It says something for my state of underwhelmed-ness about the new Amazon Prime Series The Rings of Power, that I have not bothered to watch the latest episode, which was released last Friday. The idea of my ignoring something that plays to all my sci-fi fantasy weaknesses, does not say a lot for its impact!
I am more even more disappointed because I read previews by trusted critics like Bradshaw in The Guardian which were so enthusiastic that I watched the pedestrian opening episode with an avidity that was soon rapidly dwindling to disinterest, bordering on boredom. I’ve now reached episode three and I am still not engaged, in the way that the books or films of The Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit captured my reading and watching dedication.
The Silmarillion on which the new series is loosely based, I found unreadable in its book form, and regarded it as a piece of donnish self-indulgence – as indeed is the series, if you think about it in terms of the commercial hopes of Amazon who made it!
Yes, of course the look of the series is spectacular, the landscapes are staggeringly beautiful, and the set piece grandeur of fantastic civilizations amazing, but then it should look good given how much cash has been expended on it.
I find little ‘new’ in the series, and the clunking reveal of ‘random human who turns out to be an unrecognized king” etc tedious, and a weak re-run (pre-run?) of Aragorn/Strider. I do recognize that the series is a prequel and that there is a sort of satisfaction in seeing the ancient pre-history of the more interestingly critical moments in Tolkien’s created world that far better known, but it does take the sting out of what might happen as we do know how things eventually turn out, and this series does not have the ‘wow’ factor that the films had. We have assimilated director Peter Jackson’s epic visual conception of Tolkien’s world and we now take for granted visual effects that would once have blown us away.
I will, of course, watch the whole of the series. And I will maintain my hope that there will be moments that justify the time I spend watching and the money burnt to make it!
I have completed my open-air-early-morning-swims. The fortnight of local pool closure for maintenance is over today, and I have already checked that the pool will open at the normal times for normal use from Monday. I have been relatively lucky with the weather so that I have not had to swim in challenging circumstances – or cold water, but I still do feel a sense of Mission Accomplished that I have swum all fourteen days in our community pool.
One of my lecturers used to swim, every day of the year, in Swansea Bay. I am not made of such stern stuff, though I can say that I swam on Christmas Eve off a beach in Sitges. When I say swam, that is something of an exaggeration: I immersed myself in the water and immediately exited the sea. The sunshine that was streaming down, did not, as I vividly recall seem to have any part in heating the icy wavelets. There is a fine line between resolution and stupidity and staying in the water for any longer than I did would clearly have been an illustration of the latter!
The pool-absence period has jinxed my writing by changing my routine, and I have only scribbled ‘thoughts’ in my notebook on a couple of occasions, whereas I always write in it when I am taking my cup of tea and baguette in the pool café. Have jotted down a few phrases and ideas, but it remains to be seen if they are actually worth working up into something real. There again, even ‘failures’ are interesting, and it is rare that I can’t salvage something from the wreckage of a poem ‘gone wrong’!
The Opera Season is almost upon us, and I still haven’t decided if I should take out a ‘Saturday Afternoon Subscription’ to a series of orchestral concerts in Barcelona. This is an odd hesitation on my part because I am essentially an orchestral music sort of person, with my going to Opera being something of an indulgence for me.
As is usual with any subscription series, there are some concerts that don’t really appeal, though from past experience, the concerts with low expectations very often surprise with unexpected delights. At least that is what I keep telling myself. And afternoon concerts mean a Barcelona exit at a reasonable time! Worth considering. And going. Perhaps I will buy a subscription. There you are a decision made in under one hundred keystrokes! If only the other things in life were so easy!
