Rings of Power, Amazon
Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the most expensive TV show ever made and, for better or worse, it definitely looks like it. The unique wonder and scale of the 00s films is retained in this gargantuan Amazon product and if you take nothing else away from watching this debut series, you will be impressed by the grand yet intricate depiction of Numenor and the epic founding of Mordor.
It seems that this is also the basis on which the shows detractors are levelling criticism. As Game of Thrones has taught us, scale and set pieces cannot always paper over the cracks of disjointed stories and uncompelling characters.
The multistranded storyline in Rings of Power can feel unsatisfyingly disconnected at times, with some characters being championed and favoured at the expense of others. The world of the harfoots (early hobbits) and the character of Nori (Markella Kavanagh) suffers in the shadow of main protagonist and action hero, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark). Because the show feels so much like a big budget film, you find yourself in constant expectation of action and fighting. Time with descendants of hobbits and the politics rather than the power of Numenor, create a sense of restlessness.
Rings of Power’s narrative is driven by two central mysteries: who is Sauron and who is the man in grey who lands on earth (suppose we should’ve guessed the latter). They are mysteries that true fans of Tolkien and The Silmarillion probably worked out around Episode One, but that keep more casual fans in the dark until the finale.
By the time you get to that final episode, the reveal of Sauron in particular, is clever and satisfying enough. Episode Eight works really hard to bind everything together and, by the end, joins us nicely to the events and feelings of the film trilogy. Gandalf is reunited with the hobbits and Sauron has set the destruction of Middle Earth in motion.
This feeling of being firmly back in the world of Tolkien is maybe something you hoped to feel more of for the first seven episodes, but it may prove to be the correct creative decision for this TV debut, especially if subsequent series more closely resemble the characters and themes we know.
