Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Hi Amazon. This will now be the third time I've attempted to post my review - thanks for trying to sweep criticism under the rug! I really wanted to enjoy this show, I truly did. As a longtime fan of JRR Tolkien's books and Bakshi's/Jackson's adaptations I was curious to learn about Amazon's purchase of the Lord of the Rings rights. Knowing that usually when Amazon throws money at a popular series (The Grand Tour, Good Omens, EVANGELION, etc.) things turn out dandy, and with Bezos' son cautioning him to "please don't [mess] this up", I had high hopes for another well-loved chapter of Tolkien's universe. Oh boy. I managed to choke down the first hour of this show, and I dare not go a second further. The show starts off familiar enough with darkness and narration, with some familiar places and events portrayed, but any warm feelings of familiarity are quickly ruined by either the inability of the "actors" to show any hint of convincing emotion or motivation, or the director's failure to guide their cast into believable/likable performances. I am almost convinced that the creative team for this...show watched the Jackson films, and only took notes about the world-building and prop work, completely ignoring the performances that elevated the trilogy from flavor-of-the-month fantasy to timeless classic. Additionally, many shots and scenes of this episode are direct callbacks or copies from Jackson's trilogy. Heck, even Peter Jackson was more than willing to assist with this production, but no-one apparently would bother to return his calls... Maybe one day AMAZON will give us a better attempt to convincingly continue the film legacy of Tolkien, but until then, this series stinks of a company too cheap to properly acquire the rights to the content trove of "The Silmarillion" with their creative team's notebook filled with nothing but scribbles of "copy Jackson". The Good: -beautiful scenery and sets -great prop work -fitting musical score -use of extended Tolkien lore The Bad: -The "actors" (or director) -this shows best parts are copied/pasted from Jackson's LotR/Hobbit I give this show (as of now) one poked-out Eye of Sauron out of five.