The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power - Season 2 Premiere Review - 3 Hours of Soulless Drudgery

My review for the Season 2 premiere of 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power'.
J.R.R. Tolkien - The Best Adaptations of His Work in Animation, Live Action & Video Games: • J.R.R. Tolkien - The B...
Follow Me on X: x.com/colebrax
My IMDB Profile: www.imdb.com/n...
Wrong Reel T-Shirts for Sale: teespring.com/...
#TheLordoftheRings #TheRingsofPower #JRRTolkien

[@aydinasivertsen8139]

I have absolutely no intention of watching second season whatsoever, but I’ll be here for every recap video, since it’s just a pure delight 😂!

[@xlrouge]

Same 😅

[@rini6]

Don’t hold back, James. Tell us how you really feel. 😂

[@MadeUpLikeADoll]

He holds no punches.

[@jacobsalas1141]

"take those fruits out of your hair and take a bath" 🤣🤣. Bro

[@pdjinne65]

what are those dumb acorns even for, they're not even a snack. The hobo hobbits would rather eat vermin apparently. Lovely.

[@madmanrf]

still bright green after much time through the desert.

[@jcwoodman5285]

Yeah, when evil henchman bro says his 'plan' is to torture nori & nitwit to get not-gandalf to cooperate I thought, hmm intriguing go on 🤔...

[@ozi618]

I hate when people say, "If you don't like it, don't watch it and shut up about it." Watching this show is like watching news about two idiots throwing a can of tomato soup over Van Gogh's painting. I don't enjoy watching it, but I want to see how Tolkien's masterpiece was distorted by modern unskilled writing.

[@yurikendal4868]

It's not unskilled. It takes quite some skill to write this bad

[@TheLastSisyphus]

I don't want to agree with you...but I do. haha.

[@AndrewWesthoff]

I dig your honest, nerdy, insightful reviews. You know your shit.

[@SimonCoulton]

These reviews are more entertaining than the shows, keep em coming! :D

[@ConkerKing]

ROP made me love The Hobbit movies a lot more, so i'll take that as a win at least.

[@cathulhu3772]

I've recently watched The Hobbit. M4 fan edit and it is AMAZING. No prob finding torrent. They'cut EVERY unneeded scene, change order and even added some new. Hobbit should never be a trilogy.

[@joaodecarvalho7012]

Villeneuve's Dune. We were lucky with that.

[@siamesetwincobra]

Can't we just get Mindhunter Season 3?

[@jcwoodman5285]

YES!

[@dquarks]

Or The Outsider with Cynthia Erivo 😊

[@germanxmascookie]

Pretty sure it's a show based on a screenshot of the movies.

[@nickhtk6285]

Thank you for your sacrifice. Interesting you mention brinig the ents into the story. Reminiscent of Marvel/Disney where its all cameos, striving to make it relevant and create "easter eggs" for content creators to pump. My god, Im jaded.

[@nickhtk6285]

@@moon-moth1 Thank you for introducing me to that term.

[@jacobjones8731]

“Reader copies” is a great term!

[@Patrick-sheen]

Watching the trilogy again and I remember at the time how I thought Orlando Bloom was overacting everything. Now I watch him and realise just how perfectly he captured his role and character. His look, his manner and unusual mannerisms. Liv Tyler another outstanding performance of delicateness and profound grace mixed with mesmerising beauty. This horrendous series captures none of the nobility and loftiness of the Elves, rather it reduces them to some sort of proto humans, completely stripping them of their mystery, otherness and mystical quality. Indeed there is a complete rejection of any form of spirituality or sanctity to the entire project that flies completely in the face of Tolkien’s work.

[@lunarvision]

Frustrating to see such blatantly talentless hacks being given opportunities like this. Not just the terrible showrunners, but also the writers, directors, most of the cast - the whole thing is rotten to the core.

[@mattcollins3591]

And here you are, talking about their product. While you remain nameless. Stay humble.

[@unitron2005]

@@mattcollins3591 That comment is so devoid of any logic, it might as well be a quote from the show.

[@mattcollins3591]

@@unitron2005 boohoo. Gonna cry about it?

