The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Season 1 (2022)

 

Thousands of years before the events of The Lord of the Rings, Middle-Earth was in a time of relative peace.  The fallen god Morgoth has been cast down by the might of Elves and Men.  His Orcs are scattered, and his great lieutenant, the dark lord Sauron, is missing, believed dead.

Believed dead by most, that is.  The young Elven commander Galadriel is one of the few who believes that the dark lord is still lurking, rebuilding his strength for a new conflict.  Galadriel's insistence on this point, in fact, drives a wedge between her and the other elves at exactly the time they need to be unified: the light that sustains their people is dwindling, and the days of the elves in Middle-Earth may be dwindling.

Meanwhile, in the bucolic lands of the Harfoot people, the lives of these small, secretive nomads is disrupted by the arrival of a stranger, a man who looks human but who fell from the sky like a star ...

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power attracted considerable controversy when its first trailers appeared, as bigots frothed and ranted about the casting of non-white actors.  The usual pack of hateful clowns tried to review bomb the series as a result, and also harassed the actors online.  Neither the actors not the show deserved this, of course, but decency is not a factor in the behaviour of racists.

I do think The Rings of Power does have some issues, but none of these are the casting.  The actors are consistently good in their roles, because of course talent has no relation to skin melanin.

Instead, the show's biggest issue is its pacing.  The plot development in the earlier episodes is rather too deliberate and slow, while the intermittent ambitious action sequences feel like a not-very-successful attempt to inject more verve into the pacing.

Around episode four, however, the show's disparate threads begin to coalesce and the story picks up impetus.  It's helped greatly in this regard by Morfydd Clark's great performance as Galadriel, as she slowly begins her metamorphosis from brash, arrogant warrior to wise, far-seeing leader.  The deeper I got into this first season, the more and more engaged by The Rings of Power I became.  Which is honestly the reverse of my experience of Peter Jackson's films.

One thing the show gets right from the very first moment, however, is its production values.  It looks and sounds amazing throughout.  Having recently re-watched the Lord of the Rings movies, it's very evident how much film effects have improved over the two decades since they came out.  The Rings of Power consistently looks more convincing and more fully realised than the films.  The only exception to this is that it is a bit more lax with its use of forced perspective to make its dwarven characters look shorter than the elves with whom they interact.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is something of a slow burn, but once it gets going it works well.  Give it your time.