I Am A Swede

Of course. How could I forget that.

Hmm, maybe the 50th anniversary won't be a complete waste..... Emmerdale star Isobel Steele tipped to leave Liv Dingle role

Love that promo! They really went all out trying to sell it as a soap, didn't they? But somehow the images didn't really gel with the enthusiastic narration....

No Taylor?

And let's not forget that she had obviously also been quite happy to go along with keeping baby Lucy from her mother.

The only, and I do mean only, good thing about that promo was the song. (I love Smalltown Boy )

Thank you. Those are great. I do wish they had taken Chris Chittell's suggestion and brought Sandie back. Robert's return would have been a great moment to also re-introduce Sandie to the canvas, with a family of her own. It would have bolstered the Sugden presence on the show. (Yes, I know that Sandie's technically not a Sugden, but she's part of the family anyway, just like Matt, Dolly and Sam)

Well, well, well..... Apparently Amazon isn't happy with the reception this show has gotten. They deleted thousands of already approved reviews on the Prime Video website, practically all of them one-star reviews. But people noticed this and called Amazon out on social media over it, and lo and behold, shortly thereafter the reviews that had mysteriously vanished were back.... Seriously, the behind the scenes of this whole project is far more interesting than the actual show. It's been such a train-wreck.... Starting with Amazon's decision to make a tv-show about the Second Age, when the only thing they had the rights to that in any way involved the Second Age were the Appendices to the Lord of the Rings. And to make a 5-season long tv-show based on the information the Appendices contain is almost like adapting a book when you can only use what you can read on the back cover. And for that Amazon payed 250 million dollars!! Then appointing as showrunners two virtual unknowns, whose previous experiences were as uncredited writers on Star Trek Beyond! Surely they could have found someone with a little more experience? Having renowned Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey onboard and then firing him. Using Simon Tolkien as a series consultant. He once stated that he thought the Peter Jackson films were too faithful to the source material.... Moving the entire show from New Zealand to the UK, to enormous expense. The so-called "Tolkien superfans" video. The most cringeworthy video I think I have ever seen. Ever! (Ironically, these so-called "superfans" have not posted anything Rings of Power-related on their social media accounts) Amazon offering sponsorships to a YouTube channel, but not calling back when said YouTube channel emphasized that he would still give his honest opinion about the show, and not allow Amazon to dictate what he would say. (It makes you wonder about the potential bias of other channels who have praised the show....) Amazon-owned IMDb hiding (or even deleting) any reviews lower than 6/10. (At least they did for a while, I'm not sure this practice is still in effect.) Withholding the opportunity to review the show on Amazon's own site for 72 hours. To stop negative review-bombing they said. It went on for 7 days! Continuing the narrative of racist review bombing, even though almost none of the reviews I've seen after the show's premiere have made any mention of that. Most of the criticism have been about poor pacing, bad writing, stilted dialogue and unlikeable characters. The very odd press release they did, boasting that 25 million had sampled the show during the first 24 hours, without ever specifying exactly what they meant by sampled. And after that...nothing. No more audience numbers have been presented. It makes you wonder why, doesn't it?

Wow, I just heard that The Phantom of the Opera is closing on Broadway after almost 35 years.....

There are way too many characters on the show, regardless of age. Especially when they keep focusing on a select few anyway.

I much prefer this cast from 1978 ...or the original cast from 1972