[@unitron2005]

@@mattcollins3591 You're literally acting like a toddler. 😅

[@mattcollins3591]

@@unitron2005 guess you’d know

[@Tar-Elenion]

Only Tolkien can write Tolkien.

[@jadapandy]

A million beloved fantasy books and series - and Bezos picks one that's already been done as best as it could be, but instead utterly destroys Tolkien's work, with the help of Tolkien's own son. Pick another, never been done before Fantasy novel or series to destroy.

[@salomaonplanetsaturn]

He did ) wheel of time 😡😮‍💨

[@jadapandy]

@@salomaonplanetsaturn And Bezos fucked that up too.

[@salomaonplanetsaturn]

@@jadapandy yep.

[@Patrick-sheen]

It’s absolute muck. I was watching it but Mr. Hancock you’ve set me on the right path. Back to the genius of the books and the Jackson LOTR movies. What an absolute wasted opportunity, it could have been an astonishing series, but they’ve literally done everything wrong.

[@lm7_gio]

Amazon bought the rights to LotR appendices and "when life gives you lemons you make lemonade", so they decided to perform an appendectomy and put it on our TV screens

[@chippewaguy4193]

The production level pisses me off because it looks so nice but nothing else works.

[@tyranomu]

Pharazôn becomes king BACAUSE a random giant chicken landed near them and he walked toward it. That's how moronic the writters of this show are.

[@PaulStone-b2i]

Brilliant series..can't wait for the next episode's..highly recommended

[@lunarvision]

Pssst James, put your questions (Which franchise is in the worst condition?) as a pinned comment. It will increase engagement and YT notices. 😉

[@complicatedairflow7237]

This’ll definitely be the final season of this show

[@C1ockwork]

Fingers crossed

[@yurikendal4868]

I heard there was more coming. I hope it's wrong

[@movoo6077]

😊

[@davidguy209]

They could've made an Elric show!

[@janecreek681]

There is a difference between a good adaptation and a good TV show/movie. I loved the Dresden Files TV show which I watched first. Then I read the books and they became my favorite urban fantasy novels of all time. The show being so different than the novels didn't ruin the books for me. From what I see about The Rings of Power it is neither a good adaptation or good show. That said I agree with your point. Better to ruin a show or movie than a book.

[@martinainscough9226]

“Gil-galad was an Elven-king. Of him the harpers sadly sing: the last whose realm was fair and free between the Mountains and the Sea. His sword was long, his lance was keen, his shining helm afar was seen; the countless stars of heaven's field were mirrored in his silver shield. But long ago he rode away, and where he dwelleth none can say; for into darkness fell his star in Mordor where the shadows are.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring Cheers.

[@firestarter000001]

In this show, at least in season1 (I am not watching season 2) , they made him a power hungry idiot....Was one of the things not many poeple seem to mention, but it also made me furious.

[@Antoine-x2f]

As a historian, Tolkien must have known history is always written by the victors. All the writings are either first person accounts or hymns and legens shared for generations after the elves left ME. Main events are there, the rest is details

[@raymondsmith6870]

So sorry James for that experience but now viewers know first hand what the lowest pit of Angband feels like. Your exactly right. That is why I avoid RoP so that it doesn't taint or poison my love for Tolkien's beautiful source material.

[@rossrichey55]

My memory is that Ents are one of the original races. Morgoth based the Trolls on them. So while they were never mentioned in the Second Age they were around. So while it sounds like they made numerous unforgivable errors, perhaps this wasn't one of them.

[@CarlWheatley-wi2cl]

Thing that struck me James is that the access outlets were absolutely scathing about what they saw. Not the measured, polite criticism you would expect them to include as a matter of course for the 'balanced' review. The Variety piece was absolutely brutal for example. Trying to figure out the angle on why they are being so honest all of a sudden, do they know something we don't about the shows future or are they getting ahead of the storm of derision because they know this thing is garbage and is going to perform terribly?

[@mxvega1097]

I noticed that too. My theory is that people have started to figure that the money has run out. So there's no point staying on Amazon's good side for access for another 3 seasons. Won't happen.

[@mattgilbert7347]

After watching episodes 1&2, I'm now rooting for Sauron to lay waste to all & sundry. Heck, at this point I'd let him date my daughter. Imagine the ring if they got engaged!

