The big fantasy series starts this week The Rings of Power. You saw the first two episodes, Mark. What do you make of it?
‘Let me tell you a little bit about what’s going on. We almost all know the famous film by JRR Tolkiens The Lord of the Ringstrilogy, directed by Peter Jackson. Tolkien, however, left many more writings, in which a complete history about that ringsworld is outlined. That makes these ‘appendices’ an oeuvre in itself. Tolkien’s son in particular saw it as his mission to further develop this history. And we see that in The Rings of Powera series set thousands of years before the arrival of Frodo and Bilbo, the famous hobbits from the trilogy.
‘Well, of course it is very difficult to make a well-considered judgment after two episodes. A series like The Rings of Power (Amazon, fantasy, eight episodes) has a huge run-up and has many characters. They all need to be introduced, viewers need to be told: what’s at stake?
‘It is clear where the money has gone. There is an unprecedentedly epic approach, especially for a TV series. You will be immersed in the world of the elves, dwarves and humans – all living in different imaginary places that are spectacularly portrayed. faithful ringsviewers this season will recognize the landscapes in New Zealand, where Peter Jackson also shot his films. The following seasons – four more to come – will be shot in England and other European locations. This was mainly done to keep costs down somewhat, which in turn sounds crazy knowing that an estimated $1 billion was invested in this entire project.
Amazon is taking a huge gamble with that. It will be interesting to see if that investment pays off. You don’t want it to not land and viewers to shrug. After all, Amazon has to make four more seasons. It doesn’t help that The Rings of Powerand that also applies to Game of Thrones-prequel House of the Dragon, it has to compete with the original, as it were. Either way, fans will start comparing this series to Peter Jackson’s film trilogy, the most successful trilogy ever made. Those are quite big shoes to fill.’
And what else did you see that is worth recommending?
‘We Need to Talk About Cosby (NPO Plus, documentary, four episodes), which you can now watch in its entirety. The black comedian W. Kamau Bell looks at the fall of Bill Cosby from his personal perspective, who was regarded as a kind of godfather for black comedians. It’s in the comedy albums he made, and of course that’s where the success comes later The Cosby Show Bee.
“We now know that Cosby lived a parallel existence and was a man who drugged and raped women. Kamau Bell collects all kinds of people who grew up with Cosby, then confronts them with his two faces. On the one hand he was a role model for them, on the other hand he betrayed their youth. Meanwhile, Kamau Bell shows how there were traces of ‘evil’ Cosby in his public work all along. For example, Cosby often talks about drugs on those comedy albums and also in The Cosby Show is alluded to narcotics. You see the penny drop with the people Kamau Bell interviews. He confronts them with their own memories.
‘Then the question remains for Kamau Bell: can you separate the one from the other? Does that emancipating interest that Cosby has played for black Americans survive, knowing what he has done? The research into exactly that dilemma results in an extremely fascinating documentary series.’
And this is also worth a look:
workplace comedy Brooklyn Nine-Nine, already on display from 2013, gets a nice final chord in the last season. Read the ★★★★☆ review here.
And fantasy series The Sandman is an ambitious attempt to bring to life an extraordinarily imaginative universe, writes reviewer Mark Moorman in his review (★★★★☆).