The Rings of Power
I was not one of those kids, like Stephen Colbert, who spent their childhood immersed in Tolkien. But I hung out with those kids. And then things turned up a notch when I started college. One of my friends moved into a co-op called Rivendell and I finally read The Hobbit. And blasphemous as it is, I think that is still my favorite story. But it was the community of Rivendell that had the greatest effect on me. Soon four of my best friends lived in the co-op and I was acquaintances with everyone else. I spent more time there than I did at my own home leading to several housemates saying that I should just move in already as I practically lived there. Though I never did. But one thing that Rivendell took really seriously was The Lord of the Rings. Everyone in the house was fanatical about the books, taking it so far as to have a feud with fellow co-op Lothlórien, because down with loose elves? Loth did have a rather libidinous reputation. So when the the Peter Jackson films went into development everyone at Rivendell couldn't wait for the film to come out. I used the time between the announcement and the release to do some cramming, ie, I read the trilogy. Then when it was announced The Fellowship of the Ring was being released in December of 2001, that's when me and the Rivdendwellers started working on our costumes. There were cloaks, there were ears, there was everything you could imagine. Even my precious. And there we were on opening night being sucked into the world Peter Jackson brought to life. We were there the next two years as The Two Towers and The Return of the King were released. When Peter Jackson released his extended cut of The Return of the King we had a movie night at Rivendell in the dungeon-like television room where we watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer every Tuesday night. The Lord of the Rings was so much a part of my life for so long that I wasn't sure how I'd handle The Rings of Power. And it wasn't so much that Peter Jackson wasn't a part of it, I lost faith in him after The Hobbit trilogy, I mean he could have just made The Hobbit and it would have been good, but no, that didn't happen. But the cast was made up of so many British actors I like and from all the pre-release material it looked right. Yet it's best to go in with no expectations and no assumptions. After all, this was having to pull from the same source material as a beloved trilogy, so how could they make it work? The answer is Prince Durin IV. OK, there are other awesome characters, and Galadriel could have carried this whole show on her shoulders, and I was triumphant that I figured out who Sauron was before he was revealed, and I am still scratching my head about the Harfoots who are living contradictions because they never walk alone and yet leave people behind, but it all comes down to Durin. Oh and Elrond. Their friendship and their depth of connection and emotion shows what draws people again and again to The Lord of the Rings, friendship, or, in the words of Tolkien, fellowship. Oh, and can we talk about Durin getting a free table by making up a lie about the stone it was made of? It's how I'm planning on getting all my tables from now on; dwarven guilt. Say it with a nice Scottish burr.
One night back in undergrad two of my friends and I decided to go rent a movie. Remember video stores? Full of all those wonderful films yet somehow kind of grubby. We were walking from Rivendell (no really, my friend Matt lived in a big purple housing co-op named Rivendell) to the local video store a few blocks away. On the way there we found over $20 in cash on the ground that some drunk college student had obviously dropped. So dinner and a movie was on said drunk college student who was probably pissed in more ways than one when they found out. Four Star Video was known for it's rather indie pics. You could find basically anything there that was offbeat. After much toing and froing we decided on the Ethan Hawke/Kyle MacLachlan version of Hamlet and The Turn of the Screw, because Colin Firth. I'm not sure how far we got into Hamlet before it was ejected, but could have been twenty minutes could have been a thousand years. And that, my friends, is why you always rent two movies when you go out in case one is an absolute stinking pile of shit. Well, we didn't fair that well with The Turn of the Screw either. None of us had actually read the story, so we were all unprepared for the whole evil wins ending. What's more, and in fact more to the point of why it failed to meet our expectations is that Colin Firth was in the first five minutes and then never seen again. That's false advertising that is putting his name first! And yes, after this debacle my friends said I should pay them for having to sit through videos dubbed my choices... but they were free! And more importantly we did put it to a vote! But looking back, while The Turn of the Screw isn't my favorite ghost story out there this is the best direct adaptation there is, because at least they didn't throw in a weird insane asylum/murder conviction plotline like the 2009 version with Michelle Dockery did. So if you're looking for a faithful adaptation of The Turn of the Screw you can't go wrong with Jodhi May and Pam Ferris who are superb actors, but if you're looking for the best adaptation out there check out The Haunting of Bly Manor instead. 
