I only spent half the time distracted [this episode] … hardly a ringing endorsement

Episode 5, “Partings”, sees the Southlanders split between two factions — those who are going over to the dark side and those who will stand and fight. We also witness the Queen of Númenor having to make a fateful decision.

Definitely stronger than the previous episode. I only spent half the time distracted, and I remained conscious. Yet hardly a ringing endorsement.

The big problem continues to be the characters — and that really is a fatal flaw. What actually motivates them? The Queen of Númenor’s fateful decision is incomprehensible. Galadriel continues to resemble a teenage fan fiction version; petulant, stupid, arrogant, essentially angsty and definitely not a good guy.

However, on a plus point, black-guy-who-is-the-friend-of-the-guy-who-is-supposed-to-be-Isildur shows signs of potentially maybe having the possibility of becoming an okay character, eventually.

Let’s see if this season has the exit velocity to launch us into a hopefully much improved season two. That’s the best we can hope for at this stage.

3/5

© 2022 Bryan A. J. Parry
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