Amazon's Prime Video streaming service is blocking reviews for its new series "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" on its site, an Amazon source told Hollywood Reporter.
How The Rings of Power is doing on Amazon's own user review ecosystem is not yet clear because the company has taken the unusual step of suspending user ratings for the show. An Amazon source says reviews are being held 72 hours to help weed out trolls and to ensure each review is legitimate. The source later claimed Prime Video started the policy this summer on all its shows.
As of Monday morning, the series watch page on Amazon.com does not show user reviews. Instead, it says "Be the first to review this item" next to the show's current 6.8 rating from the Amazon-owned Internet Movie Database (IMDB).
On RottenTomatoes.com, the show has an 84% critic score and 39% audience score.
On Metacritic.com, the show has a 71 Metascore based on 37 critic reviews, and a 2.5 out of 10 user score.
The $1-billion-a-season series is the most expensive TV show ever made, with Amazon Studio's entire existence reportedly riding on its success. So far, the show has received severe criticism from fans of LOTR creator JRR Tolkien, as well as some major outlets.
Here's one extra-nerdy review with spoilers for those interested (there is some language, but it is censored):
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