shrewd.buddha

Do Orcs have relationships, families, children? I was under the (maybe wrong) impression that they were creatures who were created by sorcery - - not a race a beings that could exist and thrive on their own. For some reason I thought Sauron had an Orc creation factory in one of the LotR movies. I did not think Orcs could create Orc offspring.

This may have been discussed in other forums (the book, spoiler forums), but I thought it worth mentioning here: I think the show runners are heading into controversial territory by making the Orcs a reasoning, talking race of "people" who are rallied into battle by a war speech by Adar to "take back their lands." I had thought the Orcs were supposed to be creatures/animals/demons created and used by a sorcerer as puppets. Making them sympathetic to any degree and giving them a reason to fight makes killing them offhandedly problematic. They are supposed to be like robots, aliens, vampires or zombies in other genre stories: mindless, evil killing machines that the "heroes" can kill in great numbers without any remorse. If would be one thing if Adar was insanely evil and in his warped mind he considers them to be his children who have hopes and dreams. But were are being shown that they do communicate and reason and can be influenced by a motivational speech -- they do not seem to be mindlessly evil creatures.

This show is so frustrating. The show runners want certain characters to have scenes together but don't bother having it make sense as to how they got there. How did Theo and Galadriel end up separated from the villagers? The 'previously' scene clearly showed Galadriel in the village. Were the Numenar soldiers and Queen Miriam in a different village looking for survivors? Galadriel did seem less rigid and obsessed and more empathetic and philosophical when she was alone with Theo. And the Orcs seem to transport wherever the show needs them - - always a new supply showing up as needed. Halbrand has an abdominal wound so serious, it requires Elfin magic. But he hops on a horse and rides off at full gallop. ?? And the instant worship of Halbrand by the villagers is very confusing. How is their king, exactly? Family name? The special key chain that could be stolen? (One of his featured traits is being a pickpocket.) The show runners want Galadriel and Halbrand to stay together for some reason. The reasons for Halbrand not staying with 'his people' were contrived. The Elfin magic should have been brought to him if he were so injured. Are only (maybe) kings worthy of receiving Elfin magic? There were a lot of burn victims and more injured people who couldn't walk, much less ride a horse. The Harfoots and Meteor Man story feels like it has dragged out too long. How were those new creepy wizard women (?) not able to catch up to Meteor Man with their abilities? They obviously didn't appreciate being blatantly lied to by Nori. Nori's Mom joins the very dangerous search party for Meteor Man, but leaves her husband and younger daughter behind? Weird. Elrond and Durin: enjoyable interaction but silly conflict. Would the Elfin race just decide to wither and die because the Dwarves don't want to mine in dangerous conditions? Wouldn't the Elves be willing to mine the mithril themselves for their own survival? Wouldn't they go to war to survive? How long do the Elves have to live? Would only the Elves in MiddleEarth die? Is there any tension as to whether the mithril will be mined or if the Elves will survive? Only one episode left. I am curious as to where the show runners will leave certain story lines. I feel sure there will be one or more major cliffhangers. For me, the problem with prequels is that for the most part we know where the story is going and how things are going to end up. The unknowns are just the people and details that were not mentioned in LotR and Hobbit movies/books.

Yes, as it was shown it didn't make sense. Adar didn't know an army was coming. He didn't know how large the army was or that his Orcs would be outnumbered. The fake bundle plan would have to have been made when Adar realized they were in trouble. Adar would have needed to make a fake bundle, locate the human and tell him what to do with the actual power object. There was no indication any of that had time to happen during the battle. Adar could have immediately handed off the hilt and tried to create as much of a distraction as possible to give the guy time to get to the special place and put the key in the lock.. but the writers made a mess of setting it up because they wanted a OMG moment that no one saw coming.

