Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

[Frustration]

The firing of the scholar hired to assist with the Tolkien lore, AND the entire writing staff, should have been a serious warning sign.

This show has failed on everything, everything, but scenery and music. Fight choreography, dialog, plotting, acting - it's all awful. A group of high-school drama enthusiasts would have demonstrated considerably more competence. Most fanfic is better written than this stuff. Random YouTube commenters have suggested alternate versions of scenes that make considerably more sense than what made it onto the screen.

[Lazerlike42]

I'm hearing a lot of rumours that this has been a financial loss for Amazon. Or at least, it hasn't made them too many bags of money with dollar signs on them.

I actually don't understand the economics here. How is Amazon supposed to make money off of something like this; isn't it all in subscriptions? If so, what is a series like this supposed to do: get more people to subscribe? Get more people to keep up their subscription?

What exactly constitutes a loss for them after a month or two of airing a streaming series?

[Lazerlike42]

The firing of the scholar hired to assist with the Tolkien lore, AND the entire writing staff, should have been a serious warning sign.

This show has failed on everything, everything, but scenery and music. Fight choreography, dialog, plotting, acting - it's all awful. A group of high-school drama enthusiasts would have demonstrated considerably more competence. Most fanfic is better written than this stuff. Random YouTube commenters have suggested alternate versions of scenes that make considerably more sense than what made it onto the screen.

I am very curious as to what their motivation for doing this sort of stuff would be. The most common answer you might see from critics out there is that they wanted to push woke messages and those folks weren't on board, but if we set that aside what sorts of other reasons might be the answer? In other words, if it's not about politics, what is it that Amazon wanted that these people weren't giving them?

[McAvoy]

The firing of the scholar hired to assist with the Tolkien lore, AND the entire writing staff, should have been a serious warning sign.

This show has failed on everything, everything, but scenery and music. Fight choreography, dialog, plotting, acting - it's all awful. A group of high-school drama enthusiasts would have demonstrated considerably more competence. Most fanfic is better written than this stuff. Random YouTube commenters have suggested alternate versions of scenes that make considerably more sense than what made it onto the screen.

I am very curious as to what their motivation for doing this sort of stuff would be. The most common answer you might see from critics out there is that they wanted to push woke messages and those folks weren't on board, but if we set that aside what sorts of other reasons might be the answer? In other words, if it's not about politics, what is it that Amazon wanted that these people weren't giving them?

Doubtful it has anything to do with so called woke politics being pushed onto the unsuspected masses.

Maybe it has more to do with expanding Amazon more into the TV world and getting a flagship series. Lord of the Rings seems like good series to use.

Yeah I am not sure how they would make money off of this series. Gaining more Amazon Prime members? You got a better chance at getting more of them through Thursday Night Football since that isn't being aired on the regular channels now.

Also not that hard to borrow a family member's Amazon Prime account to watch the show. My parents have mine so they can watch on Prime and my Dad to watch Thursday Night Football.

[Lazerlike42]

Maybe it has more to do with expanding Amazon more into the TV world and getting a flagship series. Lord of the Rings seems like good series to use.

Surely this is the reason for making the series, but I wonder if my question was misunderstood. I am not wondering why Amazon wanted to make such a series, but what there was to be gained from firing the Tolkien expert and the original writers.

In fact, assuming their goal was to get a flagship series, wouldn't it make more sense to keep the experts around to make sure that the series turns out as strong as possible?

[TGLS]

Presumably the consultants kept bringing up Tom Bombadil.

[clearspira]

I'm hearing a lot of rumours that this has been a financial loss for Amazon. Or at least, it hasn't made them too many bags of money with dollar signs on them.

I actually don't understand the economics here. How is Amazon supposed to make money off of something like this; isn't it all in subscriptions? If so, what is a series like this supposed to do: get more people to subscribe? Get more people to keep up their subscription?

What exactly constitutes a loss for them after a month or two of airing a streaming series?

Its subscriptions, yes. That's how Star Trek is rated too. You get subs tuning in to watch the show who hopefully stay. Thing is, its well known that you get most of your viewers on launch and then suffer diminishing returns. Its unlikely that a show halfway through its first season is now going to suddenly get a substantial uptick.

[clearspira]

The firing of the scholar hired to assist with the Tolkien lore, AND the entire writing staff, should have been a serious warning sign.

This show has failed on everything, everything, but scenery and music. Fight choreography, dialog, plotting, acting - it's all awful. A group of high-school drama enthusiasts would have demonstrated considerably more competence. Most fanfic is better written than this stuff. Random YouTube commenters have suggested alternate versions of scenes that make considerably more sense than what made it onto the screen.

I am very curious as to what their motivation for doing this sort of stuff would be. The most common answer you might see from critics out there is that they wanted to push woke messages and those folks weren't on board, but if we set that aside what sorts of other reasons might be the answer? In other words, if it's not about politics, what is it that Amazon wanted that these people weren't giving them?

Doubtful it has anything to do with so called woke politics being pushed onto the unsuspected masses.

Maybe it has more to do with expanding Amazon more into the TV world and getting a flagship series. Lord of the Rings seems like good series to use.

Yeah I am not sure how they would make money off of this series. Gaining more Amazon Prime members? You got a better chance at getting more of them through Thursday Night Football since that isn't being aired on the regular channels now.

Also not that hard to borrow a family member's Amazon Prime account to watch the show. My parents have mine so they can watch on Prime and my Dad to watch Thursday Night Football.

I'm the ''Go Woke, Go Broke'' guy and I don't believe that's what is happening here. Its everything else that Frustration just mentioned. Its hard to see where the budget for this show went. And when it comes down to it, Game of Thrones is just inarguably better than this. Amazon is selling us an inferior product.

[hammerofglass]

Subscriptions seem super unreliable as a ratings system for Amazon. I originally got a Prime subscription because it saved me money on shipping, the streaming service wasn't even a thing yet.

[TGLS]

Its subscriptions, yes. That's how Star Trek is rated too.

I dunno; pretty much everyone who would sign up for Paramount+ for Lower Decks or Strange New Worlds probably already signed up for Paramount+ for Discovery or Picard, or anyone who would sign up for Disney+ to see Andor probably already signed up for The Mandalorian.