I don't see how this is a good investment.  We already have a solidly definitive LOTR trilogy.  There were a few departures from the novels, but not enough to carry an entire series.  The TV series can't match the movie budget.  All I'd be doing the whole time is thinking about how the movie Gandalf was better, or the movie battles were more epic.  It's a PG-rated epic, so they can't take advantage of the sex and violence that makes most streaming series compelling.  I just don't see any way this series wins.

I'm curious if anyone here has ever been to a school dance that was as elaborately decorated as the one you see here (and in Back to the Future).  Our dances when I was a kid had NOTHING.  You were in the gym.  There was music.  That was it.

And yeah, S2 was the shiz.

Can't decide if they didn't show Neagan's people in the base because of budget concerns, or because they all evacuated to another location anticipating the attack...

For such a highly-promoted episode, it didn't seem like anything of import occurred.  Rah-rah speeches, hallucinations or flash-forwards, and some explosions that didn't really serve much purpose.

I saw it in IMAX and enjoyed it.  It's very much like SHIELD with respect to acting, writing and production values.

So is this show moving to a streaming-only platform after broadcasting the first couple episodes?  I'm confused why people who have cable TV are complaining about signing up for a service.

Yeah - they already get paid pretty well.  Renegotiations at this point would be very expensive.  I would have preferred two 10-episode, balanced seasons to close it out.   But they're probably compressing it to 13 over 2 seasons to abide by whatever's already contracted.  The original plan was 7 seasons, IIRC.

I don't think the writing is suffering because they don't have the books anymore.  Season 6 extended beyond the books and was genuinely fantastic.  Even the beginning of Season 7 was very strong.  There have just been a handful of genuinely bad decisions to close out Season 7... and my feeling is that they're all of the sort of "We want to show X because it'll be super cool looking - let's work backwards and make that happen."

The whole scene could have been much better and more logically executed.  The Night King does his "Come at me Bro" pose on the edge of the lake, and the dragon bursts out of the ice.  Woulda been totally badass, and no magic chains necessary.

Recent announcements:

They're developing a stand-alone Joker origin movie that's not connected to the DCEU
They're developing a Joker/Harley movie that IS connected to the DCEU
They're beginning production of a Shazam movie that isn't connected to the DCEU

and the big one...

The upcoming The Batman movie WILL NOT be connected to the DCEU

That last one's a shocker... and probably means Justice League will be the last of the Batfleck.