The first and second season both have moments of brilliance mixed with mediocre and outright cringe material. The passage of time is terribly communicated, if at all. Geography seems to be nonexistent as characters pop up all over middle earth almost instantly. The world feels small somehow. The locations, cities, and battles seem small. The extras aren’t directed well and just hang around. The editing is often weird. The battles are terribly directed as well. There’s no presentation of what’s going on tactically, it’s mostly random brawling in mud of two dozen stunt men.

The whole show feels rushed. They spent a huge amount of money only to end up with a meh script, soso props, costumes, and sets. A lot of the creative decisions feel like the checklist provided by a committee of producers: hobbits and Gandalf need to be in there without plot reason, action and fight scenes in every episode, mystery boxes that go nowhere, contrived conflict between friends, pathetic memberberry references to the far better Peter Jackson movies. The rushed production also explains the meh costumes and where all the money went. To get things done quickly, you have to spend more, but still get worse results. Peter Jackson spent years in preproduction designing costumes, props, and building sets.

There’s barely any breathing room for characters, plots, and just ambiance and world building. Lots of things seem to happen all the time, they’re mostly inconsequential though. So it’s high tempo and boring at the same time.

Tolkien’s themes aren’t well understood either, is my impression at least.

I’m still watching, because it has its moments, and I will watch everything Tolkien apparently.