The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power series

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 Recorded on Sunday so some of my thoughts in particular are slightly outdated but anyway...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

*Elven

I have further thoughts on a particular thing that's irritating me

Collective thoughts are going to be in the next @BytheBywater episode in a month; there'll be more episodes of the series itself to talk about by then. Right now I'm just here to discuss a big issue with _The Rings of Power_: the problem of time and history. Thread! (1/whatever)

— Ned Raggett (@NedRaggett) September 2, 2022

I didn't hate this! The plotting is ropey as hell and the dialogue...oof. But it looks nice, the performances are solid, and the bones of a potentially compelling story are here. I'm enjoying it through the lens of "extremely expensive fanfic"

elves schmelves all these dudes look like relics from third-tier English boy bands ugh

I watched most of the first episode last night though think I may have been falling asleep. So interesting I guess
This is like the Silmarillion plus innit.
Like not sure to what extent it is directly from Tolkien.
Does look good. I assume filesize must be visual data. Every file looks like it is larger than what that duration normally is anyway from my own experience. On a torrent site there are normally several groupings of filesize options from something to watch on a portable screen to something that is several gb per file.
I tend to go toward the smaller end of the scale not quite the smallest since it does look good on a medium size flatscreen. Every option for this seemed to be larger filesize than normal. Range I pick it seemed about 1/3 larger than normal for a standard tv show length.
Subsequently I was expecting it to be epic in length. Which looked like it might be a chore to sit through 2 in a row of.

So looks good and I will get through episode 2 later.

I'm enjoying it with a few reservations (those pennywhistles...urgh). Visually gorgeous.

We immediately clocked the music as being the work of Bear McCreary, who also does the terrible music for Outlander. In the end, the Oirishness didn't bother me that much. I sort of get it? The elves are English, (including that guy who always plays Michael Palin in things), the dwarves are Scottish, so I guess the harfoots have to be from somewhere. But it didn't even seem like an Irish accent they were going for, as much as a sort of Traveller/Gypsy accent, which is way worse. Oh well. Lenny Henry can do what he loikes at this stage, I don't care.
Overall, I liked it more than I thought I would. Certainly compared to House of the Dragon. I'd much rather watch a lot of exposition interspersed with a stone-smashing contest and some business on a raft than mechanical shagging and boring jousting scenes which do not even have Geoffrey Chaucer in them. At least it has colours! And jokes! And it was genuinely kind of affecting to see Khazad-Dum in all its glory.

The Rings of Peace more like

I watched the first ep last night, quite pished and all I can remember was that it had some terrible acting and was rank garbage, but I say that about nearly everything these days.

Quite liked it, it was better than the Hobbit movies anyway.

But so tiresome to do a prequel and yet STILL launch with extensive WHAT HAS COME BEFORES of Morgoth and Sauron v1.0. Like, if you've got years to tell the story of the world before LotR, maybe just fucking tell the story of the world before LotR?

lenny henrys big book of prophecy seems extremely dumb

like something out of bad video game storytelling, not a lotr head but my understanding is that the wider lore doesn't have any of the prophecy/chosen one garbage that is in all mass market fantasy/sci fi media