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

• Directed by: J. A. Bayona, Wayne Che Yip, Charlotte Brändström
• Written by: J. D. Payne, Patrick McKay, Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill, Justin Doble, Stephany Folsom, Nicholas Adams
• Stars: Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo, Charlie Vickers, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Markella Kavenagh, Owain Arthur
• Run Time: 8 Episodes (9 Hours, 17 Minutes)
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTz6nWZwNWw

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s a prequel set thousands of years before the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings movies that follows several different groups across Middle-earth as evil starts creeping in. There are multiple storylines going at once, so the pacing drags in spots and takes a while to really get moving. But, the sets, costumes, and special effects are top notch and look like a big-budget theatrical movie. Once things finally come together in the second half, it pays off nicely. We both really liked it.

Journey back thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings to Middle-earth’s legendary Second Age, an era when great powers were forged, kingdoms rose and fell, unlikely heroes were tested and a long-feared evil returned to threaten the world with darkness. Own The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Seasons 1 and 2 on 4K and DVD now!

Spoilery Synopsis

We open in a flashback where young Galadriel is bullied by other Elf kids until her older brother Finrod gives her a pep talk. Centuries later, the big bad guy Morgoth is defeated, and Finrod dies hunting down Morgoth’s top lieutenant, Sauron. Galadriel takes over the hunt and spends ages trekking through frozen wastelands finding Sauron’s symbol, even though everybody else thinks the war is over.

High King Gil-galad decides Galadriel needs a vacation, so he ships her off to the Undying Lands as a reward. Right before her boat crosses into the magical light, she changes her mind, jumps overboard, and decides to swim back across the entire ocean.

Somehow, she doesn’t drown and runs into a raft full of shipwrecked humans. A giant sea monster promptly eats everybody except a guy named Halbrand, who claims he’s fleeing Orcs from the Southlands. After surviving a storm, the two are rescued by Captain Elendil and brought to the wealthy island kingdom of Númenor.

Meanwhile, Elrond gets recruited by master smith Celebrimbor to help build a giant forge. To get the manpower, Elrond visits his old Dwarf buddy, Prince Durin IV, in Khazad-dûm. After winning a rock-breaking contest, Elrond learns the Dwarves have discovered a super-rare shiny metal called mithril—which just happens to be the exact thing the Elves need to keep their magical tree from dying and forcing them all to leave Middle-Earth.

Over in the Southlands, an Elf soldier named Arondir has a forbidden romance with a human healer named Bronwyn. Villages start disappearing, and Arondir gets captured by Orcs who are digging massive underground trenches in the daytime using canopies to block the sun. They’re led by Adar, a scarred, corrupted Elf whom the Orcs call “Father.” Meanwhile, Bronwyn’s son Theo finds a broken black sword hilt that drinks blood when he cuts himself.

Elsewhere, a giant meteor crashes right near a nomadic tribe of Harfoots—basically proto-Hobbits. A curious Harfoot named Nori and her friend Poppy find a big, bearded guy in the crater who doesn’t remember who he is, barely speaks, and accidentally uses magic to freeze water and kill fireflies.

Back in Númenor, Galadriel spends a lot of time arguing with Queen Regent Míriel and gets thrown in jail, twice. Eventually, Míriel looks into a magical seeing-stone, sees a vision of Númenor getting wiped out by a tidal wave, and agrees to send an army to the Southlands. Halbrand reluctantly agrees to go along and claim his supposed birthright as King of the Southlands.

In the Southlands, Arondir escapes and teams up with Bronwyn and the villagers to hold off waves of Orcs. They drop a stone watchtower on a bunch of them, then retreat to the village for a bloody night battle. Just when things look hopeless, Galadriel, Halbrand, and the Númenórean cavalry ride in and wipe out the Orcs.

Except Adar pulled a fast one. The broken sword hilt wasn’t a weapon—it was a key. A treacherous local named Waldreg uses it to open a dam, flooding all those Orc trenches straight into the underground volcano of Mount Doom. The volcano erupts, wiping out the valley, blinding Míriel in the ash, and transforming the Southlands into Mordor.

Back in Khazad-dûm, King Durin III shuts down the mithril mines and banishes Elrond for snooping around, though a stray leaf drifting down into the deep dark wakes up a fiery Balrog.

Out in the wilds, three creepy white-robed cultists track down the Stranger from the meteor and tell him he’s Sauron. Nori helps him realize he’s actually good, so he uses Gandalf-style staff magic to turn the cultists into moths and decides to travel east to Rhûn with Nori.

Finally, Galadriel rides with a badly wounded Halbrand to Eregion so the Elves can heal him. Once he’s patched up, Halbrand starts giving Celebrimbor tips on how to alloy metals together, which makes Galadriel suspicious. She checks the royal archives and discovers the real Southlands royal line died out a thousand years ago.

Halbrand admits he’s actually Sauron and tries to talk Galadriel into ruling Middle-earth with him. When she refuses, he slips away and walks straight into Mordor. Celebrimbor uses Halbrand’s metallurgical advice anyway, forging the first three Elven Rings of Power.

Brian’s Commentary

There’s been untold complaints that very little of this is from Tolkien himself. Turns out, Amazon bought the rights to use the material in the LOTR indexes, but not the Silmarillion, which is what everyone expected. So there’s some stuff here from the books, but it’s basically a series that fills in the empty spaces in Tolkien’s pre-history or Middle-Earth. Once you get past that, it’s a fun show.

Galadriel jumping off a boat in the middle of the ocean with no plan other than swimming back to Middle-Earth is one of the funniest survival choices I’ve seen in a fantasy show. Also, nobody in Númenor bothered to fact-check Halbrand’s family tree until the very last episode, which would have saved everybody a lot of trouble.

The production value is ridiculous, though. The Orcs actually look scary again because they used real prosthetics and practical makeup instead of CGI blobs, and the Mount Doom eruption sequence is great television.

It definitely gets bogged down in too many subplots and long conversations during the middle episodes, especially in Númenor. Still, once the battles start and the twists come together, it works pretty well. I was entertained.

Kevin’s Commentary

Amazon spent big bucks on this, and it really shows. Trivia says they paid around $250 million just for the television rights and then spent roughly $465 million producing just this first season, making it the most expensive TV season ever made. And it certainly does look great with the sets, costumes, and effects.

It was cool seeing things as a prequel, with some of the places and characters that are still known or around in the later movies.

The only thing I’d fault the season for is a stretch in the middle that seemed excessively long and talky, getting things set up. But it builds to a climax that made it worth the wait, and it had a strong finish that left me wanting more.