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Reviews
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
Disappointed but not surprised
What else can you expect from Amazon thinking it can really do justice to a work such as Tolkien's by simply throwing money at it? I really wanted to like this series but I just couldn't; that "suspension of disbelief" never happened. Full disclosure, I have read the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, etc. So yes, I know the lore and no--absolutely no--this series does not follow the stories Tolkien wrote (the writers borrowed actual character names and then threw the rest of the source material in the bin) but pretending that I went into this series without all of that background, I still found the series difficult to enjoy.
First, too many concurrent storylines. Each episode jumps among up to four different plots and since each episode is only about an hour, this makes it difficult to "get into" something after only about 10-15 minutes.
Second, the storylines themselves fall flat. So much is being crammed into these almost bite-sized chunks of aforementioned storylines to move things forward but why? Why not take things more slowly and focus on letting the audience get to know the characters before rushing to the next thing? Which leads to my third complaint:
Third, the characters are either flat, unbelievable, or unlikable, with a few exceptions. Durin and Elendil are the best cast and acted characters in my opinion. Galadriel... Why was she written and acted to be so pugnacious and unlikable? She's still thousands of years old in the second age so the reason of "this is in her younger years" is absolutely trash. But that's getting into lore so moving on. The elves themselves were very disappointing both in their appearance and acting. Different skin tones for elves? Yes, bring it on. But short hair? No, come on. Did the costume department not get enough $ for good wigs? That's what it feels like, and also not enough money for more convincing armor for the Númenoreans.
Bottom line: Not the worst show to ever be made but it's also pretty boring in a lot areas. I didn't care about any of the characters, never teared up with them, didn't have any anxiety when danger was imminent. As the experience was all just "meh", again, it's pretty disappointing when you think of what could have been done with a billion dollars.
Teen Star Academy (2017)
It's so bad, all the positive reviews are from sock puppets
It's just awful. No kid or youth enjoys this. Give kids more credit for their intelligence levels, they can tell that the "story" is weak as well as the acting skills of literally every person in the cast. Probably the most "entertaining" part is the farting dog. I feel a little sorry for the kids who signed on to this project; I hope they had fun making it I guess.