pretty much everyone in this thread loves the show, and it has a low ratings on imdb

I'm hearing a lot of hate for the show. I think its pissed off conservatives and lore heads alike. Is it getting review bombed? Maybe. Its also possible a lot of people just don't like the show

like it's just not a 6.7 show, lol. That's on 123k ratings, which is a big sample.

Even my wife likes it and she doesn't typically like fantasy stuff.

I'm not going to argue with anyone for not liking a show, it's obviously not for everybody. But I have been following news on it pretty closely for the past couple years and there undoubtedly has been a very coordinated effort by those in certain political circles to trash the show at every opportunity, which began right after they started announcing the cast. I'll leave it as a rhetorical exercise for the reader to answer why mere pictures of relatively unknown cast members stirred up so much anger. But ever since, well before a single episode or even trailer had aired, every comment section of every major article or video has been flooded with negative comments within minutes, crying about wokeness other less-veiled complaints about the perceived politics of a show no one had seen. When people talk about review bombing in this case, it's not just after-the-fact rationalization of poor ratings, it's something that's been going on with this show for a while, for reasons having nothing to do with the finished product.

As a Tolkien fan who follows a lot of nerdy Tolkien groups and channels, I can assure you that while there is plenty of concern about the show not strictly sticking to original lore, most in the community seem at least cautiously optimistic or just waiting and seeing. They are generally not the ones angrily flooding imdb with thousands of 1 ratings on day one. No doubt there are some in that latter group cloaking themselves in faux-concern for Tolkien lore, but the kind of things they always bring up (Tolkien never wrote about black elves!, Galadriel wasn't a warrior in LotR!), show little understanding of the actual source and are very different from the kind of things real Tolkien lore fanatics are worrying about (Why are Durin III and Durin IV alive at the same time?! What gives Gil-galad the authority to reward Galadriel with passage to Valinor?).

I think it's also telling that the earliest imdb rating I saw on day one was 5 something, but that's been steadily rising throughout the week as what are likely more objective reviews have started diluting that initial negative dump.

High expectations cause people to rate it lower than it actually is. Looking at it through an unbiased lens, I just can't see how you could rate it below a 7. The show is truly a work of art with the settings and wardrobe and such. It's really quite amazing to see what can be done with a $50+ million/episode budget (not including the pricey rights fee).

That being said, in episode 3 the only storyline I was really too interested in was the one with the black elf. They are introducing a lot of characters and I don't feel very connected to any of them. I don't like the actor choice for the guy with Galadriel (Halbrand apparently). Based on just having watched 3 episodes, I'd have rather seen a black actor play that part (I don't know the lore though).

The 1-starrers bashing Galadriel for not being true to Tolkein are amusingly inconsistent. A bunch complain that she's an OP Mary Sue, while loads of others complain that she's not portrayed as an extremely powerful mage who could level a city with a look.

Thought the third episode was much better though had to fast forward through all the munchkin scenes as they are pure AIDS.

Orcs are much better done in this than in the film and are the most interesting compelling part of the show.

The scene with I got accepted in the builders guild/college of my choice was so derivative and lazy it was cringeworthy.

Just complete transplant of a generic cookie cutter TV show moment transplanted in the LoTR universe in a way that was complete record scratch.

Show ranges between 8 and 5 in ranking depending on what tangent is on screen.

Saw this incredibly LOL one star review of it:

Yeah a few things I never got between the original books and/or movies were

orakai(sp)? Were supposed to be bad ass but only ever really killed boromir and generally suck at fighting?

Everyone in the age this show takes place in had mythical strength. Then by time we get to hobbits age almost everyone sucks? I suppose this could be that the tales were told so much they got exaggerated.

Agree this show would be better without "hobbits" at all.

In some ways the show is really antiwoke. Nagging dwarf wife gets her husband to stop being stubborn(really cringe scene imo) . Galadriel saved by normal? man despite being really powerful, actually not as clever as she thinks with regards to hunting sauron.

Did like they had the elves actually lose at something. Though could have been intentional.

I keep thinking everyone will secretly be sauron disguise.

A couple more cringe-worthy corny ass scenes this episode.

Somehow I am still enjoying it more than HotD

As with the films, the hobbits (or harfoots or whatever the **** you want to call them) are the least interesting characters. Fortunately they are less prominent in this show.

Also

Damn, the Harfoots are ruthless, just leaving people behind to die without even an offer of help for an injured man. But yeah, that storyline is pretty meh. The only interesting question is who the meteor man is, and I'm getting scared they're going to do something stupid like make it Gandalf, though that almost seems too obvious at this point and there are a couple of other cool options from Tolkien I can think of.

Thought the stuff with Elendil and Galadriel was great. They're definitely setting up her character as one who's going to experience some growth throughout the show and not the one-dimensional always-right warrior-princess some were fearing, with both Elrond and now Elendil basically telling her she needs to chill out. I hope we see some evolution towards the person she will become in LotR as the series progresses.

Those wide shots of Numenor as they sailed in looked incredible.

Also really liking the orc design and the way they're showing their hatred of sunlight. Much better than the CGI mess they made of the orcs in the Hobbit movies.

Needs more Elrond & the dwarves next week.

Sort of, this age has a lot more elves involved, who are basically mythical creatures compared to men and hobbits. Also the Numenoreans are like a more advanced race of men who are more technologically advanced and have been given longer lifespans than common men. It was kind of mentioned in this episode that it's because in the previous age they were the men who sided with the elves while the men of Middle-earth sided with Morgoth.

Yeah, like the captain guy is supposed to be 8 feet tall and a couple hundred years old

Episode 3 was really good. Loving the stuff in Numenor and the slave camp. Agree that anything with the hobbits sucks. They're just too goofy for me. While the dwarves city looked really cool and I was interested to learn more about them, it appears that they've made dwarves goofy oafs too. The show would be awesome with little to no hobbits and limited dwarves, but I guess that's kind of impossible with LOTR.

So far I've spotted 3 actors from the Spartacus series. Crassus is the head elf in the slave camp, Naevia is the queen-regent, and one of the minor characters from Spartacus was the dude whose guild token Harbrand stole. Naevia was possibly my least fave character in Spartacus, but she's doing a better job with this role.

I'm pretty much just watching the show for the visuals. The rest is pretty average. Too many storylines going at once which makes it feel bloated. The orcs look pretty good though. The Stranger is obviously Gandalf, no way some executives would throw this much money into a show without cramming as much stuff casual viewers know.

I love it. Any and all criticisms can **** off, this is going to be tier 1 TV for the next 5 years.

Its not close to tier 1 in anyway apart from budget, I guess that it is all it takes with some folks.

the captain on the ship training isildur is from spartacus too. he was the gladiator with the guy lover

that's standard for lotr. the nazgul were supposed to be about as fierce as can be, but they are comically weak, just failing at everything they do, non stop

i totally get the hobbit hate. but i actually like these hobbits. it's interesting how they are all seemingly nice or whatever, but then just abandon their weak to die? lmao... and they were gonna banish nori, who is like basically a child. just banish her to die lol

i also like how hobbits play a key role in middle earth even though they are tiny and kinda lame. obv frodo and bilbo.. but nori too. she recognized gandalf's importance and helped him.

Tbf, the orcs suck in comparison to Aragon, Gimli, and Legolas, who are the best fighters the good guys have. They're very effective against normal humans and elves in the Helm's Deep battle.

Couldn’t mysterious fell from stars guy be Saruman?

Not sure if we're doing book spoilers but..

The nearer to creation the better you are comes from Judaism.