It’s got a lot of weaknesses, but it is moving forward and the ending of the last episode is a turning point now, so it should kick on a bit, unless we, god forbid, end up with the harfoots again for an episode 😂

The biggest issue for me is the writing is a bit suspect, they’re trying so hard to be like Tolkien, that they’re making the script pretty corny and forced, which is why i kind of cut Galadriel some slack, she does have the worst of it from poor scriptwriting! But, this can be improved, they need to take the criticism and work on it, there’s a lot of good plots and storylines that they can focus on more, and a lot of chaff they could reduce or cut, season 2 will be the make or break for me.

Its like the original LOTR in that the Hobbit/Harfoot story arc is the least interesting compared to the rest of the story lines going on.

Oh I dunno.. The boat people, I would say are pretty on board with the ‘kill the baddies’ thing.
Are they predecessors of rohan I wonder? They obviously like their horse’s.

reached episode 4 last night, it was supposed to be one of the rare shows we agreed on and could watch together so we both kept our mouths shut. Turns out we do agree about it! It just goes on and on so when something does happen you no longer care.

It erodes the gravitas and epic fantasy of the source material and its own credibility.

This.
I disengaged my Tolkien geek episodes ago and have just been trying to enjoy it for what it is. Theres just too many liberties being taken. I happened to watch The Fellowship of the Ring over the weekend, and I realised what it is. Theres absolutely no sense of the depth of history and story in this that Jackson managed to capture in his trilogy.

The biggest issue for me is the writing is a bit suspect,

100% this

The boat people, I would say are pretty on board with the ‘kill the baddies’ thing.

<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>Are they predecessors of rohan I wonder? They obviously like their horse’s</span>

I found this odd, for a seafaring island people, that seem to have only one city, I wouldn’t have thought horses would be so prominent in their culture. An example of the poor writing I thought.

Bit too much harfoots in this one, not sure where they’re going with a couple of these plot lines though, lots to do before the season ending to o say the least

Oh I dunno.. The boat people, I would say are pretty on board with the ‘kill the baddies’ thing.
Are they predecessors of rohan I wonder? They obviously like their horse’s.

Gondor.

Gondor

I’m not so sure…
Horses.. Check.
Blonde horse hair plumage on the Rohan-esque helmets?

Which do you mean by the boat people, numenor & elendil is the start of Gondor if I remember LOTR correctly.

I’ve more or less enjoyed this, but with one episode left I feel we are going to be left wanting a fair bit of info.

I quite like the Harfoot stuff – gives a bit of balance to the program.

Yeah, one more episode with so many strands, if they have an 18 month break between seasons it could be a killer for a show like this, and if they have so many unanswered plotlines working at the same time.

The Harfoots are just added fluff with so many plots going on, again it just makes this series look like a rinse and repeat of Fellowship with so many direct read across characters, especially the way they’re written.

It’s dull as **** and everybody knows it. If it does get another series (I think they’re filming now?) it had better pull it’s finger out.

The Harfoots “going on a journey” to find Gandalf (we all know it’s him, right?) was really the low point of the writing so far.

Don’t think he’s Gandalf. Seems too obvious. I originally thought he was going to be one of the two blue wizards but I’m not so sure now.

I don’t mind it, liberties taken but it looks good and it’s tipping along enough to keep me interested. Some of the dodgy accents do take a bit of willpower to gloss over though.

I’m not so sure…
Horses.. Check.
Blonde horse hair plumage on the Rohan-esque helmets?

Gondor was founded by the Dunedain, those are the (spoiler) from the (spoiler) of Numenor, Aragorn being one of their descendants.

The Rohirrim are the descendants of Northmen.

Jeez, I need to get out more …

I’m finding the whole thing just about good enough to keep me watching, but never looking forward to the next episode, which I guess is damming with feint praise?

The only decent character is Adar, don’t think it was the writers intention, but I’m now routing for the orcs!

The writer who’s responsible for Harfoot songs should also be sent back to CBeebies before season 2!

Theres absolutely no sense of the depth of history and story in this that Jackson managed to capture in his trilogy.

Whilst I am really enjoying it, I think you are right here. Every Elf acts like they are still in their teens rather than some of the oldest and wisest that ever existed, and there’s little to no sense of what has been lost.
I also think it massively under plays the power the elves would have had in the 2nd age, versus what we see in LotR. Unless the rings of power are supposed to have restored them, rather than stemmed the waning (as I always interpreted it).

Still, plenty to work with in future series, though the timelines are messed up.

I think Joseph Mawle is excellent, best thing in it so far, and a very underrated actor.

The Harfoots are just annoying, I want the Orcs to eat them all.

