Now it’s over, let’s come out and say it: The Rings of Power was a stinker
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
The visuals are the best I’ve seen in a TV show.
I’m happy there is S2 still being produced.
I really wish toxic fans were just quiet so the rest of us can enjoy.
It was a tolerable fantasy series, which is always welcome. Its writing and acting were uneven, ranging from high quality to really bad, and its visuals are for the most part spectacular and generally the best part of the series.
My main problem with it is are all the names and general concepts lifted straight from Tolkien's works, set in a story that bears not even a superficial resemblance to what he wrote. So I see it as an independent, and not very original, fantasy work of its own, rather than an adaptation.
It's very pretty; the set and cgi folks deserve cudos and awards. The writing is...not so good. It varies from occasionally cringeworthy to mostly bland, but never inspiring. The characters are mostly unmemorable (imo the main Dwarven characters are the only ones I look forward to). They even managed to make orcs just meh. The story hasn't gelled to any extent for me, maybe that's for the next season. Indeed the whole thing seemed to be "let's carpet bomb the audience with new characters and disparate events for 8 episodes...and we'll figure out what to do with it next season". Or maybe it's because the Silmarillion is really not material that will ever translate well to film. And we know how all the bog story archs turn out in the end, so there's not even much anticipation for the next bit of it.