TV REVIEW: ‘The Rings of Power’ – Episodes 1 and 2

Morfydd Clark stars as Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, on Amazon Prime Video.

What is a Lord of the Rings fan to do? The arrival of the new series, The Rings of Power, brings us into some uncharted territory. It’s the first serialized adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s writings, and it’s set in a time period that’s never been adapted before. It’s also the first new production since Peter Jackson wrapped up his 6-film run at the helm. And it represents a massive financial swing by Amazon Studios to reclaim some market share, in a field crowded by Netflix, Apple, Disney, and others. In other words, the stakes couldn’t be more epic. Fans could be forgiven for approaching The Rings of Power with some skepticism.

Meanwhile, franchise fatigue seems to be setting in among movie and TV fans everywhere these days. Marvel’s latest projects, Thor: Love and Thunder and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law received a tepid response, while over in Star Wars land, the Obi-Wan show was good but not great, and it remains to be seen how follow-ups like Andor will fare. HBO, for its part, launched its first Game of Thrones spin-off to record-breaking numbers two weeks ago, and it stands as the closest true competition for fantasy fans’ attention.

Game of Thrones acts as a helpful comparison again as we look at the first two episodes of Amazon’s show. Unlike Jackson’s movies, which always frame events from the perspective of their Hobbit heroes, The Rings of Power kicks off in an ensemble fashion. We’re introduced to a younger version of the Elf lady Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings. We see how her people’s quest for revenge brought her to Middle Earth, and how it consumes Galadriel as well. Then, we begin to check in on other factions. We meet a group of beings known as Harfoots (the ancestors of Hobbits), a younger version of Elrond (Robert Aramayo) who attempts to forge a partnership with a Dwarf city, and a duo of an Elf and a human woman who encounter a simmering evil in the southern region of Middle Earth.

Nori the Harfoot (Markella Kavanaugh) has a curiosity about the wider world that brings her into contact with a mysterious arrival.

This storytelling style will feel odd to die-hard fans of the movies, where each one has a built-in resolution after 3 to 4 hours. And like any new show with dozens of characters to introduce, the early episodes are bound to feel densely packed, and these do. But given what we know about the material the writers are adapting, a TV series may be the best method. Events that take place over decades, centuries or even millennia in the written mythology will be easier to parcel out over the (at least) two seasons that Amazon has ordered. And since we know how the story ends, many thousands of years later - the events of The Return of the King – maybe we won’t be as keen for a tidy conclusion.

There will be other, deeper changes, too. Familiarity with Tolkien’s or Jackson’s work will only be useful up to a point. The writers may choose to make decisions to better serve the story that will mean throwing out some lore. Already, one of the Harfoots, Nori (Markella Kavenaugh) has met a man with mysterious abilities that bears a striking resemblance to a wizard – centuries before one of them should be present, and arriving in an unexpected way. Time will tell who this character really is and whether introducing him like this will make sense.

I’m happy to see a host of actors I’ve never seen before in The Rings of Power. Several of them are people of colour, which has brought on the usual, disappointing complaints that “it isn’t how Tolkien is supposed to be”. As usual, this is childish gatekeeping at its most insidious and racist. Personally, I’m excited to see what actors with different backgrounds will bring to this material. This is a fantasy world, after all – there are no rules other than the ones set by the show’s creators.

Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur) is a leader in the thriving Dwarven kingdom of Khazad-dûm.

So far, there’s not a lot of plot to dissect, so mostly I’ve just been dazzled by the visuals. Already, in the first two episodes, I’ve seen many things I could only have dreamt of when the Jackson movies first came out: a fully inhabited, thriving version of Khazad-dûm, glimpses of Valinor and the wars in Beleriand, and many other locales in Middle-Earth that were in ruins by the time The Lord of the Rings stories are set. I’ve seen one or two snarky comments online about the cinematography, but from what I’ve seen, The Rings of Power is a tremendously pretty show. I can think of recent Disney+ shows that could have benefited from this level of detail.

Overall, my mind is still wide open. I’m willing to let the producers of The Rings of Power chart a new course through this mythology, even if it leaves me puzzling out how it fits with all the details I’ve crammed into my head over the years – the curse of being a fan. Amazon is paying a high price to bring this material to life; estimates range between 400 and 500 million dollars for the first season alone. Those kinds of figures may give us pause, but I can remember when liking The Lord of the Rings was among the nerdiest things you could do. 20 years later, it feels kinda nice to have a company spend unholy amounts money on your fandom. In these next few weeks, we’ll find out if they have dug too greedily and too deep.