Quote:
Originally Posted by Ungoliant
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.
It's not just the comments sections: There are many dozens - if not hundreds - of incels that spend their days recording crappy YouTube videos in their mom's basements. And to a man, they all started months ago putting out videos absolutely ripping the show to threads - just after the very first 2-minute trailer dropped, which <gasp!> actually depicted a character whose face wasn't lily-white. This was apparently a cardinal sin for all the pearl-clutching snowflakes who like to try to disguise their racism behind cries of "It's woke culture run amok!"
Anyway, for me the show is - just OK.
- Getting to see Moria depicted in all its Second Age glory was, by itself, almost worth the price of admission.
- Yes, dwarf women should have beards - it's canon. Kind of cowardly on their part to not go there - but it's such a minor detail, hard to see why anyone would get too upset about it.
- I find Galadriel too strident, and pretty one-dimensional. She's a ****ing 6,000-year old elf, yet they seem insistent on depicting her character as predominantly driver her baser emotions. It's true, elves are known to hold a grudge. But an unquenchable lust for revenge? Yea, that seems more like a very human failing.
- I seem to enjoy the Harfoots more than most.
Overall, I find it modestly enjoyable. 1st 3 episodes get a somewhat unenthusiastic thumbs-up, 4th Ep. was pretty bad. I have this rated somewhere between the original LOTR Trilogy
(which was mostly excellent) and the Hobbit Trilogy (which was largely crap). Admittedly, that's a very large range. More later.
Last edited by Nitchka'sDad; 09-17-2022 at 03:39 PM.