The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series

I've heard the score. Bland and I do not agree with your instant classic choice.

Or the very good ones either! The vast majority of the pieces consist of slow start/choir/BIG CRESCENDO ending lather-rinse-repeat.

yeah honestly nothing about it so far bodes terribly well

first ep is about cancel culture

Or the very good ones either! The vast majority of the pieces consist of slow start/choir/BIG CRESCENDO ending lather-rinse-repeat.

I salute your patience. I got through a listen the other day and was very bored and distracted with it by the closing hour. Doubtless exposure via the show will let things settle in some but there's nothing truly remarkable out of the gate -- and as you noted, nowhere near the level of instrumentation inspiration that Shore brought. There's literally not a single musical moment as suddenly thrilling and memorable as that hardringar melody that's the core of the Rohan theme, for instance. (Also I'm convinced McCreary thinks that choirs were used on nearly every single piece Shore created, which is so not the case!)

The most memorable moment in this new score is the interesting plot-driven one where the Dwarves 'sing' to know the rocks and where to mine; it's a great touch and Sophia Nomvete pulls off something Lisa Gerrardish in the resultant track. But man does it ever stand out as a result.

I listened to that, and then I let it play, so I listened to the next track. I understand there's Irish hobbits, now, Father?

Faith and begorrah

Oh mccreary ended up scoring this? Zzzzzzz

Bear McCreary scores a million things.

Hit show is called "The Bear."

One of the lead characters on "Reservation Dogs" is named Bear.

Hmm ...

Wake me when OpenAI is good enough where I can type "Silmarillion into a miniseries" and it generates something better than this. I bet it'll only take a few years.

Trailer saved me a lot of time.

I mean...

https://i.imgur.com/6RCKph7.png

I did a quick glance (I want to stay spoiler-free), but most people here seem to be enthusiastic about the EPIC SCALE and visuals. Not a lot of talk about the story or dialogue, but did I mention the EPIC SCALE?

https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2022/08/23/114542-first-impressions-of-the-rings-of-power-as-social-media-embargo-lifts/

"Don't worry, it's nothing like The Silmarillion!"

Really, really fun. I remember buying the Silmarillion as a schoolboy when it was published and it very much not being the prequel I was hoping for. This is the sort of thing I wanted to experience back then. I'll watch the whole series when it drops, with enthusiasm. https://t.co/eEcGJvCOjk

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) August 24, 2022

Such epic much wow

Gaiman gonna kiss their ass so that Amazon gives him some of that cash after Netflix cancels "Sandman."

ha i thought the same thing

a positive review emerges

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/lord-of-the-rings-the-rings-of-power-1234579403/

Was wondering when the embargo would finally lift.

a negative review emerges

https://www.washingtonpost.com/tv/2022/08/31/lord-rings-tv-show-review/

lol

Is there a double or triple episode drop this weekend or will it be just one a week?

“game of thrones” does this mean balrog sex or

xp - Two episodes this week, then one every week.

Yup. Here's the schedule overall

https://www.theonering.net/torwp/2022/08/16/114402-the-rings-of-power-full-airing-schedule-is-now-available/

The first season alone cost $465 million, according to the Hollywood Reporter

So... $250 million for rights, $465 million for season 1, and four more seasons to go?

the rights presumably only need to be bought once

Money money money

Looking at the trailer, the series aspires to be the animated version of the front cover illustrations from a thousand swords-and-dragons books. Lots of eye candy, but the whole package delivered by rote.

Well having seen the first episode via the free screenings tonight…

Yeah, I’ll have a lot to say later. Money’s on the screen. Music worked better in context. Cast generally acquit themselves well.

But oh are there negatives. And I’ll leave it at that!

Anyway our latest episode is live in the meantime. Recorded on Sunday so some of my thoughts in particular are slightly outdated but anyway...

https://www.megaphonic.fm/bythebywater/42

While we wait

i fixed it pic.twitter.com/tmMvmpdu3w

— joolsd (@joolsd) September 1, 2022

Also!

i think it looks good pic.twitter.com/f0uRix1qMt

— Patrick (@Pizza_Suplex) September 1, 2022

lmao

Yeah my anticipation for this is officially in the basement, but I'll probably check out the first ep or two regardless

my anticipation for this is in the backyard having a smoke waiting for ppl to do the heavy lifting for me

also i feel like the tolkien of it all is just a trick to get me to watch an incomprehensible borefest full of elves

Seconded

Well the three of us podcast cohosts watched it here via a jury-rigged Watch Party -- I'd already seen it the previous evening as well via the special screenings -- and...the trick comment re VG's post is not entirely far off. We all have our different takes on it but I'm officially the most generous of them, and boy howdy, this is a mix of technical accomplishment, good casting, a couple of individual moments that are very Tolkien in the best way and a whole looooooot of CHOICES re story/dialogue that, phew. It would absolutely work better if it was a separate non-Tolkien story entirely (and even then it would not entirely succeed).

I fear if dmac sees it he will die so I hope he does not.

From my cohost Jared and I would agree with this. But keep the implication of the opening sentence in mind.

There are bright spots. Almost all of the actors are doing their best—Morfydd Clark, Ismail Cruz Cordova, Sophia Nomvete, and Nazanin Boniadi are all somehow able to feel like real personalities. And Valinor as a strangely ominous Twilight Zone presence is great.

— Jared Pechaček (@vandroidhelsing) September 2, 2022

Not had a chance to watch it yet but filesize on torrent sites is pretty large so is it like really long.

It was good. Looks unbelievable. The main overall arc will probably be strong, the challenge is breathing life into the various storylines on the side. Getting us to care.

Will say, dwarves were largerly non-present in Jackson's movies and Durin's a lot better than Gimli already. Kazad dum probably the most exciting new world to explore.

Casting unknown/lesser known actors certainly helps the suspension of disbelief.

GoT ended up like a west end panto with famous people popping up in every role, camera winking and pay-cheque pocketing increasingly visible to the audience.

I liked it but the real test will be putting it in front of the 9 and 13 year old..

My spies have informed me that there is OIRISHNESS in this, so the little curiosity I had about it has now evaporated. But I will watch it with the husband just to be sociable.

Yeah, those nice Home Counties Hobbits are revealed to have evolved from mud-spattered leprechauns. I don't get how that kind of thing is still considered acceptable.

Wife was pretty annoyed by the Irish Hobbits, and especially the music played in the shire. Her other big annoyance was that most of the male actors were "weird looking and not cute."

We only watched the first episode and I was kinda tired but I thought it was officially "fine." Nothing really bothers me about it (the music is bland at best, the Irish hobbits are irritating) but I didn't think anything about it was particularly inspiring or impressive either. I liked the snow troll fight scene, and it's sort of sad that a short action scene was the most impressive or memorable. Elves and humans both being hugely racist is a nice tough I guess.

So fiurst 2 episodes are an hour and a half each?
THinking size of d/ld file bigger than usual. Like twice teh size and stuff.

First ep was just over an hour

This is pretty good!

a big complaint among folks on twitter seems to be “the elves are too ugly”

Eleven can't be choosers