Watched Rings of Power season 1.
Expertly crafted narrative, sublime casting and beautiful visuals. I expected something like Disney's Star Wars films or series, instead I got something that is equal or in a few bits even surpassing Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies. Been on board since the first minute, and never felt it dipped throughout the whole of this first season.
I loved the dialogue which is quasi-poetic and very much something Tolkien would have written, the casting was pitch perfect and I would literally write out pretty much all of actors if I just tried to mention anyone, and last but not least the themes and symbolism (in both the small and the big sense) are very much true to the source text.
I've never had as hard of a time seeing the perspective of the criticism - the essence of Tolkien for me is the differing versions and accounts of how things played out. He wrote that into the text, through unreliable narrators and making sure that all information that reached us came through the in-world narrators/translators - namely Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. This is just another version, and it is very much true to the feel and essence of what Tolkien created.
A beautiful Tolkien adaptation.
10/10.