Barnald

That your defence of the show often entails criticism of Tolkien (and disregard for his lore) kind of speaks volumes, no?

I think that was fairly evident the moment some started praising Rings of Power... Obviously BCS by its very nature leaned heavily into backstory - to what extent any of that was unnecessary, I'll leave up to you (and since we're dealing with something that had no prior existence in any form, and takes place within a mere 10 years or less of the world of its successor show, comparing it to Rings of Power in this regard is absurd). But to leave perhaps the biggest enigma of the entire series largely untouched has to be commended.

Apparently everything and everyone needs a (crap and unnecessary) backstory now. How refreshing it was for Better Call Saul to resist the temptation to delve into Gus' (obviously eventful) past in Chile, and just leave it one big tantalizing mystery. But there was a writing team who knew what they were doing...

I'm also intrigued to know about this apparently solitary tree flourishing atop of the Misty Mountains.

Even if you look at it as a made-up story to manipulate Durin into giving them access to Mithril, he'd have to be the most stupid person in Middle-earth to fall for it (naturally he will).

Wow. I'd love to have been in the writers room when they came up with that one...

The masks make sense in an age of pitched battles involving fire-breathing dragons, but in later periods, they very likely would have fell out of use almost entirely, given that any dragon attacks would have been very sudden affairs, a la Smaug's attack.

So they actually have Numenoreans complaining about Elves 'taking our trades'. You couldn't write it... unless of course you're Amazon's merry band of scribes. Why not just have them proclaim 'Elves will not replace us!' while you're at it?

NDAs? But yeah, I'd say this definitely confirms something is amiss.

Have we heard anything from Shore about his experience? You'd expect to see some words from him during that initial press release - you know, the usual 'It was wonderful to go back over 20 years after I started my adventure in Middle-earth, happy to be handing over to Bear to continue the journey, blah blah' - but as far as I'm aware there's not a peep, which seems to me rather telling (especially when one takes into account Doug's initial response to the first Bear tracks we heard).

I agree with you on the first bit entirely, but as for the second part, my mind was made up some time ago. It's not for me I'm afraid, but I hope you and others who watch enjoy it.

Reviews may sway some, but I think most have already made up their minds either way - they're either going to watch this show (at least until they give up on it), or they're not.

Hang on - they actually refer to Galadriel as 'the Warrior of the Wastelands'? What is this, Mad Max?

An earlier Gandalf vs Balrog encounter is something I'm sure we've all craved. Anything Kenobi can do eh?

So when the chips are down and Sauron is knee-deep in rings-related business, is this Gandalf just going to be having too much fun hanging out with Hobbits to do anything?