Lord of the Rings TV series gets multi-season order at Amazon

[Andsigil]

This video made me even more pessimistic about Amazon's series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSU9waCPMX4

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Andsigil

This video made me even more pessimistic about Amazon's series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSU9waCPMX4

I don't know that any information there should make us feel any worse about how the series will turn out. I think it just provides more confirmation of what we already knew.

What is dismaying, however, is that by comparison PJ, who savaged Tolkien's works with reckless abandon, is now being held up as the epitome of honoring Tolkien.

What a sick world we live in.

[Zigûr]

If the show does "fail" by some measurable standard, which I actually think it will, it will be because of over-investment, poor marketing, a lack of interest among the viewing public and the over-saturation of streaming service options.

Personally even if it weren't for the fact that I don't want to watch some dubious reinterpretation of Professor Tolkien's writings, I certainly have no intention of subscribing to a streaming service owned by Amazon, one of the most evil and exploitative corporations in the world today.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

I think beyond any of those, it will fail due to clueless showrunners and hack writers. It will be, to borrow from Douglas Adams, something almost, but not entirely, unlike Tolkien.

[Galadriel55]

Personally, I was going to watch the series (subscribe to a streaming service? Not if I can avoid it) - ignoring the Tolkien connection and just seeing what they come up with. Once it's out, I'm happy to give it a try on behalf of the lot of us Downers and then bring back report. Though, if anyone is expecting Tolkien, I rather fear they might be disappointed.

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by William Cloud Hicklin

I think beyond any of those, it will fail due to clueless showrunners and hack writers. It will be, to borrow from Douglas Adams, something almost, but not entirely, unlike Tolkien.

I can't imagine how it will possibly work in an artistic sense, admittedly, but I'm sure (as it always does with these things) it will initially be touted as the best thing ever made and then the pendulum will swing the other way and it will become the worst ever. Or maybe it will trip straight out of the gate. I suppose only time will tell.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by Zigûr

I can't imagine how it will possibly work in an artistic sense, admittedly, but I'm sure (as it always does with these things) it will initially be touted as the best thing ever made and then the pendulum will swing the other way and it will become the worst ever. Or maybe it will trip straight out of the gate. I suppose only time will tell.

If it's wildly successful, I fear it will be due to a disconnection with what I consider the "spirit" of Tolkien's works.

What I get from these books I can find nowhere in contemporary culture, and with the current rush to dump everything older than ten years for the ideal of "progress", I am not at all hopeful the show would have anything for me to appreciate.

[Legate of Amon Lanc]

Originally Posted by Galadriel55

Personally, I was going to watch the series (subscribe to a streaming service? Not if I can avoid it) - ignoring the Tolkien connection and just seeing what they come up with. Once it's out, I'm happy to give it a try on behalf of the lot of us Downers and then bring back report. Though, if anyone is expecting Tolkien, I rather fear they might be disappointed.

My question is, how can anyone expect Tolkien from anything besides the books themselves? Okay, perhaps I am being hypocritical here - I myself find Tolkien in some paintings (but one could argue that those are static and only offer an illustration to the text itself, and only to a certain moment) and I found it in a card game (well, that had illustrations - so the same as above - and flavour text from the books) and tabletop roleplaying games (where the chief component is one's imagination).

But a film - or a series - has the problem that it offers a "whole package" and does not leave anything to imagination. Even if it somehow managed to be 100% faithful to Tolkien in spirit (to be fair, I would be happy with, say, 60%; or more than 50%, which is something that gets close to what PJ managed - but already that does not qualify as Tolkien, in my book. And yes, I know I am very strict about this), so, even if it succeeded, it would be visually and in terms of atmosphere probably completely different from what I perceive to be "Tolkien". And if by some miracle myself and the director have the same vision, then fifty other people won't.

I am always reminded of this quote from On Fairy-Stories:

Originally Posted by On Fairy-Stories

Should the story say “he ate bread,” the dramatic producer or painter can only show ”a piece of bread” according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own. If a story says “he climbed a hill and saw a river in the valley below,” the illustrator may catch, or nearly catch, his own vision of such a scene; but every hearer of the words will have his own picture.

So, no, I am certainly never expecting Tolkien and absolutely not "my" Tolkien. It will, at best, be a decent adaptation - or in this case, a decent "fanfiction". Likely I will perceive it about as close to Tolkien as I would a handheld console game from thirty years ago composed of four brown pixels that are supposed to be Orcs. (That hypothetical game could actually be more satisfying to me as it would leave more to imagination.)

Originally Posted by Zigûr

I can't imagine how it will possibly work in an artistic sense, admittedly, but I'm sure (as it always does with these things) it will initially be touted as the best thing ever made and then the pendulum will swing the other way and it will become the worst ever. Or maybe it will trip straight out of the gate. I suppose only time will tell.

Very interesting. My approach is usually the other way around: I am repulsed (and usually do not desire to watch it in the first place), then I may grudgingly admit that it has some good points. Eventually I may grow to accept that it is not that bad, and even though it is not Tolkien, it deserves recognition for the work put into it and for the parts where the creators clearly tried. (That, if I have to spell it out, was literally how I felt about PJ's films.)

[Kuruharan]

Originally Posted by Legate of Amon Lanc

My question is, how can anyone expect Tolkien from anything besides the books themselves?

But this is being sold as offering something of the sort. The consumer bases their choices on the statements of the marketing.

What we are pointing out here is that Amazon is engaging in what might be referred to as terminologial inexactitude motivated by greed for gain.