Josh Reviews The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season Two

I was somewhat lukewarm on the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.  I was excited to return to the world of Tolkien, and I was impressed by the production values of the TV series.  It looked amazing, with gorgeous props, costumes, and sets, bringing to life an impressively wide array of settings across Middle Earth.  The show had an enormous canvas.  Perhaps too enormous, because I felt the storytelling was too fractured.  We were thrown into the deep end by the show right away from the first episode, asked to follow multiple characters in multiple locations, and I found it hard to connect with any of the characters.  The show looked beautiful but felt superficial.  I did feel that by the end of the eight-episode first season, the series had built up some momentum, and I was happy that we got a good deal of exciting fantasy action.  I was interested to see where the show would go in the second season, though (as is so often the case with streaming shows these days) it was a long wait for that second season to arrive.  When it finally did, I found I wasn’t so eager to jump right back in.  I didn’t remember enough about the first season, and so I decided to rewatch those eight episodes, which took time to get around to.

Having now watched all eight episodes of season two, I’m happy to report that I enjoyed this season a lot.  It’s definitely an improvement upon season one.  The stories are continuing to build momentum, and we get into some central and important elements of Tolkien lore, namely the forging of the Rings of Power.  That’s cool to see, and having now had another season of following these characters, I’m definitely more interested in them and their storylines.  The stories get a little deeper and a little darker this season, and that’s exciting to see.  (The storyline in which we follow Sauron’s gradual seduction of the Elvish smith Celebrimbor, convincing him to aid in the creation of the rings, is terrifically well-done, thrilling and tragic.)  This show has a strong cast, and it’s nice to see them get some more interesting material to play with.  We also get some incredible fantasy action sequences that were very impressive and a lot of fun to watch.

At the same time, in both positive and negative ways, season two feels like a direct continuation from season one.  Visually and in terms of the storylines, this is a smooth expansion upon that first season.  So this isn’t a major reinvention of the show.  Most of the reasons I’m more hooked into the show now speak to having to have had more time to follow these characters and their adventures, rather than to some dramatic new approach to the storytelling.

So on the one hand, there are still times I wish this show were better; with a more dramatic depth to the characters and more of the visceral excitement found in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings film trilogy.  On the other hand, this is a pretty incredible TV show.  We live in a world in which it’s become almost commonplace to see movie-quality visual effects and production values in a TV show, but for most of my life I could never have dreamed of a TV show that looked one-hundredth as amazing as this one does.  This should not be taken for granted.  This show brings Tolkien’s worlds and characters to life in gloriously beautiful and expansive depth.  It’s incredible, and I feel a little bad complaining about any aspects of this show.

So, bottom line: I’m glad to have watched this show and I was happy that I liked season two even more than season one.  This show has flaws, but I really enjoyed all eight of these season two episodes.  It’s going to be a long wait until season three!

Want to dig a little deeper?  Please beware SPOILERS below as I talk in more detail about season two.

I mean it!!  LOTS of SPOILERS!!

The best part of this season was the storyline of how Sauron, now presenting himself as the Elf Annatar, gradually seduced and corrupted the Elvish smith Celebrimbor.  Charlie Vickers as Sauron/Annatar and Charles Edwards as Celebrimbor played these scenes beautifully!  This storyline was the best-written and best-acted of the show’s many assorted story-threads.  It was wonderfully written and structured; here was a case where I loved that the show took its time, showing us the slow, step-by-step manner in which Celebrimbor fell under Sauron’s thumb.

The season opens with a terrific prologue that fills in some of the backstory of how Sauron wound up in the human form we saw him in last season, and what brought him to that shipwreck where he first met Galadriel.  And we learn why Sauron wasn’t allied with the Orc leader, Adar.  I was very happy to get this information, though we really should have gotten this last season, because I was confused about all of this in season one.  (Particularly why Sauron and Adar seemed to be enemies, even though Adar’s main goal seemed to be creating Mordor, which of course would become Sauron’s home and fortress.)  I am mystified why they didn’t give us this backstory last season; I feel that was a mistake.  I’m glad they remedied that right off the bat here at the start of season two.  (I do, though, have questions.  What have Adar and the elves been doing for the last thousand years since the events of this flashback took place?  If Sauron was betrayed at his coronation, when did he do his experiments on Orcs that we saw evidence of in the season one premiere, when Galadriel found the frozen fortress?)

