The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 Premiere Review

This review contains full spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s three-episode season 2 premiere.

It takes three episodes for season 2 of Prime Videos’s fantasy spectacle The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power to catch up with all its disparate plots and characters, and that’s a big problem. While the series continues to have some of the highest production values in the history of television, its story is stretched too thin and difficult to navigate.

After spending all of Season 1 building up to the reveal of who Sauron is, season 2 starts off making him look like a chump. In a flashback, we seem him make a pitch to the orcs that’s so uninspiring they can’t wait to betray him, forcing Sauron to spend a thousand years rebuilding his body. The fate of the rat approaching the blood puddle is predictable, but the grotesque mound of worms is still startling, the horror continuing as Sauron manages to eventually crawl out of his pit in search of better meat.

Many TV shows present episodes from their primary villain’s perspective as a way of building a sort of twisted sympathy for the characters and allowing viewers to understand their motivations. But this section of The Rings of Power is mostly concerned with tying up loose ends rather than really developing Sauron as a character. It provides answers about why Adar (Sam Hazeldine, taking over the role from Joseph Malwe in season 2) didn’t recognize Sauron as Halbrand, and how Halbrand wound up shipwrecked with a token belonging to a lost line of kings, but provides little information about who he is on the inside.

The way Sauron listens to a kind old man’s advice about doing good every day only to betray him at the first opportunity undermines the idea that Galadriel might have actually inspired him to change his ways. Maybe that’s the point: He’s pure evil who just feigns interest in reform, but there’s also no explanation of why Sauron even wants to be the new Dark Lord besides raw ambition. Sauron eventually goes back to Adar to manipulate him, but it’s not really even clear why Adar fears Sauron so much given how easily he and his orcs handled him last time. The effect of darkening Sauron’s eyes as he commands the warg is appropriately creepy and it’s definitely fun to see the Southlands traitor Waldreg (Geoff Morrell) get his comeuppance.

Having discovered that the rings meant to allow the elves to remain on Middle-earth were inspired by Sauron, the elves have a debate on what to do with them, with Elrond (Robert Aramayo) showing the integrity of his convictions by trying his best to persuade everyone that the risk is too great. He turns to Círdan the Shipwright (Ben Daniels) looking for a voice of wisdom and it’s an impressive demonstration of the rings’ insidious power how quickly Círdan goes from being willing to toss them into the ocean to slipping one on his finger. His artist vs. art argument rings hollow, because enjoying a poem written by a drunk is fundamentally different from using an extremely powerful and mysterious magical item devised by a dark wizard. It’s further evidence of how most of the elves are willing to lie to themselves to enjoy the power they’ve found.

The storyline involving the Harfoots and the Stranger (Daniel Weymanplaying a character who is almost certainly Gandalf) has always felt closest to The Lord of the Rings with its charming call to adventure and emphasis on music. Unfortunately, rather than finding a way to loop these elements into the main plot involving the elves, dwarves, and Sauron, Rings of Power is sending the Stranger and Nori Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) even further afield into the desert of Rhûn. The master of the strange contingent who’s been following the Stranger is revealed to be the Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds), a painfully generic evildoer who feels like he’d be more at home in Conan the Barbarian.

Dwarven power couple Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur) and Princess Disa (Sophia Nomvete) continue to be a highlight of the show as they bicker with and comfort each other, which is why it’s a shame they don’t show up until episode 2. The plot in Khazad-dûm works well to depict a slow-moving disaster as an earthquake disrupts the network of mirrors used to feed its people and the ancient power of the stone singers fails. Disa’s determination giving way to fear sells the crisis, as she hammers into Durin’s stubborn head that the problem is far greater than the current inconvenience found at his dinner table.

But the most compelling scenes of the premiere belong to Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards). Edwards is using his experience as a Shakespearean stage actor to deliver a truly beautiful portrayal of a man doomed by his own brilliance and hubris. Despite Galadriel’s warnings not to deal with Halbrand again, Celebrimbor is too curious to know the result of the work they did together and too eager to push his craft further. The pathos he brings to every scene as he allows himself to be strung along by Sauron – in the guise of Annatar – drives home just how flat so many of the other elven performers are.

Episode 3 heads back to the Southlands and Numenor, which are the weakest parts of the show. Numenor feels like a pale imitation of House of the Dragon with its thin courtly intrigue as Queen Regent Miriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) deals with fallout from her disastrous military campaign and her scheming cousin Pharazôn (Trystan Gravelle) and his allies are quick to capitalize on her weakness. Not everything in fantasy needs to be explained, but it would be nice if there were some clearer explanations on the link between the eagles and their role in the Numenor coronation. Is it just luck that one showed up while Pharazôn was at the window? Numenor, like everything on Rings of Power, is utterly gorgeous, but the characters are so one-dimensional that even the best costumes and sets can’t make them interesting.

In the Southlands, Adar is preparing to march against Sauron while Isildur (Maxim Baldry) is saved first by the best horse ever and later by Arondir (Ismael Cruz Cordova). The section in the spider cave is genuinely terrifying thanks to all the hatchings and different shapes and sizes of arachnids, raising some questions about how many spiders like Shelob there are in Middle-earth. Arondir’s entrance makes him feel like a mix of Legolas and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Xenk as he saves the day with panache and then walks off to do his own epic thing. Their paths cross again, since Arondir is trying to do his best for his lost love’s obnoxious son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin). But it’s hard to really get engaged in Theo’s daddy issues or Isildur’s new love interest given just how far their plots are from the main action and how little any of these characters have been developed. The final moments with the attack of a force that is almost assuredly ents is as exciting as things get for them.