When Theo gave Adar the hilt, the Numenar army was already there. Adar and his human would have to had already planned the switch-out. Adar would have had to anticipate being chased and captured by an army he didn't expect. Waldreg would have to had been given instructions on how to use the hilt as the key as well as know the special location. Again, this could have seemed more plausible with just a few quick scenes added - even as flashbacks. Yes, things can be excused by saying "it's magic" , "it's a fantasy" or "a wizard did it". But these problems are not things like water being turned into wine, humans becoming werewolves or dragons existing. These are things like non-magical water flowing uphill, a horse calvary running at night in an unfamiliar place, Galadriel and Halbrand being told to not let Adar escape with that thing but never bothering to ask about or look at that thing and Arondir giving that thing to Theo instead of any of the adults or military leaders. I don't recall any of this type of illogical stuff happening in the LotR or Hobbit movies. (Did it?) It just seems like sloppy writing and editing. I still think LotR:tRoP is an entertaining show ... but it is also a hot mess.

This episode had a lot of action and special effects, which was impressive. That managed to distract from all the nonsense logic, which there was A LOT of: The object in the fake bundle was not a similar size, shape or weight as the original sword hilt. Theo was linked to the object and therefore knew where it was hidden and that it wasn't in the bundle. But why would the Elf Guy just give the bundle to Theo, unopened -- and why would Theo just stare at it and not immediately run to tell someone the hilt was gone? And there really wasn't enough time for Adar to switch out the bundles and tell his human helper what to do. It's not Lord of the Rings without an epic scene of a calvary arriving to save a group of people from certain death. But the timing and travel logistics did not add up. There should have been something about how the army knew the villagers were in trouble. A quick scene would have worked. Where are the eagles when you need them? The capture and interrogation of Adar was straight out of an old James Bond movie. Leave the prisoner tied up with no guards around so that he can escape -- because the plot needs the villain to constantly stay ahead of the good guys. They are really emphasizing the obsessed vigilante nature of Galadriel. Is she supposed to be the LotR version of Batman?!? The water hitting the magma could cause an explosion of steam but it would have also caused some cooling. That was a convoluted way of making is seem as if Adar could trigger a volcanic eruption with a system of tunnels. It seems ingenious - - but doesn't make sense. I don't want book spoilers, but I do wonder if some of this ridiculousness is the result of the writers not sticking to what was written in the books. They do seem to have put a lot of money into the special effects and action sequences, though..

Saw it - at an actual theater(!) And enjoyed it, for the most part. It seemed as if they were going for a parody of Hallmark movies. The movie worked well when it stuck to being a skewed rom-com. For me, one of the funniest scenes was when Luke MacFarlane's lawyer character was quitting his job (to make tiny chocolates) and met a co-worker who was also quitting that same day -- because she had done an imitation of Kamala Harris online that some people had liked. The 'Hallmark' notion of people following their dreams with no thought of financial consequences was spot-on. But Billy's character came off as pretty horrible when meeting Aaron's parents for the first time. If "being yourself" means having no awareness of other people's comfort level and never letting others talk, then I would also be okay with asking him to take it down a notch. For a professional organizer and fundraiser, he seemed clueless as to how to make a good first impression. Billy's character seemed to working through issues and trying to make points that didn't seem to fit with the rom-com theme. At the beginning, Billy's character even explains why he refused to write a typically happy gay romantic movie. But there were so many mixed messages, I couldn't tell if he had proven himself wrong at the end, or something else entirely. The movie seemed caught between defending the anything-goes sexual lifestyle while also showing Billy's character being unhappy having to constantly compromise his romantic expectations in order to accommodate Aaron's sexual interests. I'm not entirely sure I fully understand 'cis' , but the repeated 'apology' for merely being a "cis white gay man" felt like pandering and was tiresome. For decades people were told they shouldn't apologize for being what they are ... but now they should feel some guilt if they happen to be in a group that has some marginal mainstream acceptance? I like Billy Eichner, but it felt as is he was trying to please too many groups of people and ending up not satisfying enough of any of them.

When the Elf king asked if they had found it, Elrond had three choices: "Yes", "No", or "I don't know what you are talking about." But saying "I made a promise not to tell" is basically saying "Yes". You would think the writers would understand that. Galadriel has been doing all the planning in Numenor. Halbrand now has flashbacks of the Orcs, but it looks as if he could have given everyone much more information. "Oh yeah, maybe it would have helped if I had told you there were ten thousand Orcs instead of just a few hundred."

