The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

**Bad Fan-Fiction - could have been a mediocre fantasy show, but as a Middle Earth show it is a failure.** I will just share some of my impressions and come to a conclusion. The show is boring and does not pull you in. After watching the first 3 episodes, I am still not interested at all in what's going on. Galadriel as an or maybe as THE main character of the show is miscast and badly written. She is supposed to be one of the most beautiful and graceful women of all Middle Earth and its history - but she comes across as bland and average in terms of charisma. And she is written as a very unlikable annoying arrogant person. The casting in general: let's just say that a lot of casting choices do not represent Tolkien's vision of Middle Earth well. The writers and producers seem to not understand the idea of a fully independent fantasy world that is based on its own history and evolution and not the history and evolution of our world. It has to be coherent in itself and not represent our modern day world - that's why it's called "Fantasy". Especially when it comes to the fantasy world of Tolkien's "Middle Earth"! And by inserting the modern day society conditions and ideology into the world of "Middle Earth" the makers of this show make this show look less like "Middle Earth" and more like our modern day world, which Tolkien Fans certainly don't want to be inserted and represented in a show about "Middle Earth". Elves appear more like kind of Romans, they do not look and feel like Tolkien elves. Giving them short haircuts is a bad decision and an example for how the makers of this show made the Elves more like humans with pointy ears than real Elves that are a different people. Bad casting choices (see explanation above) there, too. Also, for some reason there are aged-looking elves in the show, though elves are not supposed to be aging to the point that they look like old people. The dialogues (and monologues) are often cringe and stupid - they often try hard to sound poetic, but lack substance and talent on the side of the writers. In some regard the show is more like "Dungeons & Dragons" meets "Middle Earth" than actual "Middle Earth". Visually, the show is often just a cheap uninspired copy of the aesthetics of the Peter Jackson movies. You can see the money they put in, but you can't see true inspiration or authentic artistic vision there. It doesn't do the show any good that it is not based on any stories actually written by Tolkien, but only on some references from the "Appendices" and it just uses some characters from "The Hobbit" and the Ring Trilogy. So this show tells a story with which the (seemingly rather talentless) writers came up themselves which feels like bad fan-fiction (which is essentially truly is). Bottom Line/Conclusion: It could have worked as some fantasy TV show that is not based on Tolkien's works - for people who get along with this vision (inspired a lot by certain ideology and modern day conditions) of a fantasy world. I personally would have perceived such a show somewhat polished, but essentially mediocre and accordingly would have been my rating; and then I would have ignored the show for the rest of its lifetime. But as this show is supposed to represent "Middle Earth" from the according works of Tolkien, one simply has to acknowledge and point out that it is a big failure. The majority of Tolkien fans reject this bastardization of Tolkien's source material, and they do this for good reasons.

I have loved to see the imperfection, the weaknesses of characters like Galadriel and Sauron himself who are almost in their beginnings and it is logical that they have many weaknesses. I think the fandom that thinks negatively is wrong because they see Galadriel omnipotent and she is not at all, if something has shown both, Galadriel and Sauron, is that they have suffered many defeats and from there they grow and are forged as characters almost Gods to whom we have so much respect and admiration. Many negative criticisms are subjective and lack of vision but we know what will happen, Sauron will win and achieve his goal by walking in the face of all, how it happens is what could be criticized but that Tolkien was basically what he wrote and I see it well executed in the series.

"And as I always say, since it sent most of J.R.R. Tolkien fans back to the legendary The Lord of the Rings books, the arrival of The Rings of Power can only be seen as a good thing". Read more (Greek content): https://www.depart.gr/lord-of-rings-rings-of-power-season-1-review/