Adrift

Actually found quite a bit of enjoyment out of it. Prince Durin and his wife were great additions and I loved the dialogue between them and Elrond. Nori continues to be my favorite character so far, and the scenes she had with that strange man from the fireball were fascinating. Arondir and Bronwyn grew on me this episode, and I even found Bronwyn's son to be entertaining. Some really good suspense moments throughout as well. Low point for me is Galadriel's story line. I don't find her likeable at all, and have no idea how she is gonna turn out to be the Galadriel we all love from Jackson's films.

I was so surprised by the difference in quality from the first and second episode, that I checked the writer for the 2nd, and low and behold, she was previously a BCS and BB writer. Doesn't surprise me that I found this episode to be much stronger.

It was a very good idea for Amazon to drop both episodes because if they dropped that 1st episode only, then I probably would've let this go by the wayside.

Adrift is a better episode than the choppy first, it is paced better, acted a little better and sets up the story going forwards. Like episode one, Nori is still the highlight so far, and I though the scenes with Elrond and Durin were pretty funny and well done. The scenes in Khazad-dûm were the best part of this episode, and they very much felt like they belonged in the Hobbit Trilogy. The sets and quality of the visuals during these scenes were fantastic, so props to the guys responsible for carrying these few episodes.

That being said, Galadriel is still boring, as is the elf warrior guy - Arondir and his weird relationship with Bronwyn.

We got an opening title, with was ok, but getting to hear Howard Shore do some more LotR music was a joy, and it's glad to see he hasn't lost his touch. The rest of the music, done by Bear McCreary is also very good, but this should be expected by the guy who composed the music to a much better Amazon show, The Outlander and the video game God of War.

Adrift was just fine, not great, not bad. I do hope the episodes get better going forwards, but I think Amazon should have released 3 episodes instead of 2, because I'm still not invested in these characters or the story.

The first episode was a coming-of-age survival tale set in Middle-Earth and now we've gone full-blown STRANGER THINGS where this show's version of Frodo and Sam (two girls) discover The Stranger, a bearded man version of "11" who, like David Bowie before him, fell to Earth, providing the most grounded of Fantasy franchises a dash of science-fiction...

Which isn't as bad as some of these pre-Hobbits' dialogue, one actually saying, "Your mom's gonna kill you..." What is this, The Bradyfoot Bunch?

Other stories borrow from either Waterworld where the younger version of JRR Tokein's forever young Elf Girl is basically a fight-loving Xena, and she meets a guy as, to use modern verbage... as HOT as she is, providing some of that soapy element common in just about any serial no matter the genre...

These two beauties actually do have chemistry and it doesn't feel forced, unlike the comic relief of a bawdy Dwarf who belches with pride and seems more of the cornball-cocky likes of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit films as opposed to his LOTR...

And his wife, ugh, is like someone from a bad situation comedy: The Honeymooners meets Martin... Really bad... Meanwhile Elrond, doing business with said dwarf, remains cool as a cucumber, doesn't have a lot going as he's super important being Elrond... but he looks the part okay...

Then there's The Walking Dead horror element in the third story about a Middle-Earth-hillbilly human village that's sort of wisely "guarded" by a Fantasy Kung Fu type wanderer, who happens to be black and he's elf, having an affair with the ligh skinned woman and, get this, their relationship is frowned-upon by local racists...

Herein it's because she's human and he's an Elf but really, this is one of several modern day sensibilities plunged into a world that should not resemble ours at all... And yet, not ALL of it does, which is a relief because while not perfect this could have been a lot worse....

The makers keep things basically basic, and have that all-important cliffhanger device down, the most important element in what turns a streaming series into a binging-series but... whether it's worth binging on... time will tell...

Unlike Jackson's LOTR, this story is not linear. There promises to be a lot of things going on.

Realizing that I watched Episode One three times, and yes, I noticed something more each viewing.

I'm now in the 36th minute of Episode Two, on my first.

What I'm pointing out, and what I fully expected, is a lot of information, and a lot to absorb.

I have found a series of essays, on different subjects for the Rings of Power. These gave me much insight of the show.

For example, just from the First episode I rushed to think the the Stranger in the flame was Gandalf, arriving. Wrong.

I do believe for those who will dedicate the time (such as those who are willing to watch the Twelve hours of the Trilogy) there will be much reward.

Though, I'm having a difficult time accepting Elves with short hair.

This episode was a good bit better than the first one, allthough it started kinda slow.

Again beautiful scenery,some nice music scores as well.

I still cant get over the fact that a 'mere' king has saying over who goes to the undying lands and who not and that Galadriel simply just jumped off the ship into the sea.

Durin and Disa were the most (and one of the actually few) likeable charackters till now.. I really dont see where this is supposed to be connected to Tolkien and it reminds me more of Narnia, or at least something like that that's targetet towards children/younger audience.

Let's see where this is going...