It’s not a secret that Jeff Bezos was personally involved with the Tolkien Estate in negotiating the rights to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (along with its appendices) for a multi-season television series. The directive to Amazon Studios was ambitious—develop the next Game of Thrones—and one might argue that it has been to its detriment.
We've seen other attempts to rival HBO's massive hit series with epic fantasy shows such as Wheel of Time, The Witcher, and of course, the first season of Rings of Power. All of them bear prestige television’s hallmark of high production values, yet their serious and overarching narratives are undercut by weak scripts and formulaic plot beats.
Rings of Power may be one of the most expensive television shows ever made, but while extravagant CGI visuals may imitate the grandeur of Peter Jackson’s films, the shoddy storytelling ensures that it captures none of the Academy Award-winning films' heart. The recently concluded second season does seem to have absorbed some of the criticism—it improves on the storytelling and pacing, though most of the characters and locales in Middle-earth still remain somewhat emotionally distant from the viewer.
Important to note before we get too far: This review delves into many of the plot and character choices made by Amazon Studios and the actors themselves. By necessity, there will be some spoilers.
The Rings of Power Season 2 Overview
Season 2, like its predecessor, straddles multiple plotlines (some more-developed than others) to encompass the pivotal events of the Second Age of Middle-earth. The shapeshifter Sauron replaces his exiled-king identity of Halbrand with a new persona—the more graceful and stately Annatar, evoking the celestial majesty of the Valar. Disguised as the Lord of Gifts, he befriends the elven smith, Celebrimbor of Eregion, enjoining him to craft new rings of power for dwarves and men, while insidiously sowing the seeds for Eregion’s downfall.
Galadriel and Elrond have their differences and bicker passive-aggressively like siblings, but eventually agree to cooperate with High King Gil-galad to face the Dark Lord. Unknown to them, Adar, the leader of the Orcs, is also conspiring against Sauron, though unity between the two races is near impossible.
Meanwhile, the Harfoots, Nori and Poppy, reprise their roles as ancestor-hobbits and are doomed by the script to simply walk from one point in Middle-earth to another this whole season, tasked not with destroying any magical artifact but with aiding an amnesiac wizard (revealed to be Gandalf) to slowly come to his powers.
The dwarves of Khazad-dûm struggle with strained familial relations, which are further exacerbated when King Durin III puts on the ring.
There’s also plenty of courtly intrigue unfolding in the island kingdom of Númenor, but it’s the show’s weakest link—as though the underdeveloped human supporting characters are still waiting for their chance in the spotlight, perhaps in a future season.
Overreliance on Nostalgia
Much of the show’s problems stem from a desperate desire to recreate the cinematic glory of The Lord of the Rings for the streaming audience, rather than tell a unique story also set in Middle-earth. Its deliberate weaponization of nostalgia initially appears to have paid off: Tolkien aficionados may feel a jolt of excitement at the momentary glimpse of the Balrog, the sudden appearance of Ents, majestic eagles and barrow-wights. Tom Bombadil, the merry and mysterious forest spirit who was excluded from the movies, becomes a mentor for Gandalf in the show.
But The Rings of Power often ends up depending too much on these perfunctory winks at the past, and some of its callbacks to the two film trilogies display a profound lack of confidence in its own storytelling abilities.
Additionally, the decision by Amazon Studios to amp up the CGI budget for this show appears to have been a bargain with the devil. In the early 2000s, working within the technological constraints of the medium, Peter Jackson nevertheless capitalized on the natural beauty of New Zealand’s countryside and brought Middle-earth to life, creating a powerfully immersive experience for the viewers. Now, some two decades later, Middle-earth looks sleeker and shinier, and somehow all the more distant, capturing the detached feeling of streaming a AAA video game, haunted with clockwork NPCs and exquisite locations that don’t quite feel lived-in.
At least part of the show’s failure to be the next Game of Thrones or match the splendor of the Lord of the Rings films lies in the uneven performances of its ensemble cast. The elves are all so shiny and stiff, especially Morfydd Clark's Galadriel, even though the elven politics are among the most compelling aspects of this season.
The character that shines most brightly is Adar, the leader of the Orcs played by Sam Hazeldine. As a former fallen elf, Adar is determined to find a safe sanctuary for the Orcs, whom he regards as his “children” even as he secretly plots to kill Sauron—and his arc turns out to be more interesting than those of the elves or the Númenorean politics (which feel incidental to the narrative).
The dwarves are fun to watch, but the sparse moments of humor and levity in the show courtesy of the Harfoots are forced, and every on-screen romance within the show lacks chemistry.
The hubris of Celebrimbor and Galadriel to ignore the signs of Sauron’s influence unintentionally reflects the studio’s fixation with recycling The Lord of the Rings, rather than becoming its own gripping adaptation of the Second Age of Middle-earth.
Spectacle Over Script
A part of the difficulty may stem from the showrunners' limited access: Amazon Studios has the rights to The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and its appendices, but not to texts such as The Silmarillion, where the detailed history of Middle-earth is presented.
Prioritizing spectacle over script, however, is a bigger problem. Most of the characters are assigned purposes and plot armor without concern for personality or depth. There are less action sequences in Season 2 than we saw in the first season, but even these lack emotional investment.
The crafting of the fictional rings of power becomes a meta-commentary on the making of the show itself. Earlier on, we have a scene where Elrond expresses his doubts about the three elven rings—which he feels are tainted by Sauron’s evil—to the ancient elf Círdan. But according to Círdan, the rings are "no less beautiful" even with Sauron’s meddling, and he urges Elrond to "judge the work and leave judgment concerning those who wrought it to the judge who sees all things."
Círdan’s attempt to separate the art from the artist seem idealistic and delusional at best, even in the context of the show. It's a convenient excuse to ignore the specific circumstances in which art is made.
Improving but Imperfect
On the whole, the second season of The Rings of Power has gotten better from the first, despite retaining some of its flaws, with the characters gradually coming to their own. The storytelling is more engaging, competent and thematically tight, though the pacing is still a bit irregular. Hopefully, the third season will continue in this direction, though it needs to stop relying on Peter Jackson’s legacy as a crutch and learn to stand on its own two feet.
Some of the best moments from the show take place when it tries to improvise, pointing to promising future seasons ahead while also reawakening interest in Tolkien’s sprawling corpus, scattered across several volumes, detailing the rich mythos of Middle-earth.
Featured image: YouTube / Prime Video
