It's so pathetic. All Amazon had to do was hire a Tolkien scholar for fifty thousand dollars or so to spend six months putting together a plausible story line that was in keeping with Tolkien's mythic world view and what he actually wrote. Then they could have hired a writer who actually knew and loved Tolkien's work to block out the episodes. While they were at it, they could have hired the same costume designers and armor makers and weapons makers that worked for Peter Jackson to do the costumes and weapons, so that they would not look like plastic. Reportedly they spent fifty million on each episode, so some of that money -- a million or two -- could have gone toward realistic costumes. The only costumes that are even close to well done are those of the dwarves. I don't know who was in charge of the dwarves in this series, but he got it right (except for the nigger dwarf bitch). Everyone else fucked up royally.