[@majkus]

There are a substantial number of fans of Lord of the Rings (usually those who read the books after seeing the films) who, prior to any real news about Rings of Power, were saying things like, "I want to see Moria in its heyday," "I can't wait to see Númenor!" and, honest to God, "I wonder who's going to play Hot Sauron?" Even now, you read or hear phrases like, "It's just great to be able to see and visit Middle-earth again!" In other words, these fans, the ones who are most positive about Rings of Power, are thinking in purely visual terms. They would be satisfied with an expensive coffee-table book of illustrations, except that paper books aren't "epic" enough. And Amazon is giving these people exactly what they wanted.

[@NobuhikuObayashi]

Watched part of a couple scenes. It really is unwatchable. It’s just so tragic for me personally because this should be the height of prestige cinema, or at least an attempt at it, this truly feels like a ho hum, by the numbers network cgi fest, not a great high value treatment. But I’m not sure what they expected, 3 of the four directors have done nothing but un-acclaimed tv shows, and the fourth is JA Boyona who wouldn’t be my first pick. It’s just incredibly strange that they couldn’t find an auteur, high end, feature film director who could see the whole project through beginning to end. Shuffling in a couple day players is different than having a filmmaker at the helm.

[@majkus]

The Ents were present in Beleriand in the First Age-Treebeard tells us this in Lord of the Rings, and JRRT then retconned the story of Beren so that it was the Shepherds of the Trees who defended him against the Dwarves of Nogrod (although this sentence may have been Christopher Tolkien's text following his father's expressed intention). And we know that the Ents ranged through the forests of Eriador, before the Númenorean deforesting ruined that habitat. But we are going to get Entwives, and if the show runs true to form, they will be identical to the Ents, but 'female' in voice. The whole 'agricultural' emphasis of the Entwives, living in fields, not forests, and their differing appearance (hair the hue of ripe corn and cheeks like red apples) will be completely overlooked.

[@mattcollins3591]

Why are the people who hated the first season watching the second season if they already hate it? You don’t have to watch it.

[@firestarter000001]

I personally dont, tough i check the reviews out of curiosity. For the reviewers/content creators, its a bit like their job to check out a big pop culture show like Rings of Power.

[@deanzaZZR]

Did you miss James' introduction wherein he professes his deep affection for the writing of JRR Tolkien?

[@victorialadybug1]

So, why doesn't he just reread the books and find other things to do? You haters have really become joke at this point.

[@firestarter000001]

@@victorialadybug1 If you cant understand why someones loving Tolkien will get interested and have strong feelings about shows based on Tolkiens work...

[@mattcollins3591]

@@firestarter000001this is not based on tolkiens work. The first season clearly solidified that. So again, why are the same people who bitched and cried two years ago that this show was garbage, the first ones to watch 3 hours of a show they all claim to hate? It’s hilarious

[@1nvisibleAcropolis]

Bear McCreary composed the score for season two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. McCreary is an Emmy Award-winning composer who has also worked on other popular television series, including The Walking Dead, Outlander, and Battlestar Galactica.

[@KeytarArgonian]

The music from season 1 was very poor. Sorry Bear, but ‘I used being a kid as my main source of inspiration’ is just bland. You can tell he is following nothing but ‘music swells’ instructions.

[@justinmartin845]

It’s sounds like exactly what Disney did with the Acolyte. They added a bunch of cameos that shouldn’t have been there because the show itself couldn’t stand on its own.

[@stoicpoker94]

You summed it up perfectly the show seems like a lord of the rings cosplay very sad to see , great Channel btw

[@tjk3430]

If JD Payne was humble enough to have had imposter syndrome when he got this job, he must have gotten over it. But he was right the first time because he's a complete Tolkien imposter.

[@DrDetfink]

Rings of Power Season 2: the Self-inflicted head trauma that you didn’t need.

[@deanzaZZR]

I guess I was desperate for new ME content. It was also midnight. Anyway, I watched the first episode and quite enjoyed it. Halfway through episode 2 I started skipping through the slower parts. I skipped even a larger portion of episode 3. Dross packaged with explosions, horror sequences and an expanded soundscape (with cringe dialog of course).