Speaking of aspects of backstory that season one should have given us (instead of treating this like a mystery box), I was happy to quickly learn this season that the three evil women hunting the Stranger in season one were from Rhun, which seems to be a land of dark wizards.  I loved the casting of Ciarán Hinds (Munich, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Belfast) as the Dark Wizard ruling Rhun.  I wish we’d gotten more of this character; I hope he has a larger role in season three.

I didn’t understand why the Elf King Gil-Galad (Benjamin Walker) often seemed to be so wrong and foolish in season one, insisting that Sauron and the Orcs were defeated and gone.  I was happy that right from the start of season two he seemed to at last be speaking with reason; arguing that if Sauron is indeed back, that the Elves must stay in Middle Earth to fight him.

He’s still wrong, though, about using the rings, which we know are evil.  This brings me to an interesting question about the show, and LOTR mythology.  I was shocked in season one to see the show depict Galadriel as being involved in the forging of the three Elvish rings, even after she knew that Halbrand was Sauron.  I was doubly shocked here in season two to see that she was still arguing on the wrong side, to use the rings.  Only Elrond, it seems, was correct, to doubt and fear the rings and their corrupting nature.  On the other hand, do we not still see Galadriel, Gandalf, and Elrond himself wearing the rings in the LOTR films?  Are the Elves eventually able to master the rings and prevent themselves from being corrupted?  I’m genuinely not sure where Tolkein lore stands on this.  I suspect (and hope) this will be clarified as the show continues.  It was certainly very strange to me to see Galadriel, Celebrimbor, and Elrond proudly putting on the rings in the final moments of the season two finale!

It took me a little while in season one to get used to Robert Aramayo’s performance as Elrond.  This was a very different Elrond than Hugo Weaving’s performance in Peter Jackson’s films.  But I quite grew to enjoy this Elfrond; particularly his friendship with the Dwarf prince Durin.  It’s fun getting to see Elrond as more of an action hero here in season two. I liked seeing Elrond and Galadriel have more time together; it was interesting to see the way the show’s story wound up putting the two of them at odds.

We also get a lot more good stuff with the Dwarves; Owain Arthur’s Durin IV continues to be one of my favorite characters on this show.  I also love Sophia Nomvete as Durin’s wife Disa.  I liked getting ti explore a little more of Dwarvish custom and mysticism, and the glimpses we got of Disa and the other Dwarvish women singing to the stones.  The story of the corruption of Durin’s father, King Durin III (Peter Mullan), to Sauron’s ring was well done.

I loved seeing Durin III fight a Balrog — that was very cool!  But I don’t understand the timeline here.  I thought the Balrog was unleashed in Khazad-dûm very soon before the events of LOTR, and after The Hobbit.  Remember, Gandalf and Gimli both expect a warm welcome in Khazad-dûm.  But this show is happening a thousand years before.  Did the Dwarves really know there was a Balrog living under their home in the mountains for so long??  And they still lived there??  That doesn’t make much sense to me.

While for the most part this season was a smooth continuation of the first season, there were some changes.  I was bummed that they wrote off the major character of the human woman Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi), telling us she died off-screen between seasons.  Apparently the actress chose not to return for season two.  I wish they’d recast the role, as they did with Adar.  The Bronwyn-Arondir love story was a huge element of season one; to see it thrown out completely makes that whole storyline from season one feel like a waste of time, and that’s a bummer.  Things worked out better with Adar.  I loved Joseph Mawle’s perfromance as Adar in season one; I thought he was one of the show’s best and most interesting characters, and I was very disappointed to learn he wasn’t returning for season two.  But I thought Sam Hazeldine did a nice job stepping into the role.  It was interesting to see the show successfully allow me to feel some empathy for Adar by the end!  I was actually sad he got killed off!  Though I think it’s smart to focus in even more directly on Sauron’s rise to power as the show continues.  (Did anyone else think Sam Hazeldine’s Adar looked a heck of a lot like Sean Bean, who of course played Boromir in the LOTR trilogy?)

The show makes an interesting choice with Galadriel (Morfydd Clark).  In season one, she seemed to be the only Elf who saw reason and understood Sauron was still a threat.  But here in season two she seems to be on the wrong side, advocating the use of Sauron’s evil rings.  By the end of the season, her failure is complete.  Sauron has made the rings and gotten away; the Orcs are everywhere, Eregion has fallen… Galadriel has failed in everything she’s set out to do.  I’m curious to see where the show takes her in season three!

