Take this review for what’s it’s worth. I’m only 3 1/2 episodes in and so far this feels more like the hosts just wanted to have another podcast and less an examination of the movie. I am a huge fan of Lord of the Rings as well as all of Tolkien’s work. That being said I was super excited to find this podcast, as late as I did. The first episode, I get it there’s not a lot to talk about. It’s title screens and voice over work. I thought they did well with what was available. Granted most of the episode was the hosts introducing themselves and their relationship to the movie. I was a little shocked that Cassandra hasn’t seen the movie since high school. For claiming that this series is one of her favorites, not seeing the movie again for that long makes her claim a bit suspect. The other host, his name escapes me at this time, seems very knowledgeable about the subject. The fact that he was so into the books and the movies I figured he would be able to provide good backstory context or bits of trivia, but he doesn’t. The second episode provides an opportunity to talk about the elves, dwarves and men that are gifted rings. Other than a “hey that’s Galadriel” there is nothing discussed. Even moving into the third episode, there’s very little talk about backstory, trivia, movie making, casting, writing....etc. The hosts just seem to be wasting the opportunity to break down the movie “a minute at a time”. More time was spent talking about Return of the King and The Two Towers than these three minutes of the first movie. It is very audacious to take on a project like this and not be prepared to discuss the subject matter. Maybe if they spent more time researching the topic and less time plugging their other projects and trying to sell “merch” it would be a better product. I’m going to give it a few more episodes and hope it gets better. If it does, I will provide an updated review with a better rating.
