I broke character and watched the first two episodes of the Rings of Power series. I will say that it’s very pretty. It establishes a formula very early: the camera rises up from some human-scale action to reveal a breathtaking view of, say, an elven city or the capital of Numenor. As a travelogue of Middle-Earth in the Second Age, it’s first rate.
Otherwise, I thought the plot was a mess. One of the show’s goals seemed to be to check off as many of the big names from Tolkien’s works as quickly as possible. Maybe it will come together eventually.
The obligatory fight scenes were wearing, as were the reminders that a woman is admirable to the extent that she’s “kick-ass.” Somehow, for me all the relentless action scenes made everything less, rather than more, interesting.
The actors work competently with a script that forces them to utter some pretty silly, fortune-cookie-like lines. What is the difference between a ship and a stone? Really?
Unfortunately the series borrows one of the most annoying (to me) choices in Peter Jackson’s LOTR: deciding to make the dwarves into comic characters.
Why do the harfoots, presumably ancestors of the hobbits, have Irish accents?
Maybe the only thing holding my interest right now is the desire to find out who “The Stranger” is. And to see some more gorgeous scenery.