[@scottmataga5907]

Not just stealing from Peter Jackson's LOTR. In season 1 Galadriel arguing with Miriel says "There is a tempest in me." In Elizabeth: The Golden Age Cate Blanchett playing Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth: The Golden Age arguing with the Spanish Ambassador about the Spanish Armada says "There is a hurricane in me that will strip Spain bare." Needless to say Blanchett is imperious and Clark is a spoiled brat.

[@Patrick-sheen]

We’re all watching it is the problem. They’ll say it’s getting viewers but it’s absolute torture.

[@S1ipperyJim]

I'm not

[@PleaseNThankYou]

That's why I let my favorite chans watch it, so I don't have too!

[@firestarter000001]

IS it? I might be wrong ofc, but im confident overall the viewership will be very bad. Best case scenario for them, first 2 episodes will have a big higher views.

[@tjk3430]

Aw man, James. A comment for the algo but I'll have to come back & enjoy the catharsis of your searing review after I've seen it some time this weekend. I'll likely watch this with the one person I know who is a fan of TROP, so would rather not go in with critiques (legit as I'm sure they are and I'll agree with!) loaded beforehand. Thanks for the vid!

[@kahnlives]

The descriptive “hacks” is actually a complement for the two show runners 😮

[@MrMightyZ]

Ooh! Contender for Thumbnail Of The Year! Equivalently incompetent professionals in other fields; Reunion Pacific Entertainment tuna fishermen all lost at sea. Reunion Pacific Entertainment Construction skyscraper falls down killing 100s. Reunion Pacific Entertainment automobile manufacturing surpasses Daewoo and all Russian brands for unreliability rating and cause multiple fatal accidents. Thank God there’s no practical stunts or effects.

[@RamseyDewey]

I knew James Hancock would give it to us straight! Excellent point about the pitiful depiction of Sauron. I just read this passage from the Silmarilion yesterday explaining what a big deal he is in the lore: "Among those of his (Morgoth's) servants that have names the greatest was that spirit whom the Eldar called Sauron, or Gorthaur the Cruel. In his beginning he was of the Maiar of Aulë, and he remained mighty in the lore of that people. In all the deeds of Melkor the Morgoth upon Arda, in his vast works and in the deceits of his cunning, Sauron had a part, and was only less evil than his master in that for long he served another and not himself. But in after years he rose like a shadow of Morgoth and a ghost of his malice, and walked behind him on the same ruinous path down into the Void." Sauron was second in power and malice, only to the ultimate evil being. The idea of an incarnate pre-war of the ring Sauron (or any other version for that matter) being humiliated by orcs is beyond laughable. Did the writers think Sauron was just some normal dude who liked making magical jewelry?

[@WilliamNeish]

I watched two episodes of the first season and that was all I could stand. I wish I could like this review a hundred times.

[@AnnoyingCritic-is7rp]

The gandalf stuff is a good example. You have not gandalf and harfoots that look like hobbits and they're walking across and going somewhere like in the Lord of the Rings. But unlike the Lord of the Rings, there's no purpose for their voyage, we don't know what they're doing. What is their mission?

[@setlik3gaming80]

The Woke thought process. To hell with the LOTR books. I don't have time to read any book. I am too busy putting myself in it. I demand to see myself. ME ME ME!!!

[@mrMitrycz]

Self contradiction is a regular here. Written by 5 years old. Isildur's horse cannot be submitted by any man except Isildur himself, and yet let some bandits ride him away. Damn, and the eagle scene, what a joke.

[@EJ_Crough]

I’m not a fan of the rings of power so I’m not saying this as a ‘got you’ but the ents do have a footnote in the second age as it’s when the entwives’ gardens/forests are destroyed by Sauron. I believe it’s sad to be done as a way to delay the armies of the Last Alliance as they march on Mordor. That being said there are so many aspects of the Rings of Power story that have no business being in the second age based on what we do know from Tolkien’s writings.