I wondered how Jubal would have reacted if any of his subordinates were taking personal calls during a crisis situation. So unprofessional. Also aggravating was when he kept insisting to his ex that he would "get that cake" even when he was going to drive to some distant location. He was making the birthday situation even worse. I can see how his manic behavior could have lead to his alcoholism. I feel sure Jubal's denial of his son's unhappiness is going to lead to something unfortunate. I was surprised this show went with the same exact bomb disposal technique so soon. That 2 minute bomb countdown was the longest 2 minutes, ever.

This episode seemed to have more forward momentum - - things seem to be headed somewhere. It felt very contrived that Adar would release Arondir of all the Orc's prisoners. Adar is giving him exactly what he wanted: the opportunity to rally an army of elves. It's not likely a defiant elf would encourage the humans to surrender. On the other side, it could be reasoned that Arondir was too much trouble to keep. Did Halbrand make an appearance in this episode? I'm not terribly excited about the prospect of a 'secret' king waiting to be discovered. It feels like such a cliché in the Sword and Sorcery fantasy genre. People seem to love being ruled by other people who's main qualification is being born in the correct order (and usually, the correct sex) of some other ruler. It must be a British/European thing... Elendil's (the ship guy) son, Isildur (?) seem to take the cowardly way out of his naval training career. But there was no scene of his father finding out about that before Isildur was the first to volunteer for his father's quest to .. do something..? (contact the elves? sail to the SouthLands?) The Queen's speech to the Numenorians fell a bit flat. She reversed course about Galadriel so quickly that she sort of stole her own thunder. Basically, there were just too many people giving too many conflicting speeches in Numenor for one episode. (The rant about immigrant elves stealing jobs was especially weird.)

Yes, the show is very visually impressive. The landscapes and the statues of Numenor were incredible. I'm sure the music is great, too. But .. none of that is making this a must-see television series. We got around to seeing this third episode, but there was no rush. All the stories feel so predictable and loaded with the typical hero/fantasy tropes. Maybe that is inevitable since they are adapting a story that was written decades ago (coincidentally creating many of the tropes that have been done to death). This show doesn't create the type of need-to-see excitement as something like Stranger Things does (a show which could also be considered family-friendly). Galadriel is a problem for the show. She seems to have been set up as the show's anchor character -- as are the elves in general. By nature, they are supposed to be arrogant and superior (because they actually are superior in many ways). There is a reason Frodo, Aragorn and Bilbo Baggins were the central characters of the other books -- they are relatable. When Galadriel was in Numenor, it looked as if she could easily blend in by hiding her pointy ears. Shouldn't elves be so striking in appearance that they always stand out in a crowd of humans? Also - is there any point in putting Galadriel or Elrond in any 'mortal' danger? We know they are destined to live for hundreds of years to come. Yeah, there were some mixed messages with the Harfoot community. They are portrayed as very close-knit and folksy, but everyone seems to live in fear of being left behind during their migrations (which has been mentioned since episode one). Besides the BrandyFoots, BrightApples, etc., I would like to see a family named the HoneyBadgers. Overall, the show is ... good. Just not very exciting. Maybe kids and Middle Earth super fans find it more engaging than I do. That's great for them, really.

I am still wondering if making most of the central characters elves was a good move. They are very stoic and snooty by nature. Also, they live for centuries and don't have to deal with sickness or injury very much - - not the most relatable characters. And I wasn't very impressed with Galadriel's shipwreck friend. He showed no concern at all for his fellow survivors and seemed to be totally fine when they were killed. He only seemed motivated to save Galadriel because he might want "to hit that". And those proto-Hobbits: how do they manage to have the exact same leaves and twigs in their hair on a daily basis?? Nori (?) somehow manages to go the (nearby) comet crash site and visits not!Gandalf regularly without any of the grownups ever figuring anything out. How long will the mystery sorcerer thing be dragged out? I feel fairly confident that the hunky Elf soldier with very short hair is going to be fine. If he were actually killed by the Orcs, things might seem a little less predictable. Speaking of such things: they shouldn't bother putting Galadriel and Elrond in danger: they are destined to be totally fine. Who is the target audience for this? The Disney channel people? It's not very adult and the action-adventure aspect feels a bit tame -- although the Orc fight in the healer-woman's house was well done.

