I’ve never read The Silmarillion, and other than the hobbit cartoon back in the day, the LOTR movies are my only real connection with JRRT. I read the first boo

I’ve never read The Silmarillion, and other than the hobbit cartoon back in the day, the LOTR movies are my only real connection with JRRT. I read the first book, but found it to be a forgettable slog largely due to a weird musical wizard that (thankfully) never showed up in the movies. Regarding the rock-splitting competition spoiler - I thought he was going to win. I’m only two eps in, but I’ve enjoyed the show so far. It’s much better than I expected, particularly given everything I’ve read about it being so poorly executed. I had much lower expectations. I’m not raving about it, but I’m not panning it either. I imagine that if you’re much closer to the source material, then there’s no way this show could have possibly met your expectations. On the other hand, if you want to catch a decent LOTR spin-off, and you’re neither a film student nor a die-hard JRRT fan, I’d say give it a shot.