I'm not some Tolkien expert so I couldn't care less if they diverge from the content of the source material. But I did want them to capture the spirit or essence of the source material and they absolutely did not. At least to me. The show lacks the gravitas of the movies and the books themselves. And despite all the money, I never feel like I'm actually escaping to middle earth. The sensibilities of the cultures and various peoples are thoroughly modern. There is no internal consistency in the world. People go on long journeys of hundreds of miles and just conveniently run into others by chance to advance the plot, making middle earth feel very small. People fly off into a rage at the smallest slight. The motivations of the main characters are generally shallow and overly simplistic.

Whenever people want to visit NYC I always tell them to avoid times square because it's not real NYC but rather what someone thinks someone from Kansas thinks NYC should be. Like times square this show has a certain grandeur to it, but it feels shallow and more like what someone thinks middle earth should be rather than actually taking you there