Supposedly there was a bidding war between HBO and Amazon that the latter won. Just imagine the excellent series we'd have been treated to had the former won the rights.
This was just so wrong on many levels. Tolkien's books were in many ways a reflection of the times he lived in and some of the dreadful experiences he had suffered during war times. For instance the Dead Marshes were a reimagining of dead soldiers under water at the Somme. The series, in some of its characters, bore no resemblance to that long-ago England. Nor did the themes of industrialisation and its ruinous effects appear.
A billion was spent on this. Why could they not have commissioned armour that looked the real thing rather than cheap plastic? The headguards for the Numenorian horses were particularly ridiculous.
More of this largesse should have been spent on plot development and scriptwriting as well as characterisation.
The various races - Elves, Men, Dwarves, Harfoots, Orcs - were assigned their own accents and a pig's ear they made of it too. The elves, attempting Received Pronunciation, made glaring errors that the voice coaches and checkers didn't pick up on. "Proh-ject" instead of "project" was one that sticks in the mind. But as for the cod-Irish accents of the leprechauns, sorry Harfoots, and the embarrassing Scottish accents of the dwarves, these were laughable. The Orcs were not speaking Cockney, as some have asserted, but a strangled south London accent that was obviously put on as badly as the Oirish and Scotch travesties.
Then there are the utter impossibilities that happened. The same character attempts to swim a thousand miles as well as later surviving a pyroclastic flow without a single blemish. Elves are immortal, not indestructible. One character suffers a mortal wound and needs Elvish medicine but somehow manages a six-day horse ride to get it.
Despite red herrings, I knew 100% who Sauron was very early on. I shan't say when or how as I don't want to leave clues but how Galadriel didn't guess is beyond me.
And then the Harfoots. What were they for? We could have had better plot development and more time for what was so sorely lacking in other departments without their aimless presence.
OK, I watched it all so it gets a three. I just don't agree that it got better in the final three episodes. To me, it became more absurd and superficial. I'm not sure that I'll particularly rush to get the second season.