Episode 6 was good, the formation of Mount doom was well done. Some of the fighting was pretty gruesome, orc blood from the eye hole! I thought the reveal they’d been killing humans hit hard, the downfall of man fighting between themselves.

Episode 7 was alright, a bit bored with the Hargoots, think that storyline will get better now there’s a small group? Still hoping it’s not Gandalf,  seems too obvious

Intrigued by the evil elf people, leader looks like Eminem 😅

Is the sword Galadrial gave Theo relevant? Seem to be a lingering shot of it…

I’m watching it with my son who loves it. He thinks it’s quite scary in places. Yeah there are a few issues around pacing and some of the story lines are a lot weaker than others but it looks gorgeous and the last couple of episodes were pretty good. Plus it’s better than the awful Hobbit adaptations and far more enjoyable than House of Dragons.

The “boat people” are Numenorean, who are the people that founded Gondor. Elendil and Isildur are both amongst them, who might have been mentioned once or twice in the books and films…
I need to get out more too…

far more enjoyable than House of Dragons.

Yep.

Given the diversity of the harfoots, and the lack of diversity in hobbits…There must have been some awful event in their past.

From what i’ve read i do get the feeling the harfoots were the wandering hobbits who were darker, to be fair diversity of the harfoots isn’t the issue, it’s the acting levels, Lennie Henry is fine, but there’s not much more in there, the younger ones look like they’ve been plucked off the street without any acting background!

Intrigued by the evil elf people

Yeah, who are they meant to be?

Lenny Henry is definitely doing his somerset/devon accent

I’d disagree with that – It’s Irish along with all the other Harfoots. Not terrible either – much better that Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York

much better that Cameron Diaz in Gangs of New York

This is the kinds of quote they need to add to the posters for this series 😂

Bit of oooh,nah,thought so etc in this one. Still a thumbs up from me.

A couple of reveals and a red herring! Not a bad finale

Well, it’s better than that other soap opera with people muttering in dimly lit castles.

The Harfoots’ dialogue was just badly written. Maybe the rest was too, but top level actors can deliver clunky lines and make them sound ok. The kids playing the Harfoots couldn’t, it just sounded lame and cliched.

What’s with all the Harfoot hate??

Just because they’re short and don’t have cool weapon skills, and are pretty much shit at everything except hiding..

As stated previously, the Harfoots are the weakest written characters and some of the poorest actors are in there, they just feel like they’ve been shoved in this show to pay homage to hobbits, they had no real part in the tale until the third age as well, but then again the show is doing a few things way earlier and some things way later than in the timeline.

As for the finale, lots going on, lots not getting explained, they’ll need to up the ante in the second season to really get this show focused, definitely think they needed to get a few more high level actors in the cast, it’s a very inexperienced cast at the top, and it shows at times, yeah the scripts aren’t great, but they don’t seem to have the Charles Dance/Sean Bean/Aiden Gillen/Jonathan Pryce/etc that GoT’s had whilst they blooded a lot of younger actors, even Dragons has renowned folk in key areas to do the same.

Again, still enjoying it, but to survive the negativity they need to up the game a bit, so much going on at the same time will be a huge strain for the next season.

Ooh why wasn’t the rest of the series like that final episode!

Quite enjoyed it all to be honest. Maybe I’ve developed a penchant for slow TV in my old age? They do need to up the ante regarding writing / acting in the second series though.

In the end, you knew from the moment he said ‘oh is this the workshop of Celebrimbor’

But pretty good in all.

Hopefully series 2 isn’t the fun adventures of wizard and comedy sidekick, and instead we get more sauron mind games.

Didn’t want it to be, but HOTD is better

Overall I was disappointed with it but I’ll continue to watch it as new series are released. Looks like the stranger is Gandalf which makes no sense. Halbrand as Sauron happened way too quickly and what about the remaining 17 rings? Slow yet somehow rushed too. Just felt disjointed and never seemed to find its feet.

Maybe I’ve developed a penchant for slow TV in my old age?

I think this is me, started watching Ozark and felt exhausted after an episode.

Well, that was a bit better. I think I was relieved that they stopped teasing us and went for at least a bit of a reveal. I had my doubts about Halbrand all along, but as soon as he said “consider it a gift”, the game was up.
Still not sure who the Istar is. Was it confirmed Gandalf, or just heavily hinted?

what about the remaining 17 rings?

Didn’t Sauron make and gift those himself? But, the canon is all over the place here, didn’t the 3 rings get made to oppose the one ring? Can’t really remember.

The three rings were made by the elves, Sauron made the rest.

top level actors can deliver clunky lines and make them sound ok

True. Though I’m not sure I’ve experienced this in RoP.

I gave up with S01E06 when the boat approaches land at sunrise. I just could not bear any more pompous elven blah blah, nor the caricature accent nonsense throughout.