I quite liked the Harfoots (sort of proto-Hobbits) in season one, though I thought the story of Nori and Poppy traveling with the Stranger was one of the least interesting to me here in season two.  The long build-up to revealing the Stranger as Gandalf felt miscalculated to me, as it was clear since the season one finale that’s who he was.  (Also, the story of his getting the Gandalf name felt incorrect to me — I thought the Elves gave Gandalf that name?)  Gandalf’s choice at the end of the season — save your friends or complete your training — was a little too reminiscent of Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back for me.

But, that Gandalf story did come to life around episode six, when we saw Tom Bombadil!  Wow, I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed Rory Kinnear (Bill Tanner in the Daniel Craig James Bond films)’s performance as Tom!  I was dubious when I’d heard Tom would be in this season.  I never loved that chapter in Fellowship, and I was totally Ok that Tom was cut out of Peter Jackson’s films.  But I really like this version!  He was daffy and weird, but also interesting and wise.  Mr. Kinnear’s performance was well-modulated.  I liked seeing Tom wearing (what would become) Gandalf’s pointy hat.  I got a little emotional when, in episode six, Tom quotes Gandalf’s famous line that “many that die deserve life, and some that die deserve life… can you give it to them?”

The Numenorean stuff this season was… OK.  In season one, I thought Lloyd Owen as Elendil was one of the best characters; he had the energy and charisma, and also the nobility, to perfectly embody a Tolkien hero, and his on-screen presence made him exciting to watch.  I didn’t believe Elendil would so easily accept that his son Isildur was dead (when he so clearly wasn’t) and leave Middle Earth in the season one finale, and that still bugged me this season.  Elendil was also sort of sidelined from any interesting action this season, which was a bummer.  In theory I like the idea of a storyline showing us Numenor’s fall to fear and fascism, but we didn’t spend enough time with those characters for that story to quite have the impact it needed.

It takes the show a while (until episode 3) to catch back up with Isildur (Maxim Baldry) this season.  I wasn’t a fan of the show’s trying to convince us that Isildur was killed in the season one finale (because any Tolkien fan knows Isildur will survive to cut the One Ring off of Sauron’s hand), and stretching out the “suspense” until episode three seemed silly.  I loved seeing the giant spiders, but I don’t understand the timeline here.  How long was Isildur in that cave?  By the timing of the other episodes, it’d seem that by episode three we’re weeks if not months later, but surely Isildur couldn’t have been there more than 24-48 hours, right?  I can accept that the show’s storylines are moving at different paces, but it doesn’t make sense to me that the Black Forest could have sprung up so quickly, nor that evil spiders could have moved in, just a day or two after Adar’s forces exploded the volcano to create Mordor.

I loved the scene in episode three in which we we finally find out what happened to Isildur’s mother.  (Here’s another piece of backstory that season one kept as a mystery, that I’d have preferred to have had answered back in that first season; but I’m happy that the writers decided to answer so many of these questions in season two.)  This gives a new perspective on Isildur’s actions; he wants to do something singular to earn his mother’s sacrifice.  I like Isildur on this show, and I’m rooting for him!  It’s tragic to know that he’ll eventually take the ring, which once again allows Sauron to survive and leads to all of the events of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I liked the story of Isildur’s romance with Estrid.  I loved that she used the word “precious” in one of her early scenes.  That’s clever writing.  This drives home the tragedy of this story; these characters will fail to destroy evil just as the generation before them did.

I have some quibbles with the way the show fudges the time it’d take for characters to travel between places in Middle Earth.  In season one, I felt the characters moved too fast back and forth across Middle Earth; but here, they often move too slowly.  I found myself feeling what I so often felt watching Lost back in the day — frustrated that the characters don’t communicate.  The Elf King Gil-Galad’s message to Celebrimbor about Sauron never arrives, and somehow Gil-Galad remains in the dark about what Celebrimbor and Sauron/Annatar are doing in Eregion.  Durin and Elrond also don’t communicate, which means that Elron can’t warn Durin about Sauron and the rings.  Sigh!  It really drove me nuts that basically the whole season goes by before the information that Halbrand was Sauron could arrive to Celebrimbor in Eregion.  The show has to rely on some plot-silliness to make that happen, telling us that the Elf King’s messengers were intercepted and killed (though how that happened in the middle of secure Elvish territory is a mystery to me), as a reason why Celebrimbor never got that vital information.  Obviously that whole storyline wouldn’t work if Celebrimbor had that information.  I wish they’d been able to find a more artful way to make that work.  (And the show is so inconsistent about travel times, which is also frustrating.  In the middle of the season, around episodes 4 and 5, we see that the Dwarves go back and forth between Khazad-dûm and Eregion multiple times, delivering the rings and the mithril, and then the huge doors (that we saw in The Fellowship of the Ring), and then we see that Durin visits Eregion to question Celebrimbor, and then returns home… all in the time it takes Elrond and Galadriel to get to Eregion from Lindon, which was within Elvish territory!!  That doesn’t make any sense to me.  And it feels like another example of plot-driven wheel-spinning that Elrond gets mostly there to Eregion but then goes all the way back to Lindon after they see the orc Army heading to Eregion.  Frustrating!)

