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The Rings of Power - Like/Don't Like (as of S1, ep. 4)
I have too many thoughts about The Rings of Power and the loudest are ones are negative (because I'm one of those persnickety fans). But all that negativity won't help. For one thing, I'm sure the showrunners are already living in semi-fear for their lives over social media backlash. I don't want to stoke that, even a little. For another, they are doing a good job in many ways. For a third, I don't know how anyone could produce good art in a major franchise with a giant budget in a social media cesspit where everything is a massive marketing exercise in trying to please the majority while not getting threatened by a minority. Finally, Even die-hard fans can't agree on what TRoP should look like: Often, things I can't stand others are fine with; things I'm fine with others can't stand. So it goes. So…
Because I have to say something, here's a quick "like/don't like" list. (I won't say "good/bad" because views are so divergent.) Light spoilers behind the cut.
Like
* Pretty much everything about the Harfoots. Great world building, great characters, great handling of racial diversity while looking like a single race of people. (I understand others not liking the Irish-ish accent.)
* The plotline with the dude Nori picks up from the falling star. It feels very well done so far.
* Most of the stuff in the Southlands. Arondir is a great original character. Bronwyn and her son are mostly very good as well. It's a great idea to flesh out the history of the Haradrim falling under the sway of Sauron, and though they aren't leaning into their "swarthiness," humanizing them helps counteract some of the original racism.
* Adar. As I write this, I've only seen through episode 4, but I like him as a concept so far. Could go in a number of directions, any of which could work if the writing of his character continues to have some nuance.
* Elrond and Durin and the Dwarves in general. Good friendship. Great concept for the Dwarves and especially Dwarvish women. Nice view of Khazad-dûm in better days.
* The general look of the show. Great CGI, great art, color, landscapes, etc., good sense of fashion and distinction between Men and Elves on that level.
* Nice fleshing out of the Orcs, keeping them evil but also slightly more sympathetic, person-like.
* Elendil and Isildur are well cast and well acted. The original daughter is also fine.
* Galadriel is well cast—and acted as well as the direction/writing permits.
* The general cultural look of Númenor. Making it kind of Roman/Byzantine is a great ambience and nice sense of historical distance from the more medievalish Third Age. It makes sense it would be cosmopolitan and racially diverse (except see below).
Don't Like
* The compression of the timeline. Cramming millennia of action into few years is not working for me so far. It took a coherent history and made a mess. It also jettisons what could have been an amazing core narrative examining Elvish-Mannish relations and the difference in aging.
* The fall of Númenor. In Tolkien, Númenor falls because its initial loyalty to the Valar shifts (over many generations) into distrust and jealousy over not having access to immortality. Then Sauron stokes this. Here, that history is replaced an ahistorical mishmash of xenophobia, fear of the Valar, fear of losing jobs to Elves (???) prophecies, trying to second guess prophecies…
* Galadriel being a several-hundred-year-old angry seventeen year old with nothing to recommend her but an ability to kick ass.
* Galadriel (so far) being the only Elvish woman (aside from extras). Doesn't give the impression that Elvish women matter or have any gravitas. Granted, Tolkien provided little to work with.
* Thus far, writing out Celeborn and Celebrían. I will forgive this if Galadriel gets back to the Middle-earth and bumps into her husband and daughter, who are furious at her for running out on them like they don't exist. That could, in fact, be good drama.
* Gil-galad. Honestly, I don't know what adapters of Tolkien's work have against Gil-galad. In Jackson, he's also cast with an un-Elvish looking guy (that's about all I can say because he's not really in the story, which is fair). Here, he's cast too old, not especially attractive, dressed silly, directed flat, and presented as too lame to come up with his own speeches. Dude—this is the King Arthur of Middle-earth, the only king of ALL the Elves, who ruled for an order of magnitude longer than any other Elven king, including an unprecedented thousand years of peace and was central to the Second Age overthrow of Sauron. I grant that Tolkien (oddly) skimped on giving him any significant detail, but doesn't that make the details all the more interesting to explore? (Bright spot: from interviews, the actor seems to really understand the character, so I have faith he'll do his level best with whatever he's given.)
* Middle-aged, not very attractive male Elves in general. It's just not appropriate casting. (I can guarantee you this will never be done with a single female Elf.)
Don't Care
* Halbrand (sp?). I find him boring and a poor use of screen time, but if he does get a plotline like becoming a Nazgûl, this early boring young hero stuff could generate good pathos.
Jury Out
* Tar-Miriel. She suffers from the incoherence of Númenor, but I give them points for doing something with her, which is more than Tolkien did!
Side note: I do see the feminist pitch of having two women, Galadriel and Miriel, making plans together, but I will say what I said in my long-ago essay on season 7 of Buffy: all that feminism doesn't work if the writing is stupid; it just makes the women look stupid too.
