By: Alex Tilton

I ignored this series for a long time because of two cynical assumptions.

One: the events the series portrays come from a book called The Silmarillion, which is written as a fictional history book. It presents these events as happening over the course of centuries. Therefore, I believed you could not make a decent TV series out of them.

Two: a great many intellectual properties have been infected and destroyed by what I call MCU Syndrome. Essentially, whoever owns the IP says to themselves “The Marvel Cinematic Universe formula has grossed 29 billion dollars. I want 29 billion dollars. So I’m going to take this classic, beloved property and I’m going to do it like an MCU series. And since TRoP was an extremely expensive show to make, I figured they’d do the same thing here.

But they didn’t. To my shock, I was wrong on both counts. Not only did they not bastardize the source material to maximize revenue, but they also managed to make the story work. There were things they did that I didn’t like…but this show was really good. I was stunned by how much it exceeded my expectations. The casting was overall excellent, the production value was amazing. The writing, acting and the pacing are all top notch.

I wanted to complain about a few annoying changes to the story that I believed were made, and then I had the presence of mind to go and actually check to see what they actually changed. And there were some changes. Even some significant ones. But it feels wrong to complain about them because it required a fair amount of research to even discover what they were. And I distinguish here between changes and inventions. Inventions are things they just made up.

Very briefly here are the major changes that I noticed; 1) The motivation for the elves to make their rings of power is reframed from an act of hubris, to an act of desperation. 2) They made Galadriel into a physically badass soldier, when the books are clear that she

was far too valuable to be a foot soldier and did almost all of her work behind the scenes. 3) they created a character as a cover identity for Sauron so his real identity could be a big reveal at the end of the first season.

As for the inventions…I liked them. They invented a plot where ancient hobbits are the ones who discover Gandalf when he first arrives in Middle Earth, which is helpful for him because he’s disoriented and has no memory. They invented a plot where an elf soldier leads a group of humans in a resistance to Sauron in the south. The source text indicates that something like this happened but it is never described in detail so maybe ‘extrapolated’ is a better word.

I also learned what all the kerfuffle was about when the show originally debuted. A bunch of racist online trolls were complaining about casting actors of color for the show. Having finally sat down and watched it, I find that, quite apart from their obviously racist motivations, the trolls don’t even have their facts right. Of all the major parts in this show exactly four of them are actors of color, and only one of those is canonical. If anything, they didn’t go far enough.

Season 2 is already filmed (or nearly), and 5 seasons are planned. As a LOTR nerd, I find myself quite satisfied with what they’ve done. It’s an adaptation, to be sure, but it stays very true to the spirit of the source material. And in the end you can’t ask for more than that.

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