IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power • Hacker News Board

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#41

Post by Karellen » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:11 AM UTC

I don't get reviews saying that TRoP, or some other new prestige TV series, is "terrible", or "a disaster", based on the first couple of episodes.

Some really excellent TV series have taken more than a whole 26-episode season before they find their rhythm and get properly good. ST:TNG is a classic example, but I'm pretty sure you can come up with others. And some people are claiming that a new series totally worthless, not based on the first series, but based on the first episode? Are you kidding me?

I mean, is it OK if the first episode of a series is unevenly paced, and contains too much exposition, and clunky "tell, don't show" dialogue about who the main characters are and what their deal is? No, no it isn't. We should ask that writers do better, and trust audiences to have the patience to learn who characters are through action over the course of a few episodes.

But just because they don't do those things, is it really worth writing off the next 5 (or however many) seasons of a show, based on one episode? Who does that? What does anyone gain from that?

OK, there's a lot of prestige serialised TV out there now, and you probably can't watch all of it even if you wanted to, so some culling is probably necessary at some stage. But does anyone really have to write something off quite so soon? You can't even give it half a season to try and get up to speed?

I don't get it.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#42

Post by BrainVirus » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:12 AM UTC

ufo wrote: post #19

ngetchell wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does woke have to do with anything?

Quoted post unavailable.

People are grumpy because Amazon gutted LotR universe, made it an empty vessel for their political ideology and now refuse to deal with well-earned criticism in an honest fashion.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#43

Post by true_religion » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:12 AM UTC

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #31

hdcivhd6 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

I have trouble making sense of your comment. I believe people would like the ratings of a show to reflect its quality and be somewhat informative. Brigading by a subpopulation with vastly different interest to the general public interferes with that and that legitimises removing their reviews as far as I’m concerned.

I'm not sure Tolkein fan's have a different interest than mine.

I've never read the trilogy, and thus the only reason I'd invest time in watching this series this weekend is because I've heard it came from good source material.

If it's not faithful to the source, then it's just on the same level as unknown author to me and I'll watch it when I find time... months from now, or maybe never.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#44

Post by nathias » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:14 AM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #12

People are upset not because the show is bad but because it's not as bad as they expected. In fact, it's quite good. This ruins their mockery narrative.

what, no I really wanted it to be watchable, but it isn't

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#45

Post by WastingMyTime89 » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:14 AM UTC

simonh wrote: post #34

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think all critics of “mandatory woke” can be boiled down to “I hate it because it has black people in it”. I mean I wouldn’t personally use the world woke because it looks mostly devoid of meaning but as a European, the mandatory diversity in American production has reached a point where it sometimes gets very funny. I don’t really mind it because it doesn’t affect the narrative structure of what you are watc…

There were black peoples, or at least Middle Eastern, all over Medieval Europe. The Arthurian cycle has moorish knights. When Eleanor of Aquitaine married the English king, part of her dowry was a North African city. Are we to believe none of them travelled to England? Berber pirates raided Iceland for slaves so there were whites people in Africa, why not black people in Europe? Some people travelled a lot. The Saxon…

There is no obsession about racial segregation and I don’t care at all about the fictional universe of Tolkien.

I can tell you that the first time people saw black people in my very small hometown in the French countryside during the Second World War, they stopped to ask questions and at least one photo was taken. It’s not racism. It was just completely out of the ordinary which is exactly how I imagine seeing black people in the middle of a tavern would happen in medieval Europe.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#46

Post by tgv » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:14 AM UTC

Kiro wrote: post #12

People are upset not because the show is bad but because it's not as bad as they expected. In fact, it's quite good. This ruins their mockery narrative.

Really? Then again, I'm not upset, nor did I find it good. It's quite boring and bland. It focuses on a few characters instead of a large quest, but those characters are, well, empty. There's little to nothing that spells greater things to come. And they talk in this pseudo-archaic English ("What say thee of thy tidings, ye olde Master?", you get the idea), but still use words like the noun "project" in its modern sense. And the music for the first Hobbit/Harfoot scene sounds like the bloody Sims. It's a pretty mediocre 5, perhaps 6, out of 10 rating from me.

Back to your statement: where did you get that people "are upset not because the show is bad but because it's not as bad as they expected"? Are there really that many people with the desperate desire to mock it? OTOH, nearly 40% rated it a 10. Where does that come from, then?

I suppose that a few people with bots could also be an explanation.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#47

Post by sarchertech » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:15 AM UTC

Karellen wrote: post #41

I don't get reviews saying that TRoP, or some other new prestige TV series, is "terrible", or "a disaster", based on the first couple of episodes. Some really excellent TV series have taken more than a whole 26-episode season before they find their rhythm and get properly good. ST:TNG is a classic example, but I'm pretty sure you can come up with others. And some people are claiming that a new series totally worthles…

People were saying the show was going to be terrible based on promo images.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#48

Post by indigodaddy » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:15 AM UTC

Ecstatify wrote: post #13

Current standing on IMDB: The Rings of Power - 6.2 stars (42K ratings) House of the Dragon - 8.8 stars (75K ratings)

I have to believe that the HoD IMDb rating is being pumped up by a rabid fanbase, even though the show is in fact, a pile of garbage.

RoP IMO is quite a lot better. I enjoyed the first episode.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#49

Post by selimthegrim » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:15 AM UTC

JadoJodo wrote: post #24

I understand that Bezos spent a TON of money on this, but the way he’s forcing it is kinda crazy. The ads for it are EVERYWHERE. I was trying to check out at Whole Foods yesterday and had to sit through a 5s ad for it when I opened the Amazon shopping app (just to get to the Prime member barcode). Deleting reviews to “guarantee” success is just sad.

Also on the side of Amazon delivery vans.

Re: IMDB deleted all negative user reviews for The Rings of Power

#50

Post by glogla » Sat, Sep 03, 2022, 11:15 AM UTC

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #29

glogla wrote: post #22

I have not seen it myself, but every criticism I've read so far was complaining about "mandatory woke". Some reviews also mentioned other things they don't like, like costumes not being good or fights being cinematic instead of subdued or characters appearing where they shouldn't be if you take Silmarillion into accord ... but I have not read even one review that didn't include some version of "I hate it because it h…

I am going to rock the boat a little. I am admittedly not a big Tolkien fan ( I think tried reading one book once and, to me, it was worse experience than Ulysses ). I can easily plead ignorance here. Are there any black guys mentioned in those books? If not, not sticking to script is a valid complaint ( see how annoyed people were with Game of Thrones departure -- it is not a question of race; it is a question of mo…

The tricky part is that even if the source material has no non-white people in it, the real world does and representation matters.

If you cast diverse actors, you are less precise, but are making the world a (slightly) better place for underrepresented and disadvantaged people. If you don't, you are more precise and are making the world a (slightly) worse place for underrepresented and disadvantaged people.

What of these is more important?