As is the case with most big-budget television shows nowadays, it has been two years since we left off with Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Perhaps just enough time for its fans to miss it, and for its dejectors to forget what they disliked about it. In those two years, the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes occurred, halting all major Hollywood productions. However, just like House of the Dragon Season 2, JD Payne & Patrick McKay’s Tolkien adaptation was permitted to film uninterrupted in the UK. Whereas the writer’s absence on-set had a detrimental impact on HBO’s aforementioned fantasy series, The Rings of Power Season 2 has seemed to escape that fate. Don’t get your hopes up, though. While the story this season itself feels complete and true to the showrunners’ shared creative vision, the question remains whether or not it was a story worth telling.
In the final moments of The Rings of Power Season 1, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) was aghast to learn that her mortal companion and friend, Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), was none other than the Dark Lord Sauron. To the west in Númenor, Eldendil (Lloyd Owen) and Tar-Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robins) returned home after being soundly defeated in Middle-Earth to find that the king had died. In the east, the Harfoot Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) helped save her friend, only known as “The Stranger” (Daniel Weyman), from a cult of mystics and together, they set out to Rhûn, seeking to find his destiny. Finally, in Khazad-dûm, the Dwarf Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete) are unaware that their ambitious mining of Mithril has awoken their doom, a Balrog, under their mountain.
The Rings of Power Season 2, thankfully, wastes no time and picks up right where we left off. Immediately, this is an improvement on the previous season, which felt like set-up for much of its duration. Here, the writers are allowed to delve into the conflicts at hand. The Prime Video original series also attempts to course correct itself in a way to more faithfully resemble the narrative as told in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-Earth. However, there is a slight problem with this approach… the writers still do not have the rights to these published works. Watching The Rings of Power Season 2, even without having read Tolkien’s books, it’s easy to tell which storylines have their roots in what was written by Tolkien and which ones are entirely original, only being there to pad the show’s narrative.
Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios
Of these storylines, perhaps the best is Eregion’s — the Elven realm under Celebrimbor’s authority. It’s where 3 of the titular “rings of power” were forged for the Elves in season one, and where the 7 rings for Dwarves and 9 for Men will be forged in this second season. Eregion’s storyline is one of great importance and tragedy, and for what material the writers were able to work with, it’s pretty good. Charlie Vickers does some incredibly slick work as Sauron, earning his character’s renown as the ultimate deceiver as he manipulates Charles Edwards’ Celebrimbor to his own ends.
Seeing the cunning Sauron at work in Eregion is an unexpected delight, but it is Celebrimbor who gets to really shine in The Rings of Power Season 2. Charles Edward’s performance as the fabled Elven smith is fantastic, his acting lending credence to just how tragic a figure Celebrimbor is in Tolkien’s works. As the season goes on and he realizes the price of Sauron’s gifts, Edwards is given some of the most memorable moments of the entire series. While perhaps not as intriguing, the other storylines in The Rings of Power Season 2 are not wholly unsatisfactory either. Khazad-dûm’s arc, in particular, is a good example of the showrunners having to fill in the blanks for material they don’t have the rights to — and doing it well.
Prince Durin IV’s internal struggle of having to fulfill multiple roles and duties to multiple people, and how he chooses to navigate that with Disa by his side, is up there with some of the best material the show has to offer. Galadriel’s path of redemption for having unknowingly aided Sauron is also quite interesting, especially with how this creates friction between her and Robert Aramayo’s Elrond and Benjamin Walker’s High King Gil-galad, who all disagreed on how to proceed in dealing with their returned foe. Even Maxim Baldry’s Isildur, left for dead in Middle-Earth last season, has some solid material exclusive to this Prime Video adaptation that makes way for some fascinating character development, some with with Ismael Cruz Córdova’s Arondir.
