Amazon’s billion dollar gamble, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, has officially returned after a nearly two year long hiatus to nothing but crickets. If you are unaware, the first season of Rings of Power was met with, to put it kindly, mix reception. The series was overwhelmingly rejected by the established fandom as the series was disrespectful towards Tolkien’s work. Furthermore, the series failed to strike a chord among general audiences as the series had a disastrous completion rate of 37% in the US and 45% internationally after only 12 weeks. Now that season two has completed, it seems like nobody has watched it as the series has no social media or social presence. And to simply put it, if you did not like season 1 of Rings of Power, you are going to loath season 2 as not only did they ignore all the criticism that were made in season 1, they doubled down on them.
When I say that Rings of Power believes the audience is stupid, I mean it. The moment when you think about the narrative in Rings of Power, it entirely collapses as the series completely fails to understand the most basic and rudimentary elements of storytelling and filmmaking. Flawed to its foundations, Rings of Power constantly trips over itself as it has a narrative that is so overstuffed with storylines, memberberries, and characters, that no storyline, conflict, or character is given a chance to properly breathe. Thus leading to the terrible pacing that was seen in season 1, where it is both too fast and too slow. Where storylines and conflicts are either resolved off screen or change dramatically whenever the writers demand it. The same could be stated for the characters, as they are still woefully inconsistent or are comically stupid to get the story heading in a certain direction. All of these issues create a narrative that is driven entirely by contrivances, litter with numerous plot holes and a complete lack of internal logic.
For example, the showrunners have made it clear that this season is all about the villains, as in Sauron. Sauron is considered to be one of the greatest villains in fantasy literature, and Rings of Power managed to turn this master manipulator and deceiver into a simp. In the books, Sauron is known for being a master manipulator and that is one thing that he doesn’t really do this season. They attempt to pass off the characters being stupid as Sauron manipulation, and it doesn’t work the moment you think about it. In the books, Sauron manipulates the elves into making the rings of power by exploiting their fear of fading and their magic dying. This manipulation took decades as it was a slow and meticulous process that eventually succeeded. The rings prevented the elves from fading, but Sauron created a catch where he is the one who ultimately controls the Rings of Power.
However, Rings of Power chose not to not to explore that tragic tale. Instead they chose to make Celebrimbor a moron who lets Sauron/Halbrand into Eregion despite being told that he will bring nothing but bad news, a consequence of forging the rings out of order. And the manipulation is an event that happens overnight as Sauron resorts to mind control to get Celebrimbor to do his dirty work. This is such a narrative shortcut as it removes the tragedies of the Rings of Power. Furthermore, once you begin to question Sauron’s motivations, it adds nothing but insult to Tolkien’s work. In the books Sauron wants these rings forged so he can control the world as he views the world is in chaos and needs to be corrected to his image. However, in Rings of Power, they turn Sauron into a misunderstood bad boy who is motivated by his lust for Galadriel. Ladies and gentlemen, Rings of Power has turned one of the greatest literary villains of all time into a simp.
And the narrative mess doesn’t stop there. The rest of the series narrative is barely held together as their stories are one noted, and add nothing to the narrative. The Numenorians, who are regarded as one the greatest and most tragic civilizations in Middle Earth, are boiled down to MAGA stereotypes. The Harfoots and Gandalf, continue to add nothing to the narrative, other than nostalgia from the Original Jackson Trilogy. Isildur and the Southlanders in Pelargir are stuck in limbo as the writers don’t know what to do with them, so they are given busy work that is filled with memberberries from the Original Jackson Trilogy. Galadriel and co. are still insufferable morons who make every wrong decision you can imagine, yet are still rewarded for their stupid behavior. The Dwarves of Khazad-dum are still the only highlight the show has, despite their story being a contrived mess. While Adar and the Orcs are somewhat interesting, but it is so manipulative to get you to care about them that you don’t care, and neither does the series when they are meat for the elves to cut through.
But hey, even though the story, characters, and narrative are a complete mess, the battle of Eregion should be great, right? Sadly, the Siege of Eregion was written by people who have never even picked up a book or watched a YouTube video about how a siege works. The battle has no structure as for one, you don’t know how big the armies are. Two, you don’t know who is winning or losing the battle. Third and finally, it compromises strategies to have something look cool. For example, the orcs use trebuchet to knock down the mountainside to form a dam so they can cross the river. But are not used for breaking the city walls as they decided to use a poorly thought out siege engine who is supposed to pull the wall down by drilling some holes into it. And the stupidity doesn’t stop there. The elven army stopping their cavalry charge mid charge to save Galadriel. Or why are the Elves and Orc armies not teaming up as they are both there to take down Sauron. Or how the Eleven army disappears for about half of the battle. The series tries so hard for this battle to be like Helms Deep, and it falls flat on its face.
One thing that is slightly better in season two is that the filmmaking is slightly better, albeit still poor. As seen in the previous seasons, the dialog is still atrocious as it sounds like Tolkien written by AI. The direction of the show is still incredibly poor and amateurish. While the cinematography, albeit pretty, still has no structure or visual language. Outside of a few performances, the acting is still incredibly poor as they lack passion and look like they regret signing on to this show. However, the costume and production design in this season is a massive improvement compared to the first. And as in the first season, the VFX are still great.
However, the big elephant in the room is does the series improve in its adaptation of Tolkien’s work like the showrunners promised everyone. As if it wasn’t obvious in season 1, season 2 continues to ignore and butcher Tolkien’s work. However, we all knew that was going to happen as the series never intended to adapt his work, as all they wanted was his name to sell their subpar fantasy series. As someone who separates adaptation from their source material, it is woefully frustrating to see this series treat Tolkien’s work in such a wasteful and disrespectful manner. They purposely ignore his lore, his themes, his characters, and his world, because the writers and showrunners believe they know better than one of the greatest authors of all time. The ego is astonishing from these talentless creators who disrespect not only Tolkien, but his fandom and the intelligence of the general audience. However, it will be interesting to see who will get the last laugh. Viewership is continuing to tumble in season 2 and with rumors of firing happening, we shall see who gets the last laugh.
My Rating: D-
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