I read the Silmarillion last year for the first time after many years of meaning to do so 'some day' in anticipation of the show, and picked up Unfinished Tales earlier this year (which I've barely cracked open, admittedly, but have flipped through and read a couple bits).
I really fucking loved these two episodes.
The show is gorgeous. I'm loving the dwarves a ton so far. The 'bail from Valinor and swim' bit with Galadriel was a little forced to eventually get her to meet up with the Numenoreans, but overall I'm a-okay with what they're doing with her character (though I'd have liked if Celeborn was also included somehow; maybe he'll show up later). The harfoots make me super happy and were a lot of fun, and the mystery of 'the stranger' has me curious. Some of the obvious answers to who the character is seem unsatisfying (shouldn't be Sauron, for example, as he should already be in the world; shouldn't be Gandalf or any other wizard as they don't canonically come until well into the Third age, and arrive by ship in the Havens according to the appendices), so I'm hoping to be surprised by something interesting there. Given the necessary compression of the timeline/need to have some familiar Middle-earth tropes for the casual side of the audience, I could still definitely see it being a wizard regardless.
I'd have loved to have seen a bit more time spent in prologue talking about the First Age events than we got, but given the rights already discussed above I'm glad we got what we did. I was surprised to get the conversation about Faenor between Elrond and Celebrimbor in the second episode for sure; I honestly didn't expect to hear his name mentioned at all.
As for changes, adaptations to different mediums are always going to contain liberties and alterations and why that's considered such an affront has always been beyond my understanding. Calling it "a travesty" makes my eyes do goddamn cartwheels they roll so hard. It's juvenile gatekeeping bullshit. Enjoy the show for what it is, read the books and enjoy them too. Why does it have to be some kind of battleground? Fuck. It's exhausting seeing people waste so much time being so goddamn negative.
How do you expect to make a series about the 2nd age without the primary source materials about that time?
Beyond the
Akallabeth there's basically nothing in the Silmarillion about the Second Age. One chapter that covers thousands of years. I feel like that's the point? Major beats are covered in the Appendices for them to road map, within which they can then tell their own story in the details with a minimal amount of aforementioned alterations.
I can't wait for the rest.
Also: the soundtrack is fucking great, and if you're a vinyl fan/collector, Mondo has the 2x LP offering up for pre-order here:
https://mondoshop.com/products/the-...-of-power-season-one-original-soundtrack-2xlp