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.

So I gave episode 1 a 5/10. I thought it was messy and confusing. But this. This is good! The characters spring to life. Disa is freaking wonderful and the stranger is super mysterious (of course I'm 99% sure of who it is). There are some interesting character interactions. Especially the relationship between Durin and Elrond and how wonderful it is to see Moria in all its glory, although it's likely only gonna be for a short time.

I feel a lot more immersed in the character development and the stories. It makes me forget that the elves look a little weird. Especially Celebrimbor. He's a lord among elves, the master smith and he looks like a maester from Game of Thrones. That's sad. And I still think it's sad that Theo's (among others) sword would've looked so much better if they didn't have those unnecessary hilt guards on top of already existing hilt guards. So I have grievances with the costume and prop design, but as long as the show is good, its possible to see past that.

Is this show the best thing ever made? No. Would I even call this show good? I'm not so sure. But what we have gotten so far has been serviceable, and has exceeded my expectations, although they were low to begin with. What we have here is an absolutely stunningly shot show with good acting, but the story and pacing could us some work. With how these first two episodes went, being practically all set up, following multiple different stories, it is clear this show is building to something they are confident in. I believe it will only get better from here, but as of right now, the shows just ok. A shame to see so many people rating it a 1 star without having actually watched it, it is not THAT bad.

Well this episode was an overall improvement on the first episode.

The human character's, the elf Arondir and the Dwarves are good or maybe it's just because they can actually act??

There was actually a moment of tension in this episode where I felt invested for the first time.

The weakest link in the show is still Galadrial however. She's the worst character and the worst actor in the show but supposed to be the main character. Which could be a big problem.

Will the show switch focus in order to save it? .

Less Lenny Henry was also an improvement.

Am I damning this with feint praise? I'm unsure.

Tune in next time...