Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As I understand it, this show is based on books that people liked, but Amazon allegedly chose to stray from the literature for reasons.. I've not read or even heard of the books, so I couldn't say with any certainty, but what I CAN say is that this show flagrantly rips off every other successful fantasy franchise out there. The first episode starts and ends with monologues that are so close to the actual text of Fellowship of the Ring that a case for plagiarism could probably be made. The first two characters it inflicts on you are "Strong Female Gandalf" and "Asian Aragorn" and it quickly makes it's way to "not the Shire", where we meet our 4 Hobbit proxies which include "Black Samwise", "Ginger Frodo", "Diverse Female Merry" and "Guy that wishes he was Adam Driver". After a considerable period of dull and confusing dialogue, we learn that the show's proxy for "The Ring" is actually one of the 4 Hobbit proxies and he or she is referred to as a "Dragon". There's a brief conversation where we learn that "Diverse Female Merry" is a candidate for some sort of Harry Potter style wizard school so I guess we'll call her "Sherry Potter" from here on in. Before we can process all these new characters and information, "not the Shire" get's attacked by an army of "not Orks". These "not Orks" look so much like the Beastmen from the Warhammer game that Games Workshop is probably talking to their lawyers about IP infringement at this very moment. There's a battle, people whose names I never bothered to learn get killed, then "Strong Female Gandalf" and "Asian Aragorn" save the day. Of course, our Hobbit proxies along with "Strong Female Gandalf" and "Asian Aragorn" have to flee "not the Shire" ASAP, because a proxy Ring Wraith who looks suspiciously like a female version of "Lord Valdemort" from the Harry Potter franchise is hot on their trail. This sums up the first episode. I forgot to mention the scene where an effeminate imitation of Conan the Barbarian's father had a conversation with Ginger Frodo and we learned that the "Wheel of Time" references the same basic concept as "Winter is Coming" from Game of Thrones, but I was busy rolling my eyes and the idea didn't leave a strong impression on me... Anyway, this show is a muddled mess that inflicts so many characters and plot points on the viewer in 49 minutes that I'm left not caring about any of them, or even learning a single character's name. Another odd thing about the show is that it seems VERY pleased with itself for including female characters, as though no other film or TV series ever included any. It's not enough to merely include these characters, the show awkwardly points out the fact that it includes so many women by actually inserting the word "woman" into the dialogue needlessly and as often as possible. If you wanted to make a drinking game out of it, you'd take eight shots during the first episode; you'd finish the bottle if you drank whenever the show pointed out females by saying "sisters", "girls" or "daughters". I'm not sure if the show wants congratulations or if it does this because it's concerned you won't notice that the female characters are female.. This show is laughably bad, the characters are all shallow, one dimensional, race and gender swapped proxies of characters from other, better fantasy films and shows, and the plot seems to be a crude mash-up of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones with a sprinkling of Conan the Barbarian thrown in for flavor. I wouldn't be even slightly surprised if lawsuits get filed by the owners of some of the intellectual property this show stole from. If you want to enjoy this show, I'd suggest watching it with the sound turned off. There are some lovely shots of scenery that may or may not be unused B-roll from Lord of the Rings films and there isn't any plot or story to speak of, so you won't miss anything other than annoying and confusing dialogue delivered by mediocre actors..