Lord of the Rings TV series gets multi-season order at Amazon

[Boromir88]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

And actually, I think I mainly won't mind giving this show a try at least. What would bug me most is if people will insist that it's "based on Tolkien", when it can't even be said to be Tolkien-inspired without a stretch. The favourite argument, it's all in the "appendices". The unfinished part of Unfinished Tales, you know.

Oh I can't wait for all the self-titled "experts" (on both sides) to come out of the woodwork either for or against the series.

Of course, as has been mentioned by several others, I was expecting a temporary surge in activity from The Hobbit films and that just never happened. In my opinion, it never happened because The Hobbit films just weren't that entertaining. The Lord of the Rings films you got a marmite reaction to that a lot of people either really loved or really hated them. And I will defend the LOTR movies from the naysayers to this day.

The amount of money going into the series doesn't indicate to me if it will be good or not, but I do feel like the creators are taking their time with it, which is a bigger indicator. The Hobbit had a director change part way through and then the studio wouldn't give an extension on the release date, which made definitely Desolation of Smaug and The Battle of Five Armies rushed. You can just tell even in the editing process, they rushed it and didn't take the same time and care as they did with the LOTR trilogy.

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

I think it actually got better, in that sense. I feel like in the latter seasons the sex scenes were more, um, significant to the storyline? I suppose the consequence of having too much story for your time and budget is that you cut out the unnecessary porn. While waiting for the final season, I rewatched some of season 1 and was surprised at how much sex there was that served no purpose other than to make you uncomfortable. They definitely weaned the sex scenes towards the end.

I think there are two points to be made about this.

The first is that there seems to have been an expectation that, it being HBO, they had to have nudity and casual sex in the show to establish the audience.

The second is that I fear that same expectation will be in place for the Amazon show (even though that is not HBO) because the trope now seems to have been codified, and reinforced by The Witcher that fantasy TV shows must come with nudity and casual sex as a de rigueur part of the offering.

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

Speaking as someone who watched all of GoT, most of it sympathetically, and was very much disappointed by the ending, nudity had nothing to do with said disappointment.

Well, I have to admit, one of the things that kind of turned me off from wanting to watch the show into Season Three was I did not want to watch the Theon torture porn that I knew was coming. After that, as it became more and more obvious reading the various online analysis, that the show writers were drifting further and further from the source material I had very little motivation to go back. I also became steadily more irritated as the show staggered toward its end at the level of ineptitude and military incompetence they put into the show that in a way I was delighted it collapsed into such a widely ridiculed dumpster fire in the end.

Although, I also feel quite vindicated because I called Dany's ultimate storyline trajectory years ago.

EDIT: Also there was the factor of the show ultimately running out of source material, and there seems wide consensus that the show got worse after that point.

Maybe we'll even get treated to some Annatar/Celebrimbor slash? [/channeling Ivriniel]

At the very least, I would assume.

Originally Posted by Boromir88

And I will defend the LOTR movies from the naysayers to this day.

Once more into the breach!!

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by Boromir88

The amount of money going into the series doesn't indicate to me if it will be good or not, but I do feel like the creators are taking their time with it, which is a bigger

That was just COVID.

[Andsigil]

This video made me even more pessimistic about Amazon's series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSU9waCPMX4

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

This video made me even more pessimistic about Amazon's series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSU9waCPMX4

I don't know that any information there should make us feel any worse about how the series will turn out. I think it just provides more confirmation of what we already knew.

What is dismaying, however, is that by comparison PJ, who savaged Tolkien's works with reckless abandon, is now being held up as the epitome of honoring Tolkien.

What a sick world we live in.

[Zigûr]

If the show does "fail" by some measurable standard, which I actually think it will, it will be because of over-investment, poor marketing, a lack of interest among the viewing public and the over-saturation of streaming service options.

Personally even if it weren't for the fact that I don't want to watch some dubious reinterpretation of Professor Tolkien's writings, I certainly have no intention of subscribing to a streaming service owned by Amazon, one of the most evil and exploitative corporations in the world today.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I think beyond any of those, it will fail due to clueless showrunners and hack writers. It will be, to borrow from Douglas Adams, something almost, but not entirely, unlike Tolkien.

[Galadriel55]

Personally, I was going to watch the series (subscribe to a streaming service? Not if I can avoid it) - ignoring the Tolkien connection and just seeing what they come up with. Once it's out, I'm happy to give it a try on behalf of the lot of us Downers and then bring back report. Though, if anyone is expecting Tolkien, I rather fear they might be disappointed.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I think beyond any of those, it will fail due to clueless showrunners and hack writers. It will be, to borrow from Douglas Adams, something almost, but not entirely, unlike Tolkien.

I can't imagine how it will possibly work in an artistic sense, admittedly, but I'm sure (as it always does with these things) it will initially be touted as the best thing ever made and then the pendulum will swing the other way and it will become the worst ever. Or maybe it will trip straight out of the gate. I suppose only time will tell.