50. LaCroix Wormtongue.

Peter Jackson's Hobbit movies. (Live!)

Jared, Oriana and Ned appear live in Portland at Passages Bookshop to
celebrate fifty episodes of By-the-Bywater and to talk about Oriana’s choice
of topic: Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit. To say that there was
almost immediate speculation about whether or when Jackson would also adapt
The Hobbit following the smash critical and commercial success of his Lord of
the Rings films is to understate; over the following years there were further
lawsuits, broken agreements, studio questions, planned directorial choices
that mysteriously fell through and more besides that seemed to indicate it
would be the biggest case of developmental hell ever. But eventually the films
did start coming out in a similar yearly pace starting in December 2012, and
certainly earned a fair amount of cash. Yet to say that the films have had
anywhere near the level of widespread love and cultural staying power than The
Lord of the Rings films is to deny the fundamental truth of how poorly these
films have aged on several levels, and the various resultant impacts since, up
to and including a literal rewriting of a country’s laws to accommodate the
production. What were the core differences between the two sets of adaptations
on a structural level, and how did that play out in comparative terms? What
technical achievements were made much of in the run up to the films’ release,
and what impact did they actually have? How did what should be a core
relationship between the characters of Thorin and Bilbo get set up as a near
love story, and how was that all ultimately undercut in the final edits? And
really…Alfrid Lickspittle. REALLY?

Jared couldn’t make a doodle for obvious reasons. But look
here! Friend of the show
and network Gabriel did sketch us!

Big ups to Passages Bookshop! Owner David
is a fine fellow and you should all check it out next time you’re in Portland.

Not only was there our live episode but there was an associated live bingo
game for audience
members. (Some people got close but nobody got it exactly – pity, that would
have been amazing if that had happened!)

Oriana’s old podcast American Grift.
It may yet return!

Whitechapel! Steampunky, yes, but the drinks
are great.

Our first episode! Different days…

The Hollywood Reporter
story on Amazon Studio’s somewhat
flailing ways, especially in terms of The Rings of Power.

That suit filed by the fanfic guy. Where to
begin. And if you want the back cover of his totally original book The
Fellowship of the King, here ya
go.
(Debutante ball. Really.)

Don’t forget Jared’s upcoming novel!

Our Silver Call duology episode –
and our Rings of Power Season 1
episode.

RIP Barry Humphries , Jackson’s Goblin King.

The Hobbit movies.
Yup. That’s them.

We’ve linked them before but the three
parts of Lindsay
Ellis’s analysis of The
Hobbit films are really something special, a masterpiece of both analysis and
reporting.

Nathan Rabin’s old Forgotbusters
column for the Dissolve.

Ah the Denny’s menu. Testimony from one who
survived

The whole framerate thing was hyped almost as much as the 3D. And it was
countered at the time, not just retrospectively…

The opening sequence in Erebor
is indeed a technical and artistic success. The escaping Goblin-town
sequence…is
not. The barrel
escape
definitely isn’t.

Dune and Goodnight Moon? Julia Yu has you
covered.

Thorin and Bilbo fan-art on Tumblr? Wouldn’t know about
that…

Thorin’s death scene with
Bilbo? Very
strong, very close in dialogue to the book too. The death scene after
it? Well…

The Tauriel issue.
There’s a lot.

Martin Freeman and James Nesbitt can indeed do something together with a sense
of dramatic heft and charisma, as seen in this scene from the first
movie.
Nothing like it happens again.

Lee Pace really just needed to do
this.

The Thorin charge to Azog down the flaming
tree,
yeah…and the music with it? Why did they do that?

Alfrid Lickspittle. Just,
no. (We’re sure Ryan Gage is
lovely in his own right.)

Yeah, Smaug the
Golden was a
nice touch.

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