A Shadow of the Past

The emotional sincerity, ethereal atmosphere, and pure fantasy excitement of Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy is perfectly captured here. The characters are quickly likeable, the visuals and special-effects are stunning (completely destroying the line between film & TV production), the dialogue is poetic, and overall, it's an incredibly tight script that establishes the world, story and characters in a concise and engaging manner. It's such a joy to be back in Middle-Earth, guided by hands that are clearly pouring a lot of care and heart into this project. I can't wait to see where this show goes.

So, this is a TV series commissioned by Amazon with the bulk of the story lifted from the vague appendices from the Lord of The Rings books. So lets just say that there quite a lot of room for 'interpretation' and that's not a bad thing because most people haven't read or know of the content in those appendices which is a great basis for a spoiler free experience. The acting is adequate, the costumes and visuals are stunning/beautiful, getting the pre-LOTR / The Hobbit era just right where everything seems just a tad more primitive than the settings for the books we all know and love. The first episode covers the usual drama tropes i.e. Defiance of authority and tradition, forbidden love, an unseen enemy / ominous threat, revenge and to be honest it's handled quite well.

Now for the loaded question and that is that some more cynical out there have complained that there are breaches in the canon and lore of Tolkein when it comes to the 'appearance' and 'uniformity' of groups of characters in this production; I for one don't mind this as that to me is almost incidental (hey they did it partly in The Witcher and we all loved that); for me what is important is the story, character (as in motivation and persona) and the dramatization.

This production is not a 'Wheel of Time' (awful as that was I gave up on it and could not continue) and watching the 1st episode has compelled me to watch more.

Don't listen to the naysayers who wrote off this production before they saw it months ago, open your mind, sit back, relax and enjoy a wonderful fantasy adventure.

As much fun as it has been to revisit the realm of Westeros, this is the show that I have been dying to see, looking forward to the imminent return to Middle-earth and its creatures. A lot of fuzz has been made about the show and the liberties taken by Amazon, and I honestly couldn't care less as it seems like the same people who want to hate on anything, and would probably have hated on the films had social media been around back then. This first episode was an epic return to this world with new introductions to fascinating characters and a looming threat.

With the great love I have for Tolkien's novels, I was ready for this to be a different tale than what he ever wrote. And while the show is definitely not a one-to-one adaptation of his stories, it feels like a piece of Tolkien writing. J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay definitely brought out the big guns and wrote to the strengths of the characters, coming up with a first episode that sets up this giant world with multiple characters that I am excited to follow over the next few weeks. The beginning was great and kinda jumped over what I thought the show was, but the fact that I'm not sure what we're going to see is actually what makes me even more excited to tune in every week. For all the pacing issues that this episode had been accused of, I saddled in for a long ride, but actually found it to be rather smoothe. Sure, there are certain scenes that could have been a little shorter, but they never bothered me as I was fascinated by all the conversations the characters had and the level of detail the writers put into the language. The Elves take up a big part of this episode, but the Harfoots get some screen time and they are adorable. I'm glad that Morfydd Clark is getting a big role that people will see, because she is a massive talent and someone to look out for. She did great as Galadriel and is a promising lead for this.

"A Shadow of the Past" is a promising start to this show and sets the stage for whatever's to come and I'm here for it. All the characters feel like Tolkien creations and the world seems as ripe for stories as it did when Peter Jackson's films came out, so I'm very happy right now.

With controversy all across the internet about this show it was relieving to finally watch it and make my own opinion. As a massive fan of the movies ever since I was a child I had big expectations. The rings of power from a technical standpoint is pretty flawless. The CGI,practical effects,costumes and set designs were beautiful. The music while not as good as Howard Shores music is still effective and creates that different world kind of atmosphere. This episode was very exposity heavy and while much needed especially for the scale they are trying to achieve it did bog the episode down. The dialogue is great so farwhich something I was worried about. The story looks to be promising but as said this episode is just to start building. Overall a promising start and I can't wait to see more.

I always predicted this show will start by showing parts of 1st Age as a backflash in the 1st Episode (just like the original LOTR trilogy - where we started by getting a hint of War of the Last Alliance). And it did exactly that.

One of the main problems in Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy (specially the last part - Battle of the Five Armies) was it lacked character building. The show has started by giving a clear sign - that they have learnt from those mistakes. Though that makes the 1st Episode a little slower in pace - but so was the Fellowship!

Few of the other let downs in Hobbit trilogy was it always gave a feeling that the Dwarfs are having a fun-ride through the evil - few areas like the Goblin Cave / Bilbo's Trolls etc made the enemies look like Cartoon villains - which wasn't the case for the original LOTR trilogy.

Few of the scenes in this 1st Episode - clearly shows that the team isn't willing to let down - e.g. The mountain Troll scene.

And then comes the highlights - a show becomes an EPIC when you have scenes which you would want to see again and again - looking for more details. This 1st Episode already has that for me! The scene where Galadriel's team of Elf warriors reach the Utumno like evil fortress - we get a feeling like the Noldor's flight in the winter storm - when the team struggles through the storm in the dark - and then the EPIC shot of the fortress suddenly showing up in between the lightnings - I can see this scene again and again.

It's not Peter Jackson's work anymore - the show has already started leaving it's own mark - we're truly in the 2nd Age - A Shadow of the 1st Dark Lord Morgoth!

The only reason I cannot give it 10 is the way it treated the Elfs - short hairs - I really can't buy this.

They also don't sound like such a knowledgeable clan in some areas.

But this is a marathon - so I do hope that the showrunners will correct those at some point.

A must watch neverthless!