Seth Abramson

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @SethAbramson: (🔐) NEW at RETRO: It’s Time to Admit That “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Is a Very Bad Show This is probably th… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

CONCLUSION/ “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is a train-wreck—but not for the reasons anyone seems to be talking about. It’s a beautiful and competently acted train-wreck, to be sure, but given its budget and provenance it’s also a *historic* one. So it’s worth writing on. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

12/ So why does it matter? Because this is the *most expensive show in the history of television*—and was put on by arguably *the most powerful company in the United States*. And it adapts the work of one of the greatest authors of the 20th c. How the *hell* did this go so wrong? — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

11/ The one thing you can’t do is say this show makes a damn bit of sense—and I don’t mean relative to its source material but *internally*. Structure-wise it’s an abomination. Its self-contradictions are so widespread and egregious as to almost be a full tragedy unto themselves. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

10/ The plot, characterization, pacing, editing—et cetera, et cetera—of this program can’t be defended. That does *not* mean that one can’t just ignore everything that makes for good television and enjoy this show anyway, for its visuals or its source material or whatever reason. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

9/ A lot of folks will disagree with this article without reading it. Some will disagree with it *despite* reading it. But I have been involved in creative writing for 25 years now, so I know the odds of readers disagreeing with the actual *dissection* of the show here are small. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

8/ So this article—long and obsessively detailed—tries to be constructive: it gives readers a menu of shows currently worth watching; explains what’s needed to save The Rings of Power; and does all this without attacking anyone involved in the enterprise besides the showrunners. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

7/ What *wouldn’t* be okay (with me at least) would be for this very bad show to make a ton of cash and earn a second season—without major changes, doomed to be as bad as the first—simply because it’s on Amazon, everyone’s talking about it, and some don’t know the better options. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

6/ But we’re now far enough into Season 1 to say what’s plain: the show’s a mess. It’s an abject failure. And there’s no indication Season 1 can be saved. Can Season 2 salvage the enterprise? Possibly. Certainly there are a few shows that somehow survived a *disastrous* Season 1. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

5/ I went into watching The Rings of Power with no biases or preconceptions about it. In fact, I very much wanted to like it (and I know some who do). — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

4/ I also say this as the author of RETRO, which became one of the top Substacks focused on contemporary culture (#7 in History) in part by focusing on all the amazing TV Americans should be giving a chance to (as opposed to dreck like The Rings of Power). https://t.co/snSjGaPb2z — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

3/ I come at this from many different perspectives: as a former professional film reviewer still listed by Rotten Tomatoes; as someone who has long taught creative writing at the university level; and as someone who has read Tolkien for 40+ years but is *not* a knee-jerk purist. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

2/ This national debate obscures both the bad reasons we are talking about the show in the first place and the bad reasons people are giving for continuing to watch the show and the bad justifications people are giving to excuse just how bad this show is. And it’s very, very bad. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

1/ This show has been the subject of national debate for all the wrong reasons. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

(UPDATE) It’s up now. See my pinned tweet. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

(🔐) NEW at RETRO: It’s Time to Admit That “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Is a Very Bad Show This is probably the most exhaustive analysis of this question you’ll come across online. Whether you read it or not, please don’t guess at the argument. https://t.co/dL3SkfmidV — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @SethAbramson: (📢) If you like Tolkien, you’ll want to stay tuned to RETRO tonight. I feel forced to enter a controversy not of my makin… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @SethAbramson: (📢) If you like Tolkien, you’ll want to stay tuned to RETRO tonight. I feel forced to enter a controversy not of my makin… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

(📢) If you like Tolkien, you’ll want to stay tuned to RETRO tonight. I feel forced to enter a controversy not of my making—but also not in a way most would expect. I have feelings on the most expensive TV show in history, and I’m going to bring receipts. https://t.co/LAl0j05XVz — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

All of which is to say that the Republican Party is for sure going to run Trump up the presidential flagpole yet again in 2024 if he demands it, and as much as anything else this underscores how absolutely pathetically weak and craven the GOP is at this point in American history — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Trump’s approval rating is 34%, and only 20% of registered voters feel “very positively” about him, which means—given that the U.S. as a whole skews left compared to only registered voters—it’s likely only ~14% of Americans feel very positively about Trump https://t.co/YKYjMfk1AF — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

Every day I find myself re-processing the fact that there are still people who will vote Republican in November https://t.co/OBnrXAVqwR — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

This 🧵. 👇 — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @steve_vladeck: “I refuse to fully participate in the process that I somehow convinced a district judge I appointed to require on my beh… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @rgoodlaw: Key — and I mean, key — to Espionage Act offense that Justice Department cited in Mar-a-Lago search warrant is if Trump “will… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @MacFarlaneNews: Trump team alerts Special Master they don’t wanna submit info about “declassification” of Mar-a-Lago records, “Special… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

@archvillainfilm Idle speculation without evidence is what sometimes discredits Trump's critics. Why read a feed like this one that gives you the facts and the evidence and the synthesis if all you are going to do is stick with your wild hunches and then tell me to "relax"? I really don't get it. — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

RT @SethAbramson: (🔐) NEW at RETRO: The Goodnight Playlist, Vol. 9—The Top 40 Halloween Songs If you dislike Halloween, you think it’s too… — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

@nanajoof8 Nice! — PolitiTweet.org

Seth Abramson @SethAbramson

@archvillainfilm I have written and published 2,500 pages on the Trump-Russia scandal, using 10,000+ sources, and I do not believe Trump to be an *agent* of the Kremlin as opposed to an asset. If you are saying you believe otherwise, it is certainly not based in any evidence—just your wild hunch. — PolitiTweet.org