Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Great production value, decent script, fairly intriguing fantasy story and characters, and good performances. What I can't figure out is why the producers felt it necessary to claim this story as part of Tolkien's universe. Let's look briefly at a few of the major problems already visible in the first two episodes: --Galadriel's spouse, Celeborn, is nowhere to be seen, and there are hints of romance between her and at least two of the males in the show, one of whom (Elrond) should actually be her son-in-law. --Galadriel appears a 20-something lone warrior on a vendetta to kill Sauron. She is treated as a subordinate to seemingly older and wiser elves--though, in truth, she is the oldest and wisest elf in the world at this point in the story. --The Silmarils are absent from the world with only a reference (faulty, at that) to them in the second episode. These key objects do not disappear from the world until the time of Earendil. Sauron, after the sealing away of Morgoth and the age of the Silmarils has ended, is believed to be a friend to the elves, not fleeing to the edges of the map as Galadriel pursues him. --In fact, Celebrimbor does not have an idea to forge rings (as the series seems to be going this direction); rather, Sauron, as his guide and mentor, convinces him to forge the rings together. It is only after the rings are forged (the One Ring in secret), that the fallout occurs with Sauron and the elves. --If the old man who landed from the stars is supposed to be a wizard, then this series has committed another atrocity with the story of the arrival of the wizards--who came from the West and met Cirdan the Shipwright (who, at that point, was carrying one of the three elvish rings--that do not yet exist in the TV series timeline). It is Cirdan who gives Gandalf his ring. These points are only a few of the major problems of the series. The timeline is entirely messed up, and the characters nothing like Tolkien's written characters. There was plenty of excellent material in The Silmarillion that could have been easily scripted for a TRUE telling of the history of the rings of power. Why did the writers and producers choose to ignore the real history and create their own? It's beyond me to know, but it's terribly, terribly disappointing. If someone wants to make a fantasy story, then make a fantasy story. Don't say it is a part of Tolkien's legendarium.