Elliot Kessler

Amazon’s new series “The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power” premiered with the first two episodes last night. It was a very interesting start to the show, and I want to see where it leads. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of these episodes, and I did enjoy them quite a bit. It does a surprisingly better job than I expected as a fantasy show. However, as a Tolkien show, it could have been done much better.

Spoilers ahead for the first two episodes! Begone with thee, thou who has yet to experience these tales.

I’m not the first to say this, but this show looks incredible. A few shots look strange, but that’s almost guaranteed with every show. Especially one this big. It was fantastic finally getting to see Valinor on screen. It was beautiful, even if we only got a glimpse of it. I enjoyed watching Melkor’s Marring of the Two Trees, which I did not expect to see. There was a glimpse of an epic battle in the first age between the armies of Morgoth and the elves, which I can only assume was the War of Wrath, but it was never named outright. It was epic and massive and looked incredible. Middle-Earth looks incredibly clean in this show, which makes sense as we are dealing with a much younger world than we’ve seen depicted on screen, as this show is set in the Second Age. Not only do the effects look incredible, but the practical sets and costumes do too. The Orcs look fantastic, and I love the set designs and costumes. I particularly enjoyed the set designs for the Dwarves. They are incredible.

While I don’t feel very connected to the characters yet, I may find myself getting more and more interested in them as the show continues. They are very intriguing, both the depictions of beloved characters such as Elrond, Galadriel, and Celebrimbor, and original characters, such as Arondir, Bronwyn, and, yes, even Nori. However, the main focus of the first two episodes has been mostly to establish the immense world, so instead of learning more about the characters, we learn more about the factions through the characters. For the moment, I do care very much about the factions at play in this show. They are very interesting, with many characters and motivations that I can’t wait to see explored. Some things about the factions are yet to be revealed, and I look forward to finding out what is going on with them. For instance, at the end of the second episode, the Dwarves open a strange chest with a glowing object that they hold to great importance. I wonder if it may be a Ring of Power that they have already been given, or if it may be the first piece of Mithril or something else entirely. Who knows.

The music in this show is done well, capturing the atmosphere that the original scores by Howard Shore created, with Howard Shore even doing the music for the show’s opening titles. But Bear McCreary does an excellent job creating the moods for the show and providing a fun, mysterious, enchanting, and sometimes creepy atmosphere. It sounds great, and each faction and character are given their own themes, which is fantastic. Each theme is very unique to the factions and characters, and each faction has their own unique sound. I can hear when the music is referring to the Harfoots, Elves, Dwarves, the Stranger, or Sauron and his forces. It is done very well, and this is now one of my favorite tv scores. Also, the theme for Khazad-dum and the Dwarves is my favorite.

The story of this show is enjoyable, but only like any old fantasy series, and not as a Tolkien adaptation. To make this story work, the writers have been forced to not be very accurate with the lore of Tolkien, which is very frustrating. I believe they should work within the constraints of the lore rather than bending and flexing whatever they want to fit their story. The story doesn’t even represent the themes of Tolkien, which is very frustrating. I was hoping they would implement those themes into the show, but it does not appear that was thus far. It doesn’t feel like Tolkien. It feels like a fan-fiction set within his world. However, that’s not to say that the story is bad. It, so far, has been pretty well written, albeit on the slower side of things. These first two episodes have focused heavily on establishing the history, characters, and factions, but little else. However, there is still much intrigue. I’m curious to see who the Stranger turns out to be, even though it is very likely, canonically and storywise, that it will end up being Sauron. I’m not sure how I would feel about the character if it was anyone else because any of the other options would be a major break in the lore.

The first two episodes of “The Rings of Power” have been entertaining, setting up a large, interesting story that does not feel like Tolkien’s works but is engaging nonetheless. There are some jokes and character moments that made me roll my eyes internally, as they didn’t fit with Tolkien’s world at all and were only there to make the show slightly more appealing to general audiences. But the setup is great and clearly building towards something epic, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Thank you for reading! Have a fantastic day.