What TV series are you currently watching?

[Roy Bland]

[Wanderer]

What are you asserting?  That the "cheese" I mentioned is actually the fault of the Tolkien Estate?  If so they have certainly succumbed to greed.

Sorry but I cannot, (as a Tolkien fan of many decades), agree with the gratuitous creation of a character like 'Adar' or the role of Galadriel as a battlefield leader which is totally unhinted at in any Tolkien writing.  For that matter the self-realization of Gandalf is total invention as is the existence or any role of Hobbits in the 2nd Age.

Allowing that some compression of Tolkien's timeframes is inevitable and likewise the contrived DEI, "filling in" details of Tolkien's terse outline in the Silmarillion must at least be consistent with that grand narrative.

As for the production per se, I must say Charles Edwards is very good as Celebrimbor but otherwise the characters, including Galadriel, Sauron, and Adar, are pretty cardboard.  The whole thing comes across typical overblown, juvenile fantasy fare.

It's the second time you're doing it, so I'm just going to say that I do not care for the tone you're assuming when addressing my posts. I'm sure you are capable of voicing whatever reservations you have about ROP without trying to invalidate my opinion under pretense of an erudition that you obviously do not possess.

You may call yourself a Tolkien "fan" "of many decades", but in all those decades and by your own admission earlier you were seemingly not fan enough to actually read Tolkien beyond the basics (I assume you've just read LOTR, the Hobbit, the Silmarillion and maybe Unfinished Tales?). As for me, Tolkien is a much beloved writer since my early teens and I have read *everything* he wrote: including the multi-tome opus of his collected writings edited and published by Christopher Tolkien, as well as his published letters, in which he gives much insight on several questions about characters, stories and the philosophy behind his mythology - because that's how he saw it, a mythological substrate upon which others would add in later years. Thus, I can safely say that those things that you mentioned as incompatible with Tolkien are actually based on Tolkien's writings - just not the writings that you happen to have read. Adar, for example, is a fascinating glimpse into the creation of Orcs: one of those first Elves captured by Morgoth to be tortured and twisted and become their progenitors (and Tolkien was by the end of his life loath of the circulating notion that Orcs, though corrupted, were irredeemable representations of evil and incapable of salvation - the Adar storyline is a very poignant depiction of this). Likewise, younger Galadriel was paralleled by Tolkien himself to an Amazon (I trust you're aware what Amazons were in Greek mythology).

Furthermore, I somehow find the notion that the Tolkien Estate, the prime directive of which is safeguarding Tolkien's legacy, a mission that to my knowledge they've always taken very seriously, and which contractually demanded to have creative control and veto powers over everything script-related in ROP, would endanger their reputation and Tolkien's legacy for money, rather naïve. I'd think that a money-grab would be more like giving the OK on what Netflix and other studios wanted to do instead (and for which they gave more money: Amazon's was not the highest offer): spin-offs of the LOTR movies à la Marvel or Disney. The Estate preferred Amazon instead because they pitched to make a Second Age depiction, because they committed to bring it to fruition in several seasons no matter what, and because, a very crucial point, they were willing to accept relinquishing creative control and veto power to the Estate over the series' scripts to ensure validity to Tolkien. For this, they rejected the highest paying offer, which I believe was the one by Netflix. The money-grab accusation looks more like a baseless assumption thrown by a section of the internet's wonderfully clamorous community otherwise known as toxic fandom in order to bypass the fact that the Tolkien Estate does indeed regard the show to be respectful of Tolkien's work.

That said, you have every right not to like some or all of the show's creative choices (that's a matter of taste, I have my own dislikes on some of those aspects as well), but trying to justify it by maintaining that they are not respecting Tolkien's work is just incorrect. There's much wonderful and fascinating Tolkien that you have not read (given your chosen Tolkien-derived screen name, I was rather incredulous that you so summarily rejected it in a previous post of yours) and which the show is full of references of. I suggest you read it.

Also: "contrived DEI"? Is this really a hang-up of yours? If you're one of those "critics" hatepiling on ROP under false pretenses because what they really are is anti-Amazon (good for you, but irrelevant to the show) or anti-"woke" ("Black Elves! The horror!"), then good luck with that. 😁
I've similarly also read "critics" in all seriousness and very vociferously denouncing ROP's Elven hairstyles (#wtf level of missing the point, any point) or being offended by the fact that ROP Elves don't act and talk in slo-mo like in the Jackson films. Oh, well.

[vandermolen]

A fun documentary:

I loved that series.

[Iota]

I loved that series.

As did I. A Batman cape and mask given to me about age seven, brought untold joys into my life.

[Bachtoven]

Slow Horses season 4, Spooks/MI5 season 8, and Bosch Season 3.

[Bachtoven]

The first episode of the new series Ludwig. Of course, with such a title, the music inevitably contains numerous quotes and references to Beethoven.

Dang, I don't think it's available in the US yet. If so, could someone kindly tell me which streaming service has it? I've searched Amazon Prime and Netflix so far.

[Karl Henning]

I loved that series.

Such an unalloyedly good time!

[DavidW]

@Wanderer @Fëanor Looks like I'll have to watch it myself! What a contentious show!

Well I have too many shows I'm juggling right now. X-Files, Slow Horses, Death and Other Details, and I ramble through multiple mystery shows on Britbox... so when I finish one of those, I'll put on Rings of Power.

[drogulus]

Slow Horses season 4, Spooks/MI5 season 8, and Bosch Season 3.

     I enjoyed MI5 all the way through, though it was never the same after Tom, Danny and Zoe were gone. There's a nice scene in an episode where Tom is undercover and a baddie asks if he has any children and he replies he has two named Danny and Zoe. What made it nice is he really felt that way about them.

