Come for the two hour review of Rings of Power by a guy who has elvish on his wedding ring, stay for the Hbomberguy style twist into discussion of the way the far right uses the appearance of media criticism to radicalize vunrable young men and draw them into the manosphere.
I wholeheartedly agree. I’m glad that Amazon wanted to be ambitious, but there’s so much great fiction out there that hasn’t yet been adapted, even of other Tolkien stuff such as the Silmarillion (not exactly a story but still plenty of rich details about the world).
I will say, it at least goes down smooth as turn-your-brain-off entertainment if you are looking for something that just looks nice. A lower bar to clear, but I liked having something to fall back to when I ran out of House of the Dragon.
if you are looking for something that just looks nice
Honestly, the show can get by on looks alone for me. IMHO, it is the best-looking TV show ever made, by a significant margin.
Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy other parts of the show. The music was good, the acting was good, I loved the Harfoots (Harfeet?) in general, I loved Elrond and Durin. A lot of the side characters were charming. The opening sequence was inspired.
I think they missed the mark a bit with the “mystery” elements, though, and if they want me to give a shit about Kemen and Eärien, they’re going to need to try harder in S2. But I thoroughly enjoyed season 1 and I hope they stay the course in general.
This is why one might theoretically prefer to download videos through unofficial channels, even if they are already paying for them through official channels.
Totally theoretical, of course. Just a little thought exercise.
I would’ve passed on this before, but now I’m in. Thanks for the rec!
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/gJ6FRUO0ui0?si=ibebzJh9zRc6Ocn1
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
