Frustrating as it was, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 still showed potential. Indeed, the optimistic reading of the Prime Video series’ freshman outing was that, with a few improvements, The Rings of Power could deliver a truly satisfying Middle-earth adaptation with Season 2.
Unfortunately, that optimism appears to have been misplaced, if the second season’s three-episode premiere is anything to go on. Sure, the first season’s strengths are present and accounted for here, but so too are all of its weaknesses. Just as before, The Rings of Power Season 2 isn’t just a patchy take on J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved fantasy canon – it’s a patchy show, period.
Following an extended opening flashback, The Rings of Power Season 2 picks up right where Season 1 left off. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), Elrond (Robert Aramayo), and Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) are mulling over what to do with their shiny new Rings of Power. The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) and Nori (Markella Kavenagh) are tromping around Rhûn looking for answers regarding the former’s true purpose. Durin IV (Owain Arthur) remains at odds with his dad, Durin III (Peter Mullan), in Khazad-dûm. Adar (Sam Hazeldine) is weighing up the best way forward for the fledgling realm of Mordor. And Sauron (Charlie Vickers) is ramping up his ring-centric conquest plan under a new alias: angelic messenger Annatar. True to form for a Lord of the Rings joint, how these journeys (plus several more) intersect will decide the fate of Middle-earth.
Related: How Does The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 1 Set Up Season 2?
So, once again, showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay have crammed a lot into The Rings of Power Season 2 – too much, in fact. Payne, McKay, and the show’s band of writers and directors struggle to effectively wrangle Season 2’s surfeit of plot threads into a coherent whole, especially those that feel ancillary to the core story (looking at you, Stranger and Nori). What’s more, major narrative beats – notably, “Annatar” getting his hooks in Charles Edwards’ Celebrimbor, and the political turmoil in Númenór – zip by too quickly to fully land. Your mileage will also vary on Season 2’s Misty Mountains-sized pile of changes to Tolkien’s lore. The Middle-earth faithful will no doubt pull their hair out over these tweaks, although some of them (such as the more innately malevolent Elven Rings) play well in context.
Besides, The Rings of Power Season 2 running roughshod over canon isn’t ultimately what makes it feel less like Tolkien than it otherwise should. Nor is it what hurts the Prime Video series as a show overall. Instead, that dubious honor goes to the second season’s dialogue, which is as clunky as anything served up by its predecessor. Characters in Season 2 engage with each other almost exclusively via a grating blend of faux-lyrical declarations and anachronistic patter. Not only does this dialogue sound nothing like Tolkien’s prose, but it breaks the spell that we’re peering through a window into a living, breathing world. Forget The Lord of the Rings of it all – that’s a problem for any fantasy outing, period.
Related: How Does The Rings of Power’s Celebrimbor Die in The Lord of the Rings Canon?
It also has a knock-on effect for The Rings of Power Season 2’s performances. After all, even the best actors struggle when the lines they’re wrestling with aren’t exactly the stuff of Elvish poetry. Yet, to their credit, some cast members manage to distinguish themselves from the pack, even hamstrung by the show’s scripts. Clark is as committed as ever as The Rings of Power‘s warrior incarnation of Galadriel. Edwards makes a decent fist of Celebrimbor’s hyper-accelerated arc. Hazeldine is a worthy replacement for original Adar (and Season 1 MVP) Joseph Mawle. And the always effective Ciarán Hinds is suitably imposing as Rhûn’s resident baddie, the Dark Wizard.
But the true stars of The Rings of Power Season 2 remain the show’s many behind-the-scenes artists and technicians. The costumes, makeup, and prosthetics in this second batch of episodes wouldn’t look out of place in Peter Jackson’s big screen Lord of the Rings trilogy. Ditto its blockbuster action scenes (most of which Payne and McKay have held back for a three-episode extended set piece late in the game), score, and sweeping vistas. Admittedly, The Rings of Power Season 2 never reaches the cinematic quality of HBO’s House of the Dragon, however, it doesn’t suffer too much by comparison.
Related: Is Sauron an Elf in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2?
Yet the show’s stellar production values only count for so much, and their Mithril sheen can’t hide how oddly hollow Season 2 is. Tolkien worked big universal themes into the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and whatever your opinion of them, Jackson’s movies captured those themes fairly faithfully. The same doesn’t apply to The Rings of Power‘s second season. True, big ideas – such as the benefits of banding together and the pitfalls of unchecked ambition – occasionally bubble to the surface, but they’re quickly lost in the shuffle of characters and environments. Bottom line? It’s hard to engage emotionally or intellectually with what’s happening to our heroes.
This is a near fatal flaw, whether you’re a Tolkien diehard or not. But, crucially, “near fatal” is the operative term. Despite this and The Rings of Power Season 2’s numerous other failings, it is – like the magical fingerwear that lends the show its name – hard to dismiss. But no matter how deeply you fall under The Rings of Power Season 2’s spell, you’ll doubtless recognize that it’s still far from being the one Lord of the Rings adaptation to rule them all.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 premieres on Prime Video on Aug. 29, 2024.
Published: Aug 28, 2024 11:59 am