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Anyone else enjoying the return to Middle Earth?

I thought the first episode was awful, the second one mediocre, and the third actually quite enjoyable. Maybe the quality really did improve that much with the change of directors, or maybe I just had a week to discard my hopes for what the show could be and accept what it is.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to episode 4, whereas I had been dreading episode 3. Here’s hoping the upward trajectory continues.

I'm a sucker for Middle Earth so, yeah, I am enjoying it.

I'm probably the ideal mark for this show because I have the Tolkien knowledge to be engaged by the world and mythos details but I'm not one to be overly annoyed about how they've changed and rearranged some of the Professor's ideas about the 2nd Age of Middle Earth into this adaptation.

Given that what Tolkien wrote about this era was a bit scattered and scant, when it wasn't basically just a historical outline, it was always going to be a fan fiction type show. But at least it's earnest and handsomely realized. And a fantastic score from Bear McCreary.

As far as a "high fantasy" TV experience, it gets the job done for me.

I'm absolutely a fan and I love the slow build of the characters and world. We have lots of questions at this point: who is the stranger? Where is Sauron and who is Sauron inhabiting? I'm so happy that they've taken a slower approach. I have the subtitles on and there have been a number of scenes where the characters are "breathing, slow breathing, taking their time breathing" as the aural sound for what's going on with the world. They have five seasons to heat up to breathless moments. I'm grateful that in the early first season they are taking their time, establishing characters, not worrying about the next battle, building the world in the second age, etc. It's a good feel. Overall. For me.

I'm enjoying it a lot (as Persona said, probably more than those who know the legendarium backwards and forwards). The design and art direction is on point - Numenor is incredibly satisfying to look at. More elusively, I think the tone is right. The Elves need to be elevated without seeming too floaty and ethereal - these are proud, fierce people who fight wars that last for centuries, and theyre currently at the height of their power. There are occasional missteps, but honestly they're fewer and milder than in the Peter Jackson movies.

Some clunky narrative issues and flat dramatic affect aside, I really am taken with the first season as a whole. Textually ambitious, thematically richer than one might expect, and borderline unconventional in how separate story elements were slowly developed and finally converged in two crescendos in episodes 6 and 8, with the latter successfully bringing what the first season had given into an impactful resolution that seamlessly sets up an exciting framework for future seasons. I suspect that writer Gennifer Hutchison (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) deserves a fair amount of credit for the finale succeeding when, on paper, it could have failed quite miserably.

A lot of room for improvement for the show, but that is kind of exciting because I think it will improve. The board has been set and the pieces are now in motion.