Amazon is deploying its own anti-troll weapons to protect The Rings Of Power
Prime Video has instituted a 72-hour review delay to screen out the most vocal (and potentially bad-faith) critics of its Lord Of The Rings show
You know how it is: You can’t spend much time in Middle-earth without having to fend off some vicious trolls.
Amazon released the first two episodes of its Lord Of The Rings TV show, The Rings Of Power, onto its Prime Video service this weekend—which means the global supergiant has also subjected the series to the vicissitudes of the Amazon review process, with all its pesky stars and vocal feedback and such. That’s something of a problem, in so far as the series has been targeted pretty heavily over the last several months by both skeptics and outright bad faith arguers, with the latter seemingly deeply incensed at the show’s inclusion of Black actors playing elves and dwarves within its cast.
As it turns out, though, Amazon appears to have been ready for this: Variety reports tonight that the company recently—i.e., around the time it released its updated TV version of A League Of Their Own—instituted a delayed vetting process for reviews of its TV shows. A rep for Amazon Prime has confirmed the change: Reviews will now be held for 72 hours before being codified, during which time they’ll presumably be checked to see whether the reviewer in question has actually watched the show, or if they’re just being Very Mad Online.
Of course, this only applies to reviews on Amazon’s own storefront; rest assured that those looking to take out their Shire ire still have plenty of outlets. (Look no further than Rotten Tomatoes, where the show enjoys an 84 percent fresh rating from critics, and a 33 percent “rotten” from the audience—not automatic evidence of review bombing, but telling, nevertheless.)
It’s not clear what negative reviews on Amazon would actually mean for the series—it’s not like people are out there comparison shopping for high-budget streaming fantasy series right now. (Well…) Mostly, it seems like an effort to save face: Regardless of the validity (or lack thereof) of the complaints in question, the company’s not going to put up with having their massively expensive new TV show getting minimal stars on a platform that it controls.