That’s not Gandalf. As previously pointed out, the Istari came to Middle Earth in the Third Age, while this is set in the Second Age. I don’t know who the amnesiac hobo is, but it ain’t Gandalf.
2 Likes
I hope so.
But if this is Gandalf ? 
Amazon need a wizard for better fireworks.
it is a fan-fiction show and doesn’t respect Tolkien’s work. Sure it got 25M viewers but it probably views will drop.
3 Likes
They are signaling pretty hard that he’s Gandalf.
There is a good reason for that. Look up what happened with the creator of Babylon 5 and his allegations Paramount stole the idea for DS9 after a pitch meeting for B5
1 Like
It’s because the show runners don’t have the rights to the Simarillion, Lotr, or Hobbit. They built this series off of notations and appendixes in those books. It’s why it’s “inspired by”. They made their own thing and changed characters to suit their needs.
The new LotR looks terrible and people have been calling it mediocre. I doubt I will even watch the first episode.
The new GoT actually looks good and has been getting good reviews but I’ll wait for the season to finish airing.
1 Like
Yup, and they’re manipulating the IMDb reviews. I’ll enjoy the visual gifs on tumblr so I don’t need to watch the show
3 Likes
I’m enjoying it so far
1 Like
Me and my wife watched it together like 3 days ago.
Thought it was fine. 
Waiting for the next episode.
1 Like
I haven’t watched it yet, I’m waiting for the whole season to release so I can binge watch it. Same goes for She Hulk and House of the Dragon.
He has nothing to do with this series.
Well, if the Tokien-philes are all angry and…you’re not a Tolkein-phile, why do you care what they think? What difference does it make?
It’s like condemning the movie ‘Tombstone’ because Doc fired 3 times with a 2 barreled shotgun. “That’s it! Entire movie is crap!” “Ok.”
1 Like
I found the pacing and story hooks to be pretty mediocre
But the elf ear prosthetics…
are really on-point. 
Never before has any voice uttered the words of that tongue here in Imladris.
There was a similar controversy about the 2004 Battlestar Galactica. Starbuck was rewritten as a woman, same with Admiral Cain, and in hindsight you could argue the story was at it’s core the heroic journey of President Laura Roslin.
But in the end no one cared because the characters were believable. They had flaws, they had growth, and their motivations and actions rang true.
So when people say “woke” I don’t think it’s about the casting choices scoring high on some sort of intersectionality score card. Shows have been doing that over and over for the last 70 years since I Love Lucy. Mary Tyler Moore, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Sons, Star Trek ToS, Good Times, Barney Miller, Ellen, Will & Grace, Murphy Brown, and on and on.
The problem is when a show scores high on that score card for it’s own sake, and that’s all it has.
1 Like
1st episode - pretty good. Obviously they wanted to make first episode good to hook people
2nd episode - SO bad. Awful story. Not worth finishing series.
The almighty Amazon overlords are responding
1 Like
What makes it woke though? Just because black people are in it and exist? That’s not woke. I literally see no reason to call it woke. Their skin color or gender are never mentioned in the plot or show. There is never even a point made about it.
Do you guys start screaming “WOKE!” when you see a non white person IRL too or something? Bizarre.
For example, the idiot scene in End Game when all the women group up was woke. IT was forced and lame, The Boys made fun of it for good reason. She Hulk has some woke nonsense where they go on about women this and that. But nothing like that happens in THIS show…