[@setlik3gaming80]

4 Star hotels and hundreds of CGI flips over good-looking armor.

[@annienglish4378]

Thank you for this. I am in my seventies and I first read Tolkien when I was 20. I ended up getting every Tolkien work out of my local library. I was almost in tears listening to you. I don't recognise any of Tolkien in Rings of Power. I've read better fanfiction whose writers stuck to Tolkien. There are some excellent Tolkien fanfiction writers out there, ANY of them could do a better job than McKay or Payne. I agree with everything you say. They are also literally shadowing Jackson's Lord of the Rings. The spiders, the horse finding Isildur who shouldn't be in Middle Earth, and many others. Arondir possibly could have been a good character but the actor mumbles through every line. His diction is terrible. Also Tolkien based his idea of love on the old notion of 'courtly love'. Courtly love was a medieval European tradition that involved a knight expressing his love for a married noblewoman, often while following strict rules and etiquette. Courtly love originated in the courts of Southern France, including Aquitaine, Provence, Champagne, and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, in the late 11th century. It was governed by strict rules, often similar to the Code of Chivalry. For example, a knight should not knowingly break up another couple's love affair. The lady was the "mistress" of the affair, and the knight was her "servant". She was the recipient of many tokens of affection, such as songs, poems, bouquets, and ceremonial gestures. It allowed knights and ladies to express their love for each other, even if they were married. It was a way for people in loveless marriages to express their romantic needs. Tolkien of course believed in marriage and love, but the idea of courtly love could very well have appealed to him because it was based on the purity of love, not on sex in a time where marriages were usually dynastic rather than made by two people in love. Sorry about the length of that, but both Beren and Luthien, Aragorn and Arwen are both examples of courtly love. Anyway, I'll shut up after having bored you stiff, but thank you sincerely for your review.

[@user-ep4yt6px5e]

EP2 Sauron "The true creators toil till their knuckles bleed and then they come along and take whatever profits they want." There. From the mouth of the showrunners themselves. The real intentions behind this adaptation. No wonder they promoted Sauron to hero status. They could easily tell this story in one 10 episode mini-series. The creation of the rings of power. Ok, Numenor also. That's it. And that it would be enough for us, the fans.

[@fairamir1]

When are these reviewers going to realize this show is NOT LOTR ? This is an ORIGINAL story based on characters from LOTR. It does not need to stick to the original lore of LOTR. This is an ORIGINAL story. They can change things any way they want. You need to watch this show as if LOTR does not exist.

[@Antoine-x2f]

Not that original since it recaps the events of the Silmarilion

[@kevinpascual]

"Let me shit on you, Tolkien." - Amazon.

[@KeytarArgonian]

‘The only place to find Perfection is in Valinor.’ ~ Cirdan, who has never been there.

[@setlik3gaming80]

Excellent analysis and review 🖖🏽

[@rodrigomadera3048]

Say what you want about House of the Dragon season 2, but even with all its shortcomings, it is still WAY more compelling and interesting than Rings of Power, IMHO. I would watch HOTD S02 on repeat before watching again ROP.

[@robynmitchell9563]

I'm not a huge LOTR fan like you James, I've read the books, including 3/4 of The Silmarillion & watched the movies several times, but when the first season appeared, I turned the first episode off after about 8 minutes and have never gone back.

[@firestarter000001]

Im prety sure Rings of Power is done with this season. With season one people wanted to check it out, give it a chance, then even tough it was bad, some continued watching "just to finish" or out of morbid curiosity how bad can it get. But like James said, the grace period is over, and my prediction is viewership will be atrocious for this season and it will get the axe. Thank god, the desecration will be over.

[@jennymcelligott]

It’s been internally renewed for season three and that’s in preproduction. the writers planned for five. I’m sure it’ll be fine.

[@lunarvision]

@@jennymcelligottWe’ll see how that pans out, ha ha.

[@firestarter000001]

@@jennymcelligott Yes it was the initial plan but I have heard somwhere that might not be so set in stone anymore.

[@jennymcelligott]

@@firestarter000001 sadly for you preproduction is underway. You don’t have to watch?

[@firestarter000001]

@@jennymcelligott I wont. I am not watching season 2, apart trough reviewers , tough i did watch season 1.

[@markgregorygacosta531]

im a simple guy. When I see someone expose Amazon's Rings of Power, i subscribe.