In Sum
Okay, that got heated. Good thing few to no people are going to read it, but I think maybe in this case, I needed to say something. (I've already written one long essay I probably won't post, but something had to get out of me.) But see how many things I like above? Really, there is much to like and also a lot of potential for awkward setup to settle down into good payoff—like in Battlestar Galactica: in my opinion, Kara and Sam had an utterly stupid meet-cute arc, but they ended up being a very well-written, nuanced married couple. Sometimes the writers just don't know how to get to point B, but once they're there, it's fine. And, of course, 95% of viewers disagree with me on at least some this, so… to each his own.
Because I have to say something, here's a quick "like/don't like" list. (I won't say "good/bad" because views are so divergent.) Light spoilers behind the cut.
Like
* Pretty much everything about the Harfoots. Great world building, great characters, great handling of racial diversity while looking like a single race of people. (I understand others not liking the Irish-ish accent.)
* The plotline with the dude Nori picks up from the falling star. It feels very well done so far.
* Most of the stuff in the Southlands. Arondir is a great original character. Bronwyn and her son are mostly very good as well. It's a great idea to flesh out the history of the Haradrim falling under the sway of Sauron, and though they aren't leaning into their "swarthiness," humanizing them helps counteract some of the original racism.
* Adar. As I write this, I've only seen through episode 4, but I like him as a concept so far. Could go in a number of directions, any of which could work if the writing of his character continues to have some nuance.
* Elrond and Durin and the Dwarves in general. Good friendship. Great concept for the Dwarves and especially Dwarvish women. Nice view of Khazad-dûm in better days.
* The general look of the show. Great CGI, great art, color, landscapes, etc., good sense of fashion and distinction between Men and Elves on that level.
* Nice fleshing out of the Orcs, keeping them evil but also slightly more sympathetic, person-like.
* Elendil and Isildur are well cast and well acted. The original daughter is also fine.
* Galadriel is well cast—and acted as well as the direction/writing permits.
* The general cultural look of Númenor. Making it kind of Roman/Byzantine is a great ambience and nice sense of historical distance from the more medievalish Third Age. It makes sense it would be cosmopolitan and racially diverse (except see below).
Don't Like
* The compression of the timeline. Cramming millennia of action into few years is not working for me so far. It took a coherent history and made a mess. It also jettisons what could have been an amazing core narrative examining Elvish-Mannish relations and the difference in aging.
* The fall of Númenor. In Tolkien, Númenor falls because its initial loyalty to the Valar shifts (over many generations) into distrust and jealousy over not having access to immortality. Then Sauron stokes this. Here, that history is replaced an ahistorical mishmash of xenophobia, fear of the Valar, fear of losing jobs to Elves (???) prophecies, trying to second guess prophecies…
* Galadriel being a several-hundred-year-old angry seventeen year old with nothing to recommend her but an ability to kick ass.
* Galadriel (so far) being the only Elvish woman (aside from extras). Doesn't give the impression that Elvish women matter or have any gravitas. Granted, Tolkien provided little to work with.
* Thus far, writing out Celeborn and Celebrían. I will forgive this if Galadriel gets back to the Middle-earth and bumps into her husband and daughter, who are furious at her for running out on them like they don't exist. That could, in fact, be good drama.
* Gil-galad. Honestly, I don't know what adapters of Tolkien's work have against Gil-galad. In Jackson, he's also cast with an un-Elvish looking guy (that's about all I can say because he's not really in the story, which is fair). Here, he's cast too old, not especially attractive, dressed silly, directed flat, and presented as too lame to come up with his own speeches. Dude—this is the King Arthur of Middle-earth, the only king of ALL the Elves, who ruled for an order of magnitude longer than any other Elven king, including an unprecedented thousand years of peace and was central to the Second Age overthrow of Sauron. I grant that Tolkien (oddly) skimped on giving him any significant detail, but doesn't that make the details all the more interesting to explore? (Bright spot: from interviews, the actor seems to really understand the character, so I have faith he'll do his level best with whatever he's given.)
* Middle-aged, not very attractive male Elves in general. It's just not appropriate casting. (I can guarantee you this will never be done with a single female Elf.)
Don't Care
* Halbrand (sp?). I find him boring and a poor use of screen time, but if he does get a plotline like becoming a Nazgûl, this early boring young hero stuff could generate good pathos.
Jury Out
* Tar-Miriel. She suffers from the incoherence of Númenor, but I give them points for doing something with her, which is more than Tolkien did!
Side note: I do see the feminist pitch of having two women, Galadriel and Miriel, making plans together, but I will say what I said in my long-ago essay on season 7 of Buffy: all that feminism doesn't work if the writing is stupid; it just makes the women look stupid too.
In Sum
Okay, that got heated. Good thing few to no people are going to read it, but I think maybe in this case, I needed to say something. (I've already written one long essay I probably won't post, but something had to get out of me.) But see how many things I like above? Really, there is much to like and also a lot of potential for awkward setup to settle down into good payoff—like in Battlestar Galactica: in my opinion, Kara and Sam had an utterly stupid meet-cute arc, but they ended up being a very well-written, nuanced married couple. Sometimes the writers just don't know how to get to point B, but once they're there, it's fine. And, of course, 95% of viewers disagree with me on at least some this, so… to each his own.