The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power teaser reaction

It’s official the Amazon Prime prequel to The Lord of the Rings will be called The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power…

Eek, I told myself I wouldn’t get excited about the prequel tv show on Amazon. But they put out a teaser and well let’s just say I am hyped…tbh I did get kinda hyped when the first image that had the two trees of Valinor in it came out but I managed to calm myself down sufficiently.

The Name

It was obvious from day one that the name would have to include Lord of the Rings despite it taking place before the Third Age and the actual time of the Lord of the Rings, it’s Marketing 101 really. But this does tell us that maybe just maybe (I mean it has to be absolutely the case doesn’t it?) Sauron will appear in physical form and under the guise of Annatar. This is cool as I’ve been delving more and more into the lore of Middle-Earth and I will be reading The Silmarillion and the Unfinished Tales soon.

Galadriel voiceover

I must say that Cate Blanchett’s Galadriel had a much more ethereal voice and the monologue at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring with the music playing always gives me chills and this didn’t. However, I’m not going to dismiss this version of Galadriel just yet because it’s only a teaser.

The imagery

Another thing to perhaps further suggest the physical manifestation of Sauron and the crafting of the rings taking place in the show is that the whole teaser was the forging and crafting of the title. It would be rather crap if the rings already existed so I think the series will start when they don’t exist and then go from there to the creation of the rings, the hiding of the 3 rings by the elves then the men and dwarves being given the rest of rings that are reclaimed and how this starts to poison the mortals of Middle-Earth.

Other thoughts

This better be good. I watched the Wheel of Time show when it came out and while I kinda liked it to begin with it was actually a bit naff and I don’t know whether that’s because WoT is kinda a LOTR rip off (to begin with as I’m told) or that they just adapted it a bit cheaply…like the world just looked too artificial and very much like a show not somewhere that feels lived in and narratively it was rushed. So I have a similar worry because the 1st season of Rings of Power will also be 8 episodes but because its the most expensive show ever made maybe the sets will look real and at least to the standard of Peter Jacksons’ movies which while not being perfect adaptations they are certainly absolutely fucking close!

Let me know in the comments what you think of the teaser and whether you’re excited for the show!

Read my article on 9 locations in England that inspired Tolkien's Middle Earth

October Wrap Up: Books, TV Shows and Movies

Did I watch Squid Game? Yes, like the rest of the universe, I'm sure even our alien neighbours in Alpha Centauri sat down and binged the Netflix drama. Let me know in the comments whether you're the only human on earth not to have watched it!

I also talk about the books I read, the TV shows that got me through the month and whether or not Denis Villeneuve’s Dune lived up to my expectations or not as a book reader - click here to read my full Dune Book Review.

September Wrap Up: Books, Movies and TV Shows

Welcome back for another wrap up, in the video I’ll talk about all the books I read (including a semi savage discussion on Sally Rooney’s new book) and my Film and TV highlights of the month of September.

Book vs TV Show: First impressions of Foundation on Apple TV+

Apple has adapted perhaps the most notoriously unadaptable Sci-fi book series ever, yes even more unadaptable than Dune which I’m sure Denis Villeneuve has proven people wrong on that one anyway. But, yes, I’m talking about the father of science fiction, Isaac Asimov and his seminal series Foundation.

In the video I cover, cinematography, set design, characters, actor performances and what changes from the books I liked and others I didn’t.

Let me know what you think of Apple TV’s Foundation in the comments section

5 reasons why you must watch Babylon Berlin

Recently I decided to finally watch Babylon Berlin, it has been on my watchlist for a couple of years now and I don’t quite know what I was waiting for.

Needless to say, I watched all 3 seasons in like a week and now I’m reading the books it’s based on to be a little nerd and compare the two. This is something I do quite often, just to see if the book is better or if perhaps it’s one of those rare cases when the adaptation stands proudly superior to its source material…only time will tell.

Anyway, let’s get on with the show…

5 reasons you must watch Babylon Berlin

1. It’s a fascinating historical drama

And an utterly beautiful and frightfully expensive one at that (it’s the most expensive German tv show ever made!). Because the show is set in the late 1920’s you get fantastic fashion and music but you also get Weimar Germany, the interim between WW1 and WW2. It’s an utterly fascinating time and unlike all the characters in the show, we know what darkness lays ahead (the wall street crash and Nazis!) which makes for some great tv.

via GIPHY

2. A homage to neo-noir detective stories

Hardboiled detective fiction never goes out of fashion, and this twisty and stylish adaptation really likes to play with traditional neo-noir imagery. The main detective Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch) is almost never without his hat and trench coat and his shadow is often present on-screen too especially if he’s hunting down a criminal. There’s also a very Fritz Langesque ‘talkie’ film at the centre of Season 3’s mystery and how the whole crime unravels feels very pulpy and I loved the vibe.

3. The soundtrack

The background music really makes all the difference and immerses you even deeper into the story and the time period it is set in and helps build tension in all the right places. There’s also a couple of performances and dance moments that are really fantastic, especially the one in episode 2 that introduces you to the song ‘Zu Asche, Zu Staub’ (to ash, to dust) which becomes a reoccurring motif throughout the first 2 seasons and tbh I can’t get enough of the song and the several remixes that have been released.

4. A fantastic will they won’t they relationship

Herr kommissar, eh hem I mean Inspector Gereon Rath has a very complicated love life and things get even more complicated when the intelligent, beautiful and ambitious Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries) enters his life. They grow closer and closer together over the seasons and the chemistry between Bruch and Fries is brilliant, I challenge you not to root for the two while watching.

5. You like very ambiguous characters and political intrigue

Game of Thrones was once the pinnacle of TV, it was a cultural phenomenon that entranced viewers (myself included) because of its dark themes, characters with very questionable morals and firecracker political tension. Babylon Berlin has all of these in spades and fingers crossed it doesn’t lose all sense and sabotage character arcs as it continues to be adapted. Sorry GOT, you really did shoot yourself in the foot!

and one more for luck

6. The elevator

Yes, you read the right. Some scenes of the show are shot at Rathaus Schöneberg (the city hall of Tempelhof-Schöneberg) and many of those scenes include the trippy Paternoster Elevator. I mean just look at how cool it is…

Well, it’s safe to say that I am obsessed with Babylon Berlin and I can’t wait for season 4 to come out next year!

Babylon Berlin is available to watch on Now TV