[@daviddefranco2614]

I laughed my ass off when I saw the thumbnail for this video 🤣🤣

[@shaytal100]

I watched the first episode of season 2 out of curiosity. But I did not manage to watch it without skipping forward. It is mind blowing to me how amazon is burning more money with these writers! How could anyone with a brain even green light the first season? But then after this horrible first season they give the same people more money? Are we missing something? Maybe more people have seen and finished season 1 on amazon then we think? I mean from a creative point of view it is absolutely like burning money. But maybe there is some economic standpoint that makes sense? Well, either that or amazon studios is really doing a very bad job!

[@DenkyManner]

Mega rich executives are a type of human that cannot tell when a story is good or trash.

[@madmanrf]

The eagle looked like some normal size eagle footage superimposed, super-sized into the scene. And why, why?

[@faizrabbani]

I knew this show was in trouble when I saw the scene with the boat and the rock. I’ll be watching these reviews to see what happens and how bad it is.

[@enriquecabada8841]

i am already moving on to the war of the rohirrim hopefully it doesn't suck

[@mxvega1097]

Wander around, talk, stare, wander around, stilted discussion, swords, change scene to 6 other plotlines, pompous quote, desert, stars, go back to people by ships, in forests, rings, stilted discussion, trees, rings, stares, swords, stop. Roll credits. Scene opens, wander around, talk, stare, melodrama, wave sword, mythic beast appearance, tense dialogue.... Fcuk.

[@dquarks]

Payne and McKay should never be allowed to work on anything beyond daytime soap opera 😮😅

They have plenty of bugs to eat but no water. Adar doesn't bother to ask the "king of the southlands" how he knows what Sauron is up to.

[@bozimmerman]

Hi James -- I thought the transformation of whats-his-name into Anatar was a course correction, even if it was too late and badly done.

[@AndréVilaFranca]

My good sir, I don't know how you can handle this level of bad but we appreciate your sacrifice. Your reviews are the only good thing coming out of this horrendous series. xD I don't understand how this series is given a chance while fantastic ones such as Rome, Hannibal, Deadwood get cancelled. There is no cosmic justice. On a good note I'm gonna nag you again with a manga recommendation: BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei. An amazing hardcore sci-fi horror. Only 6 volumes long. I think it's up your alley. If you give it a chance please let us know. I'd like to hear your thoughts on it. xD

[@Adam-yf3ss]

LOTR: ROP is no good? Tell me something I don’t know.

[@jacketernity4609]

I don't think it's great but better than S1 so far (at least in my opinion). But that is not saying much. Love your videos even if we disagree on some things. Keep it up!

[@jadapandy]

I suppose that ending to Game of Thrones is looking really good right about now, eh?

[@chippewaguy4193]

What’s the best way to read jrr tolkien books for someone who’s only seen the lord of the rings trilogy and this show? Should I start with the lord of the rings books or the hobbit or the silmarillion? Is there a set you recommend? Please and thank you.

[@deanzaZZR]

Most would suggest you start with the Hobbit. It's quite simple and easy reading. If you enjoy that then consider moving on to Fellowship of the Ring.

[@madmanrf]

The music is horrible. The dialog is horrible. The whole show is an unwanted greeting card

[@habitatryder]

Um where are your expanse books?? I don't see them behind you. That's how I found you damnit! Expanse must be represented and center of everything - the more people made aware of expanse the better

[@lermondmayes7619]

Thank you, that's all I needed to hear. Saved me from the anguish.

[@AlanDantes76]

It's pretty sad when the Hobbit films are criterion collection classics compared to this show.

[@dangerdingle900]

Justice for Gil Galad!

[@yegrosal]

you spend too much time critiquing how they didn't follow the source material. I wish you had spent more time on why it's not just good regarless of its Tolkier faithfulness. That's a more interesting path (imo).

[@poneill65]

He's not gonna be Gandalf,.. that's just a pathetic switcheroo these hacks are setting up, over two fricken seasons! (an amateur device, like their pisspoor attempt to hide Halbrand was Sauron, for most of S1!). He's most probably one of the blue wizards. The Rhun dark wizard is the other. In the lore they arrived on M.E. together, were good friends, headed to the East together, but failed their mission there. Seeing as "The Stranger" here seems to arrive in his fireball long after his mate BadBlue has been setting up his cults in the East, I expect that they'll say that the two of them fell out and BadBlue Killed GoodBlue, but GoodBlue was sent back to M.E. (for some reason, to the West, with his memory wiped). Clearly GoodBlue has faint memories of Rhun, which would make sense if he was there with BadBlue in his recent past incarnation. Even sadder than thinking this misdirect was worthwhile is the fact that these sadsacks are still are still doing little misdirects, with the dirty little sociopaths calling the staff he needs a "Gand"! These godawful writers/showwrunners basically just strung together a whole series of hackneyed tv/movie tropes and hung some dreadful dialog on top of them.