There are some significant issues with the remaining storylines this season. Particularly with the Harfoots in Rhûn — just like last season — their and The Stranger’s inclusion really drags The Rings of Power down. The actors giving their absolute best cannot save this whole plot from feeling totally superfluous. It’s filler in the truest sense of the word. Not just because none of these specific events are rooted in Tolkien’s legendarium but because very little of what is happening in Rhûn impacts the rest of the series. Every time The Rings of Power Season 2 cuts to Nori and The Stranger, the audience is pulled out of the show. Not even the inclusion of Rory Kinnear’s Tom Bombadil, a fan-favorite character from LOTR lore, is enough to make it interesting.
In contrast, the storyline in Númenor is, once again, underwritten and tepid. Easily being the most politically charged plot of the season, the writers continually miss out on the opportunity to develop and endear us to the people of the land of the star. We’re given brief, rather uncomplicated insight into the various factions on the island vying for power. This leads to a frustrating viewing experience, especially knowing that at any moment, we could be sent back to Nori and The Stranger’s exhausting desert wanderings. It’s a shame, too, because Míriel, Elendil, and Trystan Gravelle’s Pharazôn have some of the most considerable character potential in the show, and it’s exasperating to see that go unrealized. These are by far and away the plot threads that suffer the most from having material withheld from this streaming adaptation.
It was reported that this latest season’s budget was reduced from the first season’s purported billion-dollar price tag. To great surprise, this budget decrease is not reflected on screen. The visuals are still gorgeous and vivid, offering fans a nice change of pace from the more subdued look of other fantasy shows such as HBO’s House of the Dragon or Netflix’s The Witcher. Practical sets and costumes are meticulously designed and allow for a more immersive fantasy experience, with the battle sequence at Eregion teased in the trailers being the perfect culmination of the show’s strengths. This, of course, includes Bear McCreary’s score, his heavy metal-inspired theme “The Last Ballad of Damrod” being particularly memorable.
The second season of Prime Video’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is not perfect — far, far from it. And for the Tolkien fans who cannot reconcile with the plethora of changes from the source material, it might not even be good. More often than not, though, The Rings of Power Season 2 is able to get at the heart of Tolkien’s themes. When done right, the show’s material sings and is made truly enjoyable. “Yet hope remains while all the company is true.” In the face of insurmountable evil, goodness, courage, and light keep the storm at bay more so than any one weapon or army ever could.
Hopefully, in the seasons to come, The Rings of Power will be able to find a way to fire on all cylinders at once. Like the 19 rings of power, the pieces are all there. The writer’s room just need to find a way to bind them all together more efficiently.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 premieres on Prime Video on August 29!
Based on The Lord of the Rings and appendices by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Developed by J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay.
Showrunners: J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay.
Produced by Ron Ames & Chris Newman.
Executive Producers: J.D. Payne, Patrick McKay, Callum Greene, Lindsey Weber, Justin Doble, Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill, J. A. Bayona, Belén Atienza, Eugene Kelly, Bruce Richmond, & Sharon Tal Yguado.
Main Cast: Morfydd Clark, Lenny Henry, Sara Zwangobani, Dylan Smith, Markella Kavenagh, Robert Aramayo, Benjamin Walker, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Nazanin Boniadi, Tyroe Muhafidin, Charles Edwards, Daniel Weyman, Owain Arthur, Charlie Vickers, Sophia Nomvete, Lloyd Owen, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Trystan Gravelle, Maxim Baldry, Ema Horvath, Sam Hazeldine, Leon Wadham, Ciarán Hinds, Tanya Moodie, Amelia Kenworthy, Yasen Atour, Nia Towle, Nicholas Woodeson, Selina Lo, Will Keen, Kevin Eldon, William Chubb, Stuart Bowman, Gavi Singh Chera, Gabriel Akuwudike, Ben Daniels, Oliver Alvin-Wilson, and Calam Lynch.
Theme Music Composer: Howard Shore.
Composer: Bear McCreary.
Production Companies: Amazon MGM Studios & New Line Cinema.
Distributor: Amazon Prime Video.
Episode Count: 8 (Season Two).
