Amazon has put out some good series; Jack Ryan, Man in the High castle, The Boys, Good Omens.

I am hoping LOTR is more like these than WOT.

I haven't read the books (or I might have read one of them way back when, can't recall), but it was nice to find something that wasn't a romcom that my wife would watch, so....

Plus, it is pretty visually stunning at times, and I thought Rosamund Pike was very good, as she usually is.

I mean I guess the people who made it read the books but it sure seemed hard to tell. I really enjoyed the books so maybe was looking for something closer to a LOTR like adaptation and was horribly disappointed.

But I found the Amazon series to be totally confusing - I was trying to relate it back to the book (or books) as they made some pretty big changes to characters and plot. My son read WOT over xmas break confirmed my frustration.

I think the series is good as a stand alone for an audience that does not want to take time to read the book. Sort of like the Hobbit films. I prefer the book(s)....

and made a script based on highlights from those chapters.

The last thing anyone needs is a middle-earth miniseries trying to grab "softcore porn with swords" viewers.

I think they will focus on Sauron’s creation of all the rings, the eventual fall of Númenor, and then Isildur reclaiming the ring. A nice full circle. A ring, almost.

Sauron made the one ring halfway through the second age, and completely controlled the other rings within a hundred years after that. The 9 started showing up about 400 years after the creation of the One. He didn’t cause the collapse of Númenor for almost 1500 years later, and that was the peak of civilization at the time. It took him a long time to work his influence. There’s thousands of years for the writers to work with on the history of the “lesser” rings, how it led to the fall of Man(Númenoreans moving to Middle Earth), and then their “redemption” with Isildur (heir of Númenor).

Yes, I am a little excited for this one.

Meta note: I believe they are limited to the rights in The Silmarillion and maybe Unfinished Tales.

Season 1 will start to focus on Isildur as one of the main characters midway through the season, and will also focus on Galadriel. One of the interesting things I read was that there will be some scenes around the migration of Galadriel and the Noldor to Middle Earth - but didn't that happen during the Years of the Trees? So maybe flashbacks.

For as much consternation there has been about 'lore changes' in this series, I think people are forgetting this is a tv show that will be watched mostly by people who have never heard the stories and don't know much of anything they didn't see in the LOTR or Hobbit trilogies. And who cares if we see Galadriel visiting Numenor?

a tree....


And that is the only part I remember of "Bored of the Rings" by the Harvard Lampoon...