main case for this series, so I don't think it's reasonable to call it an arbitrary idiot ball to me - it's more like a tragic Flaw That Brings You Down arc like Oedipus or Hamlet.

Ben Daniels furthers his ability to be great in everything he does as Cirdan.

I really like the performances of the Stranger / Hobbit arc, but they really need to dovetail their arc into the main plot during this season - I don't think it just trundling along, separated from the other arcs (which are already quite beefy) is doing them any favours.

I am not really loving season 2 either. I have only watched two episodes and I just don't care much about any of them.

I was thinking the same thing. I see the negative posts and think how much better season 2 has been over season 1. I haven't read the books, though the show has gotten me to start, so maybe that has something to do with how people feel about the show.

I was surprised at the visceral reaction I had to the events of episode 5. It kind of drove home to me how invested I have become in even the minor characters.

I'm talking about Rings of Power, for sure.

And the female dwarfs don’t have beards!! Oh the humanity!! Er, Drawfity?!

I'm about half way through the third episode of Rings of Power season 2 and I'm struggling to finish it.

My main issue - and it's drowning out everything else - is as I've hinted before: Sauron. They've reduced him to a man in bad elven cosplay who isn't fit to suck at Machiavelli's teat. His reveal as

was laughably bad.

The whole point of Sauron is that you have a semi-god like figure, who was a first hand servant of Middle-Earth's ultimate evil with a insidious, malignant ability to manipulate everyone and everything around him. For all the Elven High-King worries that Galadriel has been compromised, I reckon he'd have nothing to worry about if he actually met Haldebrand. I'd be more worried that Galadriel appeared to have fallen for it.

To be fair to the actor playing Sauron I don't think it's his fault. I can't think of anyone off the top of my head who could pull that off to be honest, but the script really doesn't help.

Durin and Disa though are an absolute delight and everything I want from a Tolkien show covering ground that Tolkien barely mentions.