The Dark Wizard is Saruman, he's the one who wants to ally with Sauron, duh. What I hope is to see Gandalf's backstory with Gwaihir the Wind Lord because in the book they have a very romantic friendship and LotR ends with them accepting it.

Also, the "spiritual journey" to becoming White has to do with that as well.

There is a definitive answer, read a book for god's sake... Ioläus - An Anthology of Friendship by Edward Carpenter (1902) shows how the concept of friendship has always been rooted in queer romance (quite eye-opening to understand the implications, which can help everyone whether queer or not - even if at first it might seem destabilising for one's world-view where "friendship" is always given a different status from attraction or romance) or Tolkien's Epilogue to The Lord of the Rings:

"Elanor was silent for some time before she spoke again. ‘I did not understand at first what Celeborn meant when he said goodbye to the King. But I think I do now. He knew that Lady Arwen would stay, but that Galadriel would leave him. I think it was very sad for him. And for you, dear Sam-dad. For your treasure went too. I’m glad Frodo of the Ring saw me, but I wish I could seeing him.’ "

If this is not clear enough, then do consider the fact that Sam's children, including Elanor, are shown to represent the full realisation of the Elven light Sam yearned for, which Sam "saw" in Frodo with his "own eyes" when he said he loved him. Tolkien insisted that children are the result of marriage, so by saying that Sam had children who were the realisation of Frodo's light, he means that he sees Sam and Frodo's relationship as equal to a marriage.

This further reveals a few things about who the Elves were and why the cosmogonical entity became the Dark Lord, but that's another story.

The way Sauron looks on this show is a lot closer to how Galadriel should have looked (she is a Marian figure in Tolkien, so that virgin allure - virago, "woman who acts like a man" - would have been spot on... also, she's supposed to be super tall).

Anyway, even with Simon Tolkien in tow it seems nobody with any real knowledge is coming forth. Like, the Path of Dreams was super important originally, those abilities, and LotR actually ends with Frodo getting Sauron (there had always been affinities) and looking to a future where he would make music that would achieve all those things on a wide scale - even if in the meantime, he says, "it feels like falling asleep again." Clearly it is not the usual childish take on Big Bad that we keep getting bashed over the head with.

I had hoped that including Simon would make everything more obviously about the Family, ie. the people who are connected to these Tales via their ancestry, and in turn bring us all together, even if we each saw the events differently. But with the same childish, irrational and buzzword-filled depictions, people only thinking what they have been instructed to think... nah.

Anyway, back to work I guess.

"After all, any and all discord in Middle-earth can find its roots in the evil that Morgoth and his followers—including Sauron—sewed there."

Yep, keep repeating what you've been told, lest new thought arise.

The dark wizard is obviously Saruman because he tries to win Gandalf over by telling him of his origins, as though he has such authority as in being head of their Order already, and using his voice deceptively to appear rational like he's fighting against superstition (like he does in 'The Hobbit').