It was a bit dull. Like a very cinematic history lesson .. so much history to digest .. It probably doesn't help that our main characters will be elves, who are known for being emotionally reserved and dismissive of others. Our household decided that LOR was the PG-13 rated dragon age story and Game of Thrones was the R rated one (gotta have that incest). But this hour-long intro never pulled us into the story -- almost everything and everyone from the beginning was just prologue. Did we really need to see young elf bullying? (I guess Galadriel has to be constantly mistreated.) Galadriel came off as a humorless, driven and non-sympathetic leader -- some leaders could have created a fiercely loyal following. In the interest of fairness, I wondered why none of her troupe were women. This seemed like a typical Hollywood production: even the proto-Hobbit main character has to be attractive. I prefer the BBC type casting (and GoT) where characters look more like real, everyday people. Hollywood-pretty works for elves, tho -- although they looked like humans who could be models - just with pointy ears - not very 'other-worldly'. I suppose diehard LotR fans may have been entertained with all the name dropping and easter-egging and that sort of thing. But as only a semi-fan of LotR, who found the most recent Peter Jackson Hobbit trilogy very boring, I was a bit let down. It worries me that this series will not be very engaging to non-super-fans. It doesn't help matters that this show will be compared to HBO's House of the Dragon on a weekly basis since they are being released at the same time (mostly).

It would have been a long, long time ago. Does anyone know if the complete TOS is available on Paramount+ or some other streaming service?

As soon as no-screentime-cadet was introduced, I said, aloud, "She's a goner." And while I do enjoy Pike's loose command style, it would be interesting to see how he handles informing the parents and loved ones of crew members who die under his command. Also - it doesn't take a Vulcan to question how non-logical it is to send almost all senior staff on an away mission. One day someone in StarFleet will invent a drone or robotic rover to check out landing sites before sending crew members (not likely -- that type of safety would defeat the excitement). Letting Hemmer suffer through the hatching of the Xenomorph Gorn babies seemed super cruel. Even vaporizing him with a phaser blast would have been more humane. A this point in our entertainment culture, corporations seem to only care about creating more content for streaming services. Creation by committee will probably always feel like a paint-by-numbers effort. I can imagine that some show's writing teams have actual checkboxes when it comes to including current cultural hot topics. The maximum-profit entertainment algorithm has shown that "new" doesn't sell as well as "familiar". So I expect almost all "new" shows to have ties to previously popular, nostalgic shows/movies/characters. (So settle in for Stranger Things spin-offs, Game Of Thrones spin-offs, Lord of the Rings spin-offs, Star Wars spin-offs , etc, etc, etc.)

If an accountant loses a company's money, they would probably be replaced. A security officer who allows their ship to be breached and overtaken would also have similar result - and a bad reputation afterwards. But this whole pirate episode seemed to be played for laughs. I wondered if Pike's super chill attitude would change if the pirates had killed one of the crew members. (Maybe he will offer to cook for the Gorn when the next opportunity arises :-) The stuff with Spock and T'Pring is heading into the territory of Star Trek: Fan Service. Has Spock ever kissed so much? And everything about T'Pring feels contrived: from her plot-convenient prison job to her non-logical, non-stop bridezilla behavior. Yes, and T'Pring shows up for the prisoner exchange as if it is a quick trip to Enterprise's location. I really don't mind a certain degree of levity for the show ... but some of these episodes feel very unconnected to the tone and behaviors established earlier.

Yes, this is problematic. And things were going so well... I was enjoying this show much more than the other current Trek shows since it focuses on the crew members and has stand-alone episodes (for the most part). I like Pike's "Cool Hand Luke" approach to captain-ing. But this constant need for key crew members to go rogue and have secrets that threaten the ship and undermine Star Fleet protocols is BS. And this episode had three significant instances. It is as if TPTB want to imply that Star Fleet is underserving of transparency, Draconian with its rules, too corrupt to be trusted - or all of the above. Making the off-screen higher-ups the bad guys seems to be the lazy easy way to make characters seem daring and cool.

