‘The Rings of Power’ stays its course in Season 2
Prime Video dearly wants “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” to become one of the flagship shows on its streaming platform. With the expense incurred (an estimated $200 million, including a hefty fee to the Tolkien estate for the license) and labor involved, that’s to be expected. The first season didn’t make as strong an impression as they probably hoped. Though certainly gorgeous, with incredible production value, it left audiences rather underwhelmed with regard to its pace and cast of characters, most of whom were unfamiliar to those who hadn’t read “The Silmarillion.”
With the recently concluded Season 2, “The Rings of Power” stays its own course: more of the same, you might say, though a tiny bit tighter and with a few new appearances from familiar folk.
After the eruption of Mt. Doom and the formation of Mordor last season, our characters are mostly adrift. The Harfoots Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy (Megan Richards) are wandering with The Stranger (Daniel Weyman) as he seeks something vague, then they get separated and The Stranger meets the singular and seemingly eccentric Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), who is so singular and eccentric he was excised entirely from Peter Jackson’s trilogy.
Fans of the book should be pleased to see the character’s first live-action incarnation, especially in the capable range of Kinnear, who is comfortable with both comedy (the Daniel Craig Bond movies) and drama (as Frankenstein’s monster in “Penny Dreadful”).
The Harfoots encounter a tribe of folk with whom they have common ancestry, and then fall afoul of a dark wizard (Ciaran Hinds). Isildur (Maxim Baldry) wakes up alone, abandoned and thought dead by his comrades, and makes his way to the coast to get back to Numenor. He meets Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin), now the healer of the village, and a potential love interest in Estrid (Nia Towle). Elendil (Lloyd Owen) and Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) face a coup in Numenor. Durin IV (Owain Arthur) still frets about his father (Peter Mullan), and his wife Disa (Sophia Nomvete) is none the happier. Elrond (Robert Aramayo) urges against using the rings that Sauron has made, but Gil-galad (Benjamin Walker) and Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) see no other choice if Elves are to be able to remain on Middle-Earth.
Finally, there is Sauron (Charlie Vickers) himself, the antagonist formerly known as Halbrand, who goes through a rebrand of his own to become Annatar, trying to convince Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) to complete the titular Rings of Power. Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova)’s around here somewhere, too.
A lot of characters
That’s a lot of characters! An ensemble like that is not easy to keep track of, and they work around it by having only half show up in any given episode, allowing each narrative more room to breathe and ensuring a sharper focus. It takes the first three episodes to catch up with where everyone is at the beginning of the season!
If the first three episodes are mainly reintroductions, the final three episodes blaze through so much plot it makes the previous episodes look sluggish by comparison. The time compression of the events in “The Silmarillion” can’t be avoided if we’re to see it all happen within one show; in order for the planned five seasons of “The Rings of Power” to flow, events need to happen within a narrower timeframe.
Apart from that, the show is mostly faithful to the books (including “Return of the King”’s appendices), in spirit if not in exacting detail, and clearly visually inspired by the Jackson trilogy. There is an arch-ness to the acting and line readings that can be off-putting, especially to those audiences who’ve become used to a more naturalistic style of acting as in HBO’s “House of the Dragon.” But that more florid style is in keeping with the books, even the original trilogy. It’s a feature of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth.
However big the budget is on “Rings,” it’s all on screen. Episode 7, “Doomed to Die,” features a battle with hundreds of extras in lavish costumes and prosthetics, wielding shiny props, catapults, trebuchets and a mountain troll or two. The episode probably has the budget of whole seasons of smaller shows.
‘Haladriel’
The fans who’ve come to “ship” Galadriel and Sauron are interesting (the duo’s portmanteau name is “Haladriel”); one wonders if they are new to the franchise, as one should also remember that the Jackson trilogy concluded over 20 years ago.
A prequel series is usually in danger of being inert and not having enough surprises since we know what is to come; the trick is in creating characters and presenting terrible choices that need to be made so we can feel something for them as they rush headlong into forewritten destinies.
The main themes here are about what one will sacrifice for what they believe. Galadriel admits that Sauron’s strength is reading people, knowing what they want, and then allowing for a self-actualization that is actually borne of manipulation. Annatar himself suffers from a kind of self-delusion as many egomaniacs do. Galadriel struggles with it herself, but has been burned by the betrayal of Season 1.
With the addition of Bombadil, the Balrog (Durin’s bane!), the Stranger finally realizing who he is, and Isildur encountering Shelob, it feels like we’re finally stretching towards the “Lord of the Rings” story we know. Prime has stated their commitment to the show, and ideally that will give the creative team the confidence to pursue their path with surer steps.