The season builds to a thrilling climax in episodes seven and eight, gorgeously directed by Charlotte Brändström.  We get the culmination of Celebrimbor’s corruption, which is so sad and tragic.  When he finally wakes up in episode seven and realizes what’s been happening, the moment really lands.  The extended action sequence of the Orcs’ siege of Eregion is just incredible.  I loved the battle between Elrond’s troops and Adar’s.  This is what the last season of Game of Thrones — specifically the final battle with the Night King’s army at Winterfell — should have been!  It’s unprecedented and spectacular.  It’s very cool to finally see all our Elvish heroes together — Galadriel, Elrond, and Arondir.  (Even the female Elf archer gets an amazing final moment; I wish they had better established her character in earlier episodes.)  Episode seven ends with a gut punch of an ending, with the Elfs defeated and massacred, Arondir apparently killed, and Elrond abandoned by Durin.  Just an incredible, intense, stunning epic of an episode.

And episode eight brings it home well.  We get the awesome Balrog fight that I mentioned above.  Elrond gets Narsil, which made me so happy.  (Aragorn will eventually wind up with that big sword in LOTR.)  Celebrimbor’s death scene is terrific.  I loved hearing Celebrimbor call Sauron the Lord of the Rings!  I also loved Sauron’s repeated “I have many names” refrain.  Adar’s death was a surprise to me — and I did not expect his death to be a tragedy!  It’s very interesting that peace with the Orcs was possible there for a second!  I have no idea how Arondir is still alive, though I’m glad he’s still on the show.  Galadriel’s fight with Sauron is epic.  I’m glad we returned to Isildur and the boy Theo, though I wish they hadn’t dropped out of the story for such a long time in the back-half of the season.  I was very surprised Nori doesn’t stay with the Stranger/Gandalf.  That feels wrong to me.  And if she’s leaving him, why not try to return and rejoin her family?  I suspect this will be undone and she’ll be back with Gandalf in season three… we’ll see…  I did like seeing Gandalf get his familiar-looking staff!  I was surprised that Ciarán Hinds’ dark wizard survived the season, but I’m happy that he wasn’t dispatched too easily.

Other notes:

• I loved seeing Ben Daniels (who was one of the best parts of Foundation season two) as the Elf shipbuilder Cirdan.
• I loved the shot at the end of the season two premiere, in which we see the three Elf lords holding out their hands with the rings, looking down from above, just like we saw in the prologue of Peter Jackson’s film The Fellowship of the Ring.  That was a cool piece of visual connectivity!
• What was the intention of the Eagle that arrives at Miriel’s coronation, which leads to Pharazon’s grabbing power?  Was the Eagle intending to support Miriel, and this was all a tragic misunderstanding?  This was confusing to me.
• I never quite understood the whole business of the Dwarves having trouble finding sunlight.  Just walk out the front door!  We’ve seen that door!
• I liked seeing Palantirs!  I wish the show provided a little more clarity as to how they work.  Are the visions they show true or false?
• I loved seeing the Ents!!  That was a fun surprise!
• I enjoyed the line in which Sauron predicts that in the future, the Silmarils will be little more than a whisper, but the Rings of Power will always be remembered.  That’s actually what happened in real life!  Not many people have read The Silmarillion, but the whole world knows about The Lord of the Rings…
• Where did the tens of thousands of Orcs/Uruks, who attack Eregion at the end of the season, come from?  At the start of season one, the Orcs were nowhere to be found on all of Middle Earth!
• As I’d mentioned above, I was very pleasantly surprised that the show managed to find a way to develop some empathy for Adar, and actually for all of the Orcs/Uruks.  That was very cool — they’ve always just been inhuman monsters in LOTR before this.  But here we see that they just want love from Adar!  And he really does love them!  We actually get to see an Orc funeral.  (And Adar cries!)  I really liked all of that.

I enjoyed season two of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.  It’s not exactly everything I’ve hoped this show would be… but what it is is still pretty good and definitely fun to watch.  I’m glad it exists and I’m glad I’ve caught up with season two.  I hope we don’t have to wait too many years before season three arrives…

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