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.

So the 'biggest' TV show ever made (at least in terms of cost of rights and production) has finally landed. I have given myself a while to digest what I have seen in the first two episodes before writing this.

Firstly, I am a big fan of the original source material, The Hobbit was the first book I bought with my 'own' pocket money at age eight, by ten I had read and re-read it and LoTRs endlessly.

Secondly, I am also a big fan of Peter Jackson's tireless work at adapting them into films (although the Hobbit unnecessary trilogy was slightly more annoying).

So, this had a lot to live up to.

For me it did, but not so much for others in my family. My wife and step-daughter both felt the first episode was quite tedious (even with the Snow Troll fight at the beginning). I actually enjoyed the slow pace and the sumptuous visuals.

There is such a sense of World established here, just as Jackson managed in his impressive early 2000s films. Obviously much of the design choices, and even some of the scripting have a lot to thank him and his crew for.

But this TV show is determined to be its own beast.

I think it benefits greatly from the fact that it is drawing largely from sketchy history in the Appendices, there is so much more here that we don't know about than that which we already have knowledge of.

It is possible to be grossly disappointed in an adaptation of a book when sections of your favourite parts are either excluded or radically changed.

Coming in with only a vague memory of what was in the Appendices, I find myself willing to let it all be instead of picking it apart in minute detail as I was doing for both The Hobbit and LoTRs films.

In other words, I don't think I have any preconceptions to spoil.

Go into watching this with that kind of open mind, and I think you will love it.

The second episode is a high 9 out of 10 as well, the trajectory seems very pleasing.

Also, the problems some people seem to have with casting are absurd as far as I am concerned. Tolkien was basing his world on our planet, meaning that there would be just as vast a different array of races and Ethnicities as we have now.

Just because he did not explicitly write it, doesn't mean it could not be. Also it is not like they are making such casting decisions with the big famous characters from the books, these are characters about which little was known.

But also, at the end of the day, it is fantasy fiction! How can you moan about someone's skin colour not being realistic when there are big dragons swooping about! Crazy.