[@hvitekristesdod]

They spent 1 billion on the appendices to not read them at all

[@AntonSmyth-od6rc]

Ive enjoed season 2. Then again I'm not trying to be cool and anti like these youtube "bros"

[@setlik3gaming80]

TROP is not related to LOTR TROP is comedy gold TROP is DOA

[@robhuck2828]

Star Wars is easily the franchise that is in the worst trouble. Tolkien wrote his work down for posterity, and that cannot be sullied by nonsense like TROP.

[@jadapandy]

Well, it's better than most of Disney+ TV shows like The Acolyte.

[@nyx5376]

It's easily down there with them.

[@datacorz]

Even watching paint dry is more entertaining than ROP.

[@deanzaZZR]

@8:05 I am not an archer but that does not look like how one prepares an arrow for release. If you are in the know please correct me (I skipped the vast majority of Paris Olympics coverage).

[@MrMightyZ]

Hey I always wanted to know but I think Tom Bombadil (in the book) was that world’s God. Was he God? I think he was.

[@gravewalkers]

I do not think he was Eru Ilúvatar. I think Tom was a 'happening' roughly identical to Ungoliant. Tom was the counterbalance to Ungoliant. Sort of these 'titans' who were created as the truly first entities. They are not only super powerful, but an 'older version of the matrix' that makes them above the rules of everyone that comes after. Tom was goodness and nature. Ungoliant was greed, evil, and destruction. Just as Ungoliant made the Shelob and spiders, Tom probably caused the Hobbits; who are somewhat crafted in his image.

[@Iverald]

Certainly not. The best guess is the genius loci (spirit of a place) of Old Forest and Barrow Downs. He had no power outside of there.

[@KeytarArgonian]

Tolkien wrote in Bombadil for his kids. Nothing more, nothing less. Bombadil was a character Tolkien invented for his kids bedtime stories.

[@dontes5009]

I’m enjoying it. It’s much better than most tv shows. I haven’t read the books or care too.

[@AdrianMendoza23]

I've been waiting for this James. Great review. I won't watch the show but I will watch your reviews of this turd burger. What is your take on the Hobbit Trilogy?

[@m.b.boyack2228]

Galadriel is a married woman with a daughter ffs. Why is the Orc wife and mother, presumably female, not portrayed to be strong, independent, brave and vocal like all other woman in this story are, as 'The Message' dictates. The Orc wife should be a physically big and strong 'bad b*tch' not to be messed with, but no she is short, diminutive and dependent on her husband for protection because the script needs her to be. The now blind Queen Regent Miriel has no ladies in waiting or security in her chambers? Enabling Lord Pharazon to surprise Miriel as he picks out her outfits/clothing to wear. Pathetic, the integrity of every scene collapses upon the slightest examination.

[@Kefka.]

I like current Trek, I hated Picard season 1 & 2 same for STD. But season 3 of Picard, Strange News Worlds, and Prodigy I all like quite a bit and I love Lower Decks (still strongly dislike ep1 of season 1, but whatever).

[@KeytarArgonian]

Picard Season 3 was also Garbage.

[@dquarks]

Bear McCreary's is nowhere as moving as Shore's music in the original LOTR movies.😢

[@firestarter000001]

Tottaly agree, they dont understand the soul of Tolkien, what is most important. Peter Jackson imho might have taken some liberties here and there but he felt deeply the soul of Tolkiens work and the movies felt like it, and thats why they are universally loved. Imho Halo show got similar treatment, they took some visual stuff, some names, but the soul of the games, of master chief, was tottaly changed and it was atrocious.

[@yurikendal4868]

How they made a dry and dull history book even DULLER is astounding to me.

[@markh58]

You explain it the way I think of it, but can't articulate. Thanks 👍