I read a lot of negative feedback on the show and it was really hard to stay open-minded about it when I started watching. I am by no means a hardcore Tolkien fan or even a fan at all, but I was initially put off by the reviews that made a huge emphasis on the
wokeness of the series. But after giving it a try I can surely tell that there is no such message at least in the first 2 episodes. I guess some visual markers triggered a reaction in some individuals, leading to some sort of rushed points made. I guess it just was a convenient scapegoat and it happened to be one because of an incredibly poor marketing that highlighted wrong things. My thoughts:
- Visually I liked it. It is not a breakthrough by all means, but it is pretty and flashy.
- It sticks with the formula of several separate stories/povs which I think worked poorly. The pacing felt incredibly unstable to me - sometimes rushed (Elf/Healer), sometimes slow (Harfoot/Wizard). In LotR everything felt so organic because the plot started as a whole and then broke down into several smaller ones. Here it sometimes feels like a mess.
- The exposition itself was not my cup of tea, it tried to appear interesting through plot-driving events, not through interesting writing or characterization.
- I liked Elrond and Durin plot in all aspects, it was not spectacular, but it was very good. Actors did a real job of building up their characters and solid writing helped as well. I liked Disa as well, I think she did a pretty good job as an actress portraying a female dwarf princess.
- I didn't like Elf/Healer plot and I completely disliked Galadriel's plot. The actress did such a poor job, she slipped through half the scenes with a poker face, this resulted in a shallow depiction of a character, a very poor introduction, imo. In the Elf/Healer plot the depiction of human village was very uninspired, there were no mood shots, humans are wearing weird sheepskin coats and half-torn rags and act like morons with 1 brain cell, it all looks so cheap and made-up, idk.
- Contrary to the human costumes, I liked how they did elven armor and weapons a lot, they really felt very light yet hard to penetrate. Costume quality varies - from very poor to spectacular.
- A racial mix felt really weird, because the show clearly depicts that there are some proto races present (harfoots, petikanthropus retarded humans). It is not logical that one area in middle earth historically formed such racial variety. This is what haters interpreted as wokeness, I guess? But to me it is just a poor world building. It is harder to believe in a world like this.
One minute the show is amazing, the next minute it is horrible, it really feels like a patchwork blanket. I'd give it 5/10 for now.
I agree that creative liberties can be a good thing and Larian do a good job with BG3 as of now. I think those are good parallels to showcase, thank you GM4Him.
