The first two episodes were better than I expected, though my expectations were low. I will be still watching.
The dude was talking to fireflies, I was sure he had to be Gandolf, but honestly I have no idea.
Well, I got about halfway through the first episode and realized that I had better things to do with my time. Perhaps I’m too rigid; a Tolkien fundamentalist maybe. But I didn’t like the changes to the story or the characterizations so I bailed.
It may well be too early to tell at this stage but does this series do well to retain the heart and soul of the books and the Jackson trilogy or does it seem more concerned with action sequences and visual spectacles?
One of the writers has clearly been playing too much Dragon Age, to have put “knife-ears” in the mouth of a Southron.
I watched the first episode. Possibly the most gorgeous TV show I’ve ever seen - I can see where that money went.
I liked it so far. I chuckled when some people complained it was too much dialogue… try reading LOTR 
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People are complaining about the opposite it seems - too much talking.
I’m only half way through Ep 1, but the phrase “Commander Galadriel” kind of clangs off my ears. There must have been a better term.
Captain would be more in keeping with the Noldor.
I’ve seen the first episode now. I liked it, no real complaints from me. It certainly is gorgeous.
It’s certainly not Tolkien, that said, and considering it “Tolkien Inspired”, it’s not completely unwatchable, I’ve seem the first episode and will give a it a chance to keep my attention with the second one.
I’m far more impressed with this than the Hobbit movies. Especially the 2nd and 3rd ones.
I’m actually a defender of the Hobbit movies all around(yes, there are flaws, but I do like them). However, I’m excited for something fresh and am hopeful they can do a good job. And, yes, it might just be better.
That’s a very low bar to pass…
You say that as if Legolas hitting Bolg with a hurricanrana isn’t one of the most gloriously cheesy moments in all of cinema.
Maybe I just don’t get Tolkien, I’m midway through ep 2 and this is just…boring. The only semi developed character is Commander Galdadrel (or however you spell these BS names) and everything else is so what. The halfling, sorry hobbit, sorry harfoot kids are mildly interesting.
To be fair, I found both the books and the movies boring, too. Books much more so. They are very self-aggrandizing.
I guess I don’t understand if you thought the booka were borinf and the movies boring why you’d think the show wouldn’t be? They are, imo, trying to match the somewhat languid pace of the books and movies (though with the movies, Christopher Tolkien thinks they made it into an action film and hates it, lol)
Indeed. If you come into this show expecting Game of Thrones-style blood and tits all over the place, you’re going to be very disappointed - Tolkien’s prose is slow-paced, chivalric, and far more interested in the cultures and histories of the people he describes than in the wars and intrigue they get into (he was, after all, a linguist by profession who created Middle-Earth as a playground for the languages he had invented), and so far this show is mostly aping that style.
Gil-Galad is definitely more of a scheming prick than I would have assumed him to be from the source material, though.
I’m not liking it. Yeah, it’s visually gorgeous. But… Galadrial getting on the boat and swimming back? And Elrond feels all wrong to me.
I wonder if the stranger is one of the blue wizards, or even radagast. I just can’t see sauron talking to fireflies.
I’ll keep watching, though.
I love everything about the scenes in Khazad-Dum, and I like the harfoots. I like how each was given language and idioms that match their culture.
However, the stranger matches nothing in the Tolkien legendarium that I can think of, and this troubles me.
And I don’t like the elves’ costumes. They look like they’re wearing choir robes.
I don’t think the wizards were supposed to show up for a long time after this. Maybe they will just decide to introduce one of the really obscure wizards(Not Radagast, Sauruman, or Gandalf).