That's why TMDb rating is the most fair. On Reddit, they organize to downvote the show everywhere but forgot to include TMDb. So, TMDb is just the result of mostly normal watchers instead of ideologists who probably didn't watch the show.

@Kumiho said:

The reviews are fine. The show is obviously top-tier. The bad reviews only come from the massive Tolkien fanbase who are opposed to all cinematic adaptions and from people who have a problem with inclusiveness. Otherwise, the show would habe 80%+ on every website.

Let's be honest, nothing at all about the show is top tier. The dialogue is clumsy, the tone is all over the place, the stories are badly interwoven. It's trying to be too many things at once and failing to be any of them. And the worst offence is that it is simply quite boring. The only ones saying that Inclusivity is the problem are Amazon themselves.

I'm of the mind that I think having inclusivity for its own sake is stupid but that is no reason to give a show 1 out of 10. I have gone through about 2 and half episodes (watching the third now) and I can say objectively that the show is not great. It really does have some great shots and the cinematography is top tier. I think they go a bit overboard at times with the slo-mo shots trying to be artsy but for the most part, its pretty good. The costumes look really good and it looks like they learned the lesson from The Hobbit films and decided to go with old school make up for the orcs instead of that godawful CGI. 🤢Friggin orcs and goblins looked like cartoons! Might as well be watching one of those animated with live action flicks like Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or Cool World . Not a knock on those films by any stretch. But the show does seem to lack in the writing department. I'm also a Tolkien fan but besides from having non-white of the various races, I mean, you might as well have a legendary African tribesman story have whites, Asians, and Latinos; It'd make as much sense, I'm a bit disappointed have they pretty much have ignored Tolkien's canon. In the second episode they introduced what can only be one of the wizards and in canon the wizards do not show up until the 3rd age. This is the story or the origins of the rings of power which were created in the second age. I guess they can patch it up by stating this is only a proto wizard but we'll see.

If I was forced to rate the show today I would probably give it a 6/10. Ridiculous inclusivity completely set aside in my rating determination.

the ratings are small. Only maybe 400 at most ratings. If the sample size is small that's why. 300+ 10-star ratings btw. But yeah, barely anyone has rated the show. Not a conspiracy.