Sure, and there are a lot of people who aren’t bothered about any of that, who wanted to like it (like me) who ended up thinking it was pretty poor.
And my “poor” is because I have read the books, seen the Jackson films and watched other series that only highlight, in my opinion, that this series is sadly lacking in many ways.
This smacks of, “If it is not excellent, it is shit.”
Reminds me of wine snobs.
Ok is ok and enjoyable.
Of course, YMMV.
Of course “OK” is “OK”, for you. (or for any individual). You like what you like and that’s fine. I dislike it and that’s fine too.
There’s no objective standard for personal taste so I don’t try to impose one, you seem offended that I don’t like what you like. Sorry about that. Can’t be helped.
What Amazon are bothered about (and what will govern the future of the show) is whether the number of people who hold your opinion of “ok-ness” and above is enough to warrant carrying on in the same vein. Or whether the amount of indifference or dislike means change is needed.
We’ll probably get a better idea on that once the dust of hype has settled.
Weirdly, the person who wrote this article confuses user ratings on the Amazon platform with critic ratings on Metacritic and rotten tomatoes, neither of which is owned by Amazon. That doesn’t negate what was said on the podcast, it just suggests an author intent on breathless nonsense.
And while some may feel justified in pointing to its respective 71/100 and 85% Fresh ratings from critics, these numbers are provably suspect thanks to Amazon Studio Boss Jennifer Selke’s own admission that they were censoring reviews from critics who had “points of view that we wouldn’t support“, which suggests an obvious slant in the sentiments communicated by those reviews which were actually published.
Read: “Black elf man kissing white lady makes me feel confused and weird”.
Yes I think the Amazon and IMDB ratings are clearly very suspect (for obvious reasons) and the accusations of censorship and manipulation for those site certainly have weight but I don’t know which critics reviews are included in the Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic sites and how reliable they are but I don’t see how Amazon can have a say in those critic review.
In any case, that’s all pretty much irrelevant. The critics don’t buy tickets or subscriptions. It is all ultimately about the user consensus, which, even allowing for some unknown degree of review bombing at both ends of the scale, seems to be mixed at best.
Reading the negative reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic does not throw up a high proportion that speak to that at all.
There might not be a high proportion that call it out explicitly. It doesn’t mean that isn’t an underlying factor in a decent proportion of the other reviews.
Plenty of people in Gamergate insisted it was about ethics in journalism, and totally unrelated to misogyny. Did you believe them too?
Correct.
Not quite, but it accelerated the departure greatly.
You might suspect that but I think that’s hard to back up, I really don’t know how you’d do that. We are in to “proving a negative” situation.
In any case, take all the negative reviews out of the metacritic analysis if you like.
Let’s assume they are all somehow malignant in intent.
Instead just compare the ratio of “mixed” to “positive” viewer reviews for the last four shows that I’ve personally watched. “Andor”, “Obi-Wan”, “The Mandalorian” and “Better Call Saul”. (All of which, incidentally, have equal or better critics scores than “Rings of Power”)
For Better Call Saul there was positive:mixed ratio of 35:1
For Andor it is 13:1
For The Madalorian it is 12:1
For Obi-Wan it is almost 8:1
For Rings of Power? slightly over 5:1
And that seems fair to me, that is pretty much the order that I’d assign those shows as well.
Now personal taste may vary of course, people, as individuals, are perfectly entitled to put their own personal spin on that ordering and that is absolutely valid for them.
However, even taking away all negative reviews and concentrating only on critical reception and the mixed/positive reviews, it is hard to argue that ROP has been the unqualified success that Amazon is desperate for it to be. That leads me to suspect that changes will be afoot for season 2.
I don’t know anything about that so I’m not really able to comment.
Four of the dwarven rings were consumed by dragons, the other three were recovered by Sauron. The last of them was held by Thrain II, Thorin’s father who had it taken from him when he was imprisoned in Dol Guldur.
The thing is, the vast majority of people just watch the show, maybe talk to their friends about it, and that’s it. What you see on the internet is a tiny fraction of viewers, many of whom find it more satisfying to shit on things for what they aren’t than to appreciate them for what they are.
Amazon knows how many people watched the show, they know how many people watched the first few episodes and didn’t continue, or exactly where they dropped out, they got lots and lots of stats about the viewers, which we don’t have access to. What we have access to is people whining on the internet, and I don’t think that it’s nearly as useful as actual data.
Do you have access to the information that would back this up?
People are definitely watching it. Based on the article below, it’s not a home run, but it’s at least a double.
Sure, and the feedback I get from people about the show is mixed with the vast majority not particularly enthusiastic.
That is all true, I’d love to get a proper breakdown from Amazon. And there isn’t just whining is there? there are positive and mixed reviews as well.
I have the same access as anyone else. Anecdotal discussions with people who have seen it, mixed critical reviews and mixed user reviews (even ignoring all negative reviews)
What is your impression?, do you think the response has been postive, negative or mixed? or are you not able to say?
some relevant quotes from that article
The show has gotten a mixed response
The Rings of Power looks incredible on screen; there’s no denying that its production values are top notch. However, its plotting leaves something to be desired
One of the most common complaints is that it drew out plotlines, or struggled to keep its various storylines and characters coherent and compelling.
There are mechanical issues with the actual telling of the tale that kept it from connecting with as broad an audience as it could have. It lacks a level of polish on the storytelling front that could have elevated it higher.
when a series is a part of such a beloved IP as Tolkien’s Middle-earth, “middling” feels worse than it actually is.
The Rings of Power* is doing very well, but not quite crushing it.
Was The Rings of Power’s first season a massive hit or a dud? For my money, it’s neither.
it’s difficult to say whether The Rings of Power has exceeded expectations or underperformed.
Clearly in the view of that writer at least it is hardly a resounding success. It is more complimentary than I am but it clearly isn’t knocking it out of the park. Which I suspect is what Amazon wanted it to do.
You have good ears to pick up the private conversations of millions of people talking to their friends.
You won’t. What you will get is their response to their own data, which will be to either continue the show or to cancel it. My point is that they have far better data to tell if it’s a good investment than you or I do.
No, as a matter of fact, there is a lot of positive reviews as well, but since you have focused largely on how bad this show was, the whining is what is relevant to your point.
Except for the people who work at Amazon and use this information to make these decisions.
I think that most people that liked it, some more than others. Many had issues with its divergence from known Tolkein lore, but most of those even came around to enjoy it for what it was.
Some people didn’t like it, and that’s fine, it’s not for everyone, nothing is.
However, I do think that the people who had reasons to hate it, for whatever reasons, are the most vocal, so someone just naively browsing anonymous internet review sites may get a different impression of viewer response than someone who actually has access to viewer data.
Now compare their ratios before first episode ever aired on which to actually base an opinion.
FWIW Dept., Dope isn’t a definitive sample and other caveats, etc.
45 votes.
And not a single 5* vote.
I don’t give 5’s to anything that doesn’t cause an orgasm.
I gave a 4. if it’d been out of 10, I’d have given a 9.
There are no reviews on metacritic dating from before the first air date. Unless I am very much mistaken. It released on 1st Sep. The first reviews are from the 2nd Sep.
Do you agree with that?