The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

There’s plenty of action throughout, none of which feels harried, and building to a grand and explosive confrontation that honors the scale of what Jackson wrought for the big screen without severing our emotional connection to the story. But the story’s timelessness grounds it in foreboding; this season has a lot to say about the rise of charismatic empty suits and the peril of trusting in shiny new promises.

The show has made a major leap forward with a magnificent second season. .... While there will likely still be some pushback from fans of the original film trilogy and Tolkien’s written work, this is undeniably the most striking fantasy show of the year.

Remains a worthy backstory complement to Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning cinematic trilogy.

What matters is that “The Rings of Power” chooses to focus on certain details, rather than settling for capturing Tolkien’s broad sentimentality. It may seem like “The Rings of Power” begins badly — and again, it only seems that way — but there’s no mistaking it ends well.

The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power ups the ante in Season 2, but still takes its time to explore various sets of characters. It’s rare when a show gets five guaranteed seasons, and the show’s producers and writers are taking advantage of this expanded time to make the stories as good as they can be.

If you enjoyed what you saw in 2022, these eight episodes will, much like magical rings, really get their hooks in you. Five seasons are planned, and I, for one, want to see them all.

In the end, The Rings of Power season 2 is largely so carefully crafted, so creative, and so captivating that it’s incredibly easy to enjoy and appreciate what works, and ignore nearly everything else.

I’m mostly positive on this show and am mostly pleased with how this season is shaping up.

Sometimes frustrating but just as often rewarding, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power hasn't reinvented itself in its second season, opting instead to turn up the intensity on everything it was already doing, including the many echoes of more famous Tolkien stories and moments that can feel a bit too much like fan service. .... But when it clicks, it feels like a worthy addition to the filmed Tolkien canon.

Whenever these minor missteps threaten to derail the proceedings, we're whisked away on episodic adventures filled with monstrous creatures from Tolkien's bestiary or refreshingly lighthearted bursts of earnest sincerity or stirring songs telling tales of tragedy and whimsy. (Trust me, Bombadil fans, you won't be disappointed.)

if you've bought into the kind of fantasy experience this show is selling, there's a lot to like in the second season, from a great Morfydd Clark performance to some wonderful monsters and an overarching mythology that, when it's firing, really is gripping. "The Rings of Power" might never be as magical as the writing that inspired it, but it's still trying to be, and sometimes that's what matters most.

While many of The Rings of Power's best qualities remain front and center in Season 2, so too do some of its greatest weaknesses. The series' large ensemble cast expands to cover even more physical ground in Middle-earth this season, but the same can't necessarily be said for the overall plot, which often suffers from disjointed pacing.

There will undoubtedly be plenty of viewers who find the sacrifice of smaller, more intimate character moments well worth it for this kind of epic storytelling which, admittedly, takes some big swings and looks great doing it. But if you wanted to know enough about the characters who die during this battle—and elsewhere in the course of the season—to truly mourn their loss, you may find yourself more than a little disappointed.

If this can feel like a series almost drunk on its budget and running time, there is still the intimate, twisted dance of Sauron and Celebrimbor (Edwards really is superb here). It’s almost as if evil old Sauron is bending not just Celebrimbor to his will but us too, and in doing so, ironically, saving the day.

It's all still frequently irritating but that could be my personal problem with the priggish, snooty elves – must they or-aaa-te as if every line of dialogue were inscribed on stained glass? That aside, this second outing is a marked improvement.

The second season does improve as it progresses. .... But old habits die hard, and The Rings of Power can’t shake its addiction to ponderous speechifying and thuddingly self-evident character reveals (one made me put my head in my hands as I watched). The frustration with those, aside from the obvious, is the space they take up in a show that has so much universe to explore.

The scenes featuring the machinations of an expert manipulator help The Rings of Power to overcome, at least for some of the time, the basic problem this prequel has, which is that a lot of it is lore, not drama.

Season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power does a great job portraying Sauron’s machinations and his impact on those he manipulates, but too much time is spent on disconnected subplots delivering only mediocre intrigue and thin characters.

Scenes featuring the long lanky “Stranger” (or Istar, played by Daniel Weyman) and the Harfoots are improved now that he is able to speak (though a detour into a second Harfoot village feels a little like homework). The Khazad-dum plot, in which King Durin III is slowly corrupted by his ring, is genuinely affecting thanks to a number of textured, moving and humorous performances, even if it reprises beats we know from earlier installments. .... But the show’s use of the orcs baffles me even more in the second season.

An indulgent belief that “epic” means every interaction must be portentous – and that humour must be eschewed at all costs. The result is like being on a mirthless rollercoaster ride: thrown around, spun upside down, but always wondering when the fun is supposed to kick in.

The Rings of Power is left feeling dull despite all that drama.

Sitting down to write this review of ‘The Rings of Power‘ Season 2, I could think of a few memorable moments. .... What I cannot think of are any characters I particularly care about, or any emotions I felt as they traversed Middle-earth.

Were it anything other than a Lord of the Rings prequel, The Rings of Power would be passably entertaining and there’s no denying its naff charm. It has the creaky quality of a cheesy Eighties fantasy movie – think The Beastmaster on a blockbuster budget or Krull with better CGI.