[NumberSix]

Dang, I don't think it's available in the US yet. If so, could someone kindly tell me which streaming service has it? I've searched Amazon Prime and Netflix so far.

Looks like its on BBC iPlayer. I changed my VPN to the UK, and registered a new account.

And then it said I had to have a BBC license, which of course I am not going to buy even if the site allowed me to do so (which it probably doesn't since I wouldn't have a British billing address).

Oh, well. It'll probably be on Britbox soon enough. Or you can get it from your friends online. I found it pretty easily, if you're into that sort of approach. 

[Bachtoven]

Looks like its on BBC iPlayer. I changed my VPN to the UK, and registered a new account.

And then it said I had to have a BBC license, which of course I am not going to buy even if the site allowed me to do so (which it probably doesn't since I wouldn't have a British billing address).

Oh, well. It'll probably be on Britbox soon enough. Or you can get it from your friends online. I found it pretty easily, if you're into that sort of approach. 

I'll wait for Britbox or Acorn TV.

[NumberSix]

I'll wait for Britbox or Acorn TV.

Indeed. I just thought it was a good excuse to see if I really could make it work with VPN.

Not so much.

[vandermolen]

As did I. A Batman cape and mask given to me about age seven, brought untold joys into my life.

Not to forget the Corgi Batmobile car!

[Iota]

Not to forget the Corgi Batmobile car!

I couldn't possibly forget it, I was besotted by it!

Actually it was given to me for Christmas when I was five, and I don't know if you remember but it fired little pellets out of the silver gun barrels at the back. And that Christmas Day we went to church and believe it or not were sitting right in front of Harold Wilson who was Prime Minister at the time! And during the service the five-year-old me was running his new Batmobile up and down the ledge on the back of the pew and decided to try out his new pellet-firer ... When my mother looked round and saw what was happening she was utterly mortified, offering frantic whispered apologies, and I was put firmly back in my seat.
Then, in a gesture that made me have an affection for him that endures to this day, at the end of the service Harold Wilson came up to us and started asking me about the car, saying to my parents it had been no problem, he loved Batman too and watched it every week and loved my car.
All was forgiven and I met my first and only Prime Minister!  

[vandermolen]

I couldn't possibly forget it, I was besotted by it!

Actually it was given to me for Christmas when I was five, and I don't know if you remember but it fired little pellets out of the silver gun barrels at the back. And that Christmas Day we went to church and believe it or not were sitting right in front of Harold Wilson who was Prime Minister at the time! And during the service the five-year-old me was running his new Batmobile up and down the ledge on the back of the pew and decided to try out his new pellet-firer ... When my mother looked round and saw what was happening she was utterly mortified, offering frantic whispered apologies, and I was put firmly back in my seat.
Then, in a gesture that made me have an affection for him that endures to this day, at the end of the service Harold Wilson came up to us and started asking me about the car, saying to my parents it had been no problem, he loved Batman too and watched it every week and loved my car.
All was forgiven and I met my first and only Prime Minister!  

Such a great story! It reflects well on Wilson as well. Yes, of course I remember the Pellets (rockets) which fired out of the tubes - they were forever getting lost I recall.
My mother-in-law, a vicar's daughter, told me that, as a little girl, she was with her parents visiting a stately home in Yorkshire. She was playing a game of 'Nine Pins' on the floor when Neville Chamberlain (The Prime Minister) joined her for the game!

[Iota]

Such a great story! It reflects well on Wilson as well. Yes, of course I remember the Pellets (rockets) which fired out of the tubes - they were forever getting lost I recall.
My mother-in-law, a vicar's daughter, told me that, as a little girl, she was with her parents visiting a stately home in Yorkshire. She was playing a game of 'Nine Pins' on the floor when Neville Chamberlain (The Prime Minister) joined her for the game!

Haha, lovely story! There was so much less security around Prime Ministers' contact with the public back then. Clement Attlee apparently used to walk from the Houses of Parliament to his club for lunch when he was PM, imagine that happening now!
About ten years ago we were wandering in the wilds of Buckinghamshire and suddenly coming the other way Tony and Cherie Blair appeared, smiling broadly at us as if we knew them. A couple of seconds later two heavily armed police officers appeared from the trees following in their wake. This was well after he was PM, but it seems it was still deemed necessary to have constant security wherever he went. Must be a bit of a drag.

[Iota]

TD

Very pleased to see a third series of Industry appear on the iPlayer too. The first two were excellent. Tales of the agonies, egos and ambition of workers in the financial markets creating some intense drama along the way.

Well Bam! Straight back into the furnace in Series 3! So full-on and intense, excellent!

[Karl Henning]

The man who gave us "You bubble-headed boobie!"

[vandermolen]

Haha, lovely story! There was so much less security around Prime Ministers' contact with the public back then. Clement Attlee apparently used to walk from the Houses of Parliament to his club for lunch when he was PM, imagine that happening now!
About ten years ago we were wandering in the wilds of Buckinghamshire and suddenly coming the other way Tony and Cherie Blair appeared, smiling broadly at us as if we knew them. A couple of seconds later two heavily armed police officers appeared from the trees following in their wake. This was well after he was PM, but it seems it was still deemed necessary to have constant security wherever he went. Must be a bit of a drag.

Most interesting. You seem to be constantly in the presence of former or present Prime Ministers!  Apparently Attlee used to get the last underground train home from Westminster to Pinner rather than waste tax-payers money on a taxi.

[DavidW]

Oh, well. It'll probably be on Britbox soon enough.

There is a good chance it will end up there, but there is also Acorn, BBC America (which is folded into AMC+), and then some other British shows are split between Prime and Netflix.