"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" (Season 1) Review - Imitating and Modernizing Tolkien is Tough

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Hello all!

Well, the first season of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (goodness; couldn't they have come up with a better title than that?! 😳) is now complete for better or worse and I finally found the endurance to finish. This show is divisive to say the least, and after completing the entire thing, I now FULLY understand why! How did season 1 go? Let's get on with it!


What's the story about: The Rings of Power is a multi-pov epic drama depicting the land of Middle-Earth in a seemingly peaceful place. The great war with Morgoth has ended, but things are not as they appear. All of Middle-Earth is about to experience great change and Galadriel searches for Sauron, because she knows he still lives.

Before anything else, I just want to state that while I was very nervous upon first hearing of this show's release, I very much wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt. They spent lots of money acquiring the rights to make it and spent a grand amount producing it...so that means it'll be good, right? 😬 I mean, this intellectual property is basically held in the highest regard imaginable compared to anything else in entertainment. So, I kept an open mind that they had the potential to make a good Lord of the Rings prequel show when there was so much riding against them. Then, I actually watched the first season. 😐 One could wrap up the entire first season with the idea that it is entirely a PREFACE. It DID NOT have any plot besides setting up future stories. All of it could've been wrapped up in expositional background and besides three or four key events, almost none of it was interesting. 😭

Despite having a slow, but mostly intriguing beginning to the season and show, the middle episodes (4-7) are just...rough to watch. Like, my wife and I struggled to stay awake to even watch them, rough. 😳 I LOVE The Lord of the Rings. They're my favorite movies and are in the ranking of my very favorite books, but this show...did not remind me of The Lord of the Rings in anything other than essence. It's a melodrama set in Middle-Earth that somehow connects. Let me explain: the main things that had actual weight and importance consisted of the Southlands being destroyed and transformed into Mordor, Sauron's "big reveal" (😑), the beginning adventure of Nori and Gandal--the Stranger, and the forging of the first three rings. And the way most of these things were handled were just out of nowhere so as to shock and surprise the audience, but not actually surprise or shock anyone. None of it mattered ultimately because the emotional investment was underground...I really did not enjoy Galadriel or Elrond's characters, the Harfoots were..around, Durin and Moria had me like "yay 😐," and Arondir was great when he wasn't around Bronwyn and 🙈 Theo. Oh, and Isildur has potential but his dad, Elendil, was actually one of the only interesting characters in the whole season. 

I could go on and on for why this was not that great of a first season but I'm nearing the end of this post and I want to keep things tight. The two things that worked flawlessly were the cinematography (obviously, since they paid hundreds of millions of dollars) and the music. Both of these aspects gave the impression of Lord of the Rings to a show that didn't remind me of Lord of the Rings in any other way. 😆 Because the writing is very derivative of something great and original, the acting is stilted the entire time because of the awful dialogue, and then the characters are so busy not doing anything to actually do anything adventurous or fun. All of the "mystery" surrounding Sauron wasn't compelling and ultimately fell flat. Okay, rant over. 

Final Verdict: ★★ 1.5 Stars - The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power had so much to live up to and an immense opportunity to fail. For the most part, it fails. While boasting a framework that has the ability to tell a fantastic Lord of the Rings tale, this is not how one should start said show. The characters are all unrealistic or hard to watch, the writing is difficult to appreciate, the plot was uninteresting, nonexistent, or just stretched too thin, and more than anything, it didn't feel like it had any weight or depth. If this show had made four tighter episodes, it may have made for better progression, but when it comes down to it, this preface of a first season will not be fondly remembered even if the show improves from here on out. I will be incredibly skeptical for the next season and can only hope that they enlist Peter Jackson to assist in some way to improve what is almost a complete loss.

Let me hear from you! If you like what you read, want to hear more thoughts on this topic, other reviews, or talk movie recommendations and Essential Reading, leave a comment below.