Yup, in most prequel series you know where you’re going to land, so there’s a huge pillar of engagement (ie “what’s gonna happen?”) just kicked out from under you. That means the performances and character work need to be on-point or it just becomes “meh.” Like I said, I didn’t hate s1. Prettyboy Sauron was engaging enough, the dwarfs were fun, and the protohobbits had some heart, even if they were baffling in many ways.
However, nothing came together quite right. The Elves are aloof and unengaging, the plot is on rails, and the specific era of the setting was never really meant to support the weight of person-scale storytelling, so the whole thing just felt like an extended video game cut scene.
I guess I’ll watch more eventually, but I’m in no rush.
I think it’s quite problematic that we already know basically all of the good guy main characters are in zero danger. There are some new characters, but none have a strong enough characterisation to really make me care about what happens to them. They can spend as much money on the big battle set pieces as they want, but without any real stakes these just feel like boring CGI padding to drag the story out and milk the audience for more money. This show has nowhere near enough depth to justify five seasons.
Yup, in most prequel series you know where you’re going to land, so there’s a huge pillar of engagement (ie “what’s gonna happen?”) just kicked out from under you. That means the performances and character work need to be on-point or it just becomes “meh.” Like I said, I didn’t hate s1. Prettyboy Sauron was engaging enough, the dwarfs were fun, and the protohobbits had some heart, even if they were baffling in many ways.
However, nothing came together quite right. The Elves are aloof and unengaging, the plot is on rails, and the specific era of the setting was never really meant to support the weight of person-scale storytelling, so the whole thing just felt like an extended video game cut scene.
I guess I’ll watch more eventually, but I’m in no rush.
I think it’s quite problematic that we already know basically all of the good guy main characters are in zero danger. There are some new characters, but none have a strong enough characterisation to really make me care about what happens to them. They can spend as much money on the big battle set pieces as they want, but without any real stakes these just feel like boring CGI padding to drag the story out and milk the audience for more money. This show has nowhere near enough depth to justify five seasons.