Lord of The Rings is one of the most bloated IPs in history. Multimedia corpos have been planning to milk it to its current quality since Tolkien Took his last Toke of Tobacco. This show actually exceeded some of my expectations for it, mainly I expected to lose interest after the first episode. At least there is a narrative thread that makes the audience want to see how it unravels, but it can't be denied that The Pause rears its head about every 3 scenes. 1) Every time a new race (Harfoots, elves, dwares, humans) is introduced to the screen, you can almost set a timer till a black version in the same society is shown on screen 1-10 minutes later. This is one of the worst kinds of affirmative action agendas, because of the fact that only white and black versions of the same fantasy race get major roles and scene time. As far as I saw there is one Asian looking hobbit supporting character and that's about it. 2 & 3) over use of CGI makes scenes less weighted and action is less impactful. The CGI used for trolls goblins and other creatures makes innately less threatening and their fantastical feats less impressive. They break immersion when they interact with actors. The action scenes almost feel shoehorned in because of these above points, it doesn't flow naturally in and out of narrative and dialogue scenes like Peter Jacksons directing did.