The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 1-3 Spoiler Review
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ releases the first three episodes of its second season, bringing audiences back to Tolkien’s world of wonder. These episodes aim to catch audiences up on the Middle-earth storyline and advance it further, and for the most part they succeed at that, though the sheer number of characters audiences are asked to follow can be overwhelming at times and detract from the story.
The opening of the first episode can only be described as hilarious and unnecessary. It’s a flashback to before the start of the first season from Sauron’s perspective, as he tries to court Adar and his orcs. This fails, with Sauron’s mortal body reduced to black goo. The Dark Lord of goo schelps himself down a mountain, which somewhat robs him of all terror. He then captures a human and takes Halbrand’s form, and from there continues on until he meets Galadriel. It’s an odd start, as audiences don’t learn anything that carries over to season two, but it completely destroy’s Sauron’s presence to begin with.
Dialogue is something that has seen a marginal improvement since season one, though at times the lack of progress is noticeable. In the second episode, for example, Elrond has a coversation with the wise elf Cirdan about his concerns with the rings. Cirdan is adamant that the rings can be trusted, and that Elrond must separate the evilness of Sauron from the beautiful work he created, comparing it to a drunkard who made a beautiful song. Elrond instead should practice humility and judge the work on its own merits. This is extremely stupid, as Sauron is especially dangerous, and is the greatest evil in Middle-earth, so comparing him to a drunkard, and calling Elrond arrogant for being suspicious of the rings is a bit of a stretch. This example is particularly egregious, but it’s not the only place where believeability is stretched.
The first three episodes struggle to find a feeling of cohesiveness, rapidly jumping points of view and not focusing on any one storyline, which makes it hard for any to develop. Just in the first three episodes alone, audiences get sizeable chunks from IIsildur, Elendil and Tar-Míriel, Galadriel and Elrond, Celebrimbor and Annatar, Durin, Adar, Poppy travelling with Nori and the Stranger as they setup what’s happening. And this is frustrating, as the bits with Adar, Galadriel and Elrond, Celebrimbor and Annatar are currently the most compelling pieces, moving forward with a sense of purpose and pace. It’s when audiences are dragged away from this things start to drag.
During any scenes focusing on the elves, Adar or Sauron, there is a sense that evil is rising. And that’s excellent, as this show is ostensibly about Sauron’s rise to power and how the Rings of Power came be. Small things help with this, like the name Annatar is finally used, but bigger things like Charlie Vickers now being free to act with more menace adds to Sauron’s presence. A sense foreboding permeates through all of his scenes, and this is also the case for the elves’ scenes.
Overall, the first three episodes do still show some of the writing and dialogue issues from the first season, it’s also shown some promising improvements. There is still bloat from how many different storylines audiences have to follow, but the core storyline of Sauron’s rise to power shows promise, and hopefully future episodes can work to integrate that into cohesive plotline as the show goes on.