When it seemed as if Maeve and Soldier Boy were dead, things seemed to have moved forward. But afterwards, it looks as if the producers want to have the same characters running around in the same circles. A lot of the characters' repeated behaviors are becoming tiresome. The Butcher/Huey and Huey/StarLight dynamics are continually being rinsed and repeated. It's not as amusing anymore when Huey and Butcher manage to get so many people killed while promising them protection for their help with taking down HomeLander. And what could MM's ex-wife ever see in a guy like Todd? Some of these people are almost caricatures.

It seems to me that Season 5 will have to be like the last Harry Potter movies - - there can be no more 'normal lives'. Which is a shame, since the appeal the show was nerdy kids living their lives in the 80's. Now, there will probably be no more school, the kids are infamous thanks to everyone having seen the Hellfire club photo, the basketball captain is dead/missing, Hawkins is basically destroyed and the townspeople may still think there is a serial killer somewhere out there. I do hope they manage to put some fun into the final season and not have it be all about the battle to defeat Vecna/One/Henry.

I know some people rant about giving any credence to reviewers... but for me, personally, I have found that once you have found particular reviewers that have similar tastes as your own, they can be helpful. I also learned from Wonder Woman 1984 that early reviews can be very misleading - - glad I didn't risk covid for that one. (Apologies to those who loved it.)

I will be taking a wait and see approach to this one. Ragnarok was fun, but borderline silly. Every serious moment was undercut with joke. Some of the previews make this look too much like a slapstick comedy. It's not a good sign that Waititi has decided to continue to include himself as Thor's goofy sidekick and has made Korg a main character (a troubling sign to me, anyway).

A lot happened in the final episode, but I was still left wondering .. Whatever happened to the Hawkins' police force? And wouldn't the National Guard be showing up to this level of disaster? Whatever happened to the Army guys gunning for Eleven? Did they just decide to take a break? Was the pizza van too difficult to follow? Whatever happened to Nancy's mission to be the next Lois Lane, ace reporter? Wouldn't the residents of Hawkins benefit from someone actually reporting the truth, no matter how unbelievable it seemed? Lives could have been saved, Eddie could be vindicated instead of vilified.

It really was - - but it was so much so that it sorta felt unsatisfying as its own season ending. It was the story's final battle - stretched out to two hours, with a half hour of conclusion. It was impressive to juggle all the locations and actors but I wonder/worry that the producers think that even more is even better .... will the next season have even more characters, locations and split-off groups? Yes, I'm looking forward to the next season (hopefully without such a long wait). But the producers can't expect everyone to be excited if they just roll out the same formula: big bad appears, groups form to tackle different parts of the attack, the final confrontation comes down to Eleven saving the day with outstretched hand, a trickle of nose blood and a head tilt. Eleven is great character (and MBB is a great actor), but this show could benefit from another power player to shake things up a bit.

It's a very well written, well acted show. A rare event these days. I would certainly watch a third season - but I do wonder how the writers can put Deborah and Ava in a situation where they are forced to cooperate for the sake of their individual careers (without undoing the progress they have made thus far). I'm hoping they can.

I never found the American version of The Office funny. The BBC version was much easier to take - it was in smaller doses and it was easier to laugh at those crazy British people. The American version was too much like a sad reality - people trapped in an office, suffering the whims of an incompetent boss. For me, I don't see a sad reality between Deborah and Ava on this show. It could be for people who are personal assistants or work in similar situations. Deb and Ava are in the entertainment industry - one fighting to hang on and one struggling to get started. At this point they are beyond employer/employee - they are in a relationship. Ava knows Deborah's issues and sympathizes with them, mostly. Deborah has learned a lot about Ava and has a soft spot for her -- she even spoke at Ava's father's funeral. They are on a journey together, like The Odd Couple. And though a lot of the humor can be uncomfortable, I am enjoying it -- much more than the canned-laughter so-called comedies on broadcast television (what's left of it, anyways). And as others have pointed out: Deborah is business savvy. Appearing to be litigious could be a good move to scare off people thinking about using the email. Others would consider the legal risks and consequences more carefully. This would be - as Deborah said to Ava - a good learning experience. But of course she wouldn't tell that to Ava at first.