Review: Amazon's Rings of Power is a Slog
Years ago, a local news station was interviewing would-be customers at a Popeye’s that had run out of chicken for the day. Customers described their varying degrees of displeasure, but the quote that stuck with me from that obscure video all those years ago was spoken by a man who did a better job of capturing our thoughts on these matters than most people could:
“I’m more disappointed than angry.”
That, more or less, sums up my opinions on most new TV shows and movies. I am not convinced that many of these productions are worth the energy that anger requires. I believe that this is true for Amazon’s The Rings of Power, despite the obvious outrage resounding from all corners of the viewing population (with the exception of most professional critics). Perhaps this is a boring take, and I may be better off heading this article with a meme of JRR Tolkien doing the “look how they massacred my boy” meme, but I don’t think that would be entirely honest. The strongest emotion I felt when watching the first three episodes of Season 2 was simply exasperation. I may have mustered a serious eye roll at the orc family, but then I laughed at the implication of orc intercourse, orc wetnurses, and then I thought that the people who write this show may actually do something like explore a narrative about plight of orc women in Middle-Earth society, and how they are actually sufficiently competent to spread Sauron’s evil across the land, perhaps even more so than male orcs.
It is so easy to rage bait. Even as I write that I feel my exasperation reaching a little higher, but I am not angry, I promise.
I don’t think it is possible to create any type of rating system for movies or shows that holds each production to the same set of standards. I will try to shy away from creating an overall numerical representation of the quality of any production, especially in this case. I also think it’s important to note that most of the numerical figures you will see on review sites are fundamentally subjective. While there are cases where enough subjective experiences line up to create a pretty good objective estimation of the truth, we need to keep in mind that each reviewer doesn’t use the same scale, doesn’t have the same values, doesn’t get irritated by the same things, and might simply be entertained in fundamentally different ways.
Having said that, Rings of Power seems to have hit that point where enough subjective experiences have lined up to give us all a clear idea of the quality verdict: it’s not good
At this point, the commentary around the show has been so explosive that is difficult to start a new review or commentary from scratch. There aren’t too many truly original thoughts left to be said on this topic, but while I will attempt to give my unbiased review, it is also worth responding to the validity of the criticisms that exist already. While commentary on commentary can become insufferable, the rage about Rings of Power is so extreme that it merits some additional consideration. My take is pretty simple.
The Rings of Power Season 2 is boring.
That is pretty much it, and it is the cardinal sin of entertainment. Let’s keep in mind that this is the ultimate purpose of movies and tv. Sure, the best sources of entertainment will make us ponder deep questions and empathize with complicated characters, but it isn’t possible to accomplish any of these higher aims without the secret sauce: whether or not people enjoyed watching it. Many critics and reviewers will spend hundreds or thousands of words trying to justify that assertion by pursuing plot analysis, character evaluation, critique of the show’s writing, and judgement of the production value. While a justification for an assertion is warranted, it is illusively challenging to pinpoint the exact factor (or combination of factors) that make something “boring.” Very often, it similar to Justice Stewart’s thought on being able to identify when content is pornographic: “I’ll know it when I see it.” This is not a satisfying answer, but is the truth.
I can do my best to analyze why my reaction to the show was the way it was, but my reaction was not the same as many other Tolkien fans and online reviewers. Many viewers were truly outraged by Rings of Power, and while I do understand it, I think much of that outrage is misplaced. Again, I understand it, but I believe it is misguided and counterproductive.
One of the most “memed” aspects of the show is its emphasis on racial diversity in casting. I am going to play devil’s advocate at the front end. It may seem like “please know I am not racist” throat clearing, but it is a genuine attempt to identify more apt criticisms for these sources of entertainment. As a general disclaimer, you don’t want to be the kind of person who gets elevated blood pressure whenever you see a minority character in a show that isn’t specifically about that minority group – life is too short. Also, racial diversity in casting can be done in a way that doesn’t detract from the immersion of the story. I am not suggesting that Rings of Power executed any of these concepts particularly well, but I don’t think racial uniformity is a prerequisite for making a good Lord of the Rings story. Tolkien’s work, much like any great work of literature, is about timeless concepts like the struggle of good and evil, which doesn’t need to be specific to any particular visual aspect of an actor. Perhaps the most important point is that there is nothing about the true meaning of Tolkien’s work that necessitates that any actor playing one of his characters has to white, even if Tolkien imagined elves and men in that way. The fact that Tolkien imagined LOTR as a mythos for England is an important part of his work, but it doesn’t mean that the themes can only be represented by actors of one visual trait or another in cinematic or theatrical adaptations. The quality of the acting, writing, and direction will always be the most important variable. For example, a African or Asian actor playing “Hamlet” can deliver a great performance, despite not looking anything like a prince of Denmark in the 15th century – we generally accept this as a population because we understand that the work of Shakespeare is not fundamentally bound by the time it took place in.
The point is that the race of specific actors didn’t make or break Rings of Power. For what it is worth, I thought the character of Arondir (played by Ismael Cruz Cordova) was done relatively well, especially compared to many of the other characters in the show. At the very least, Cruz Cordova did a good enough so that his visual characteristics (which we have not historically associated with elves in LOTR) did not detract from my view of the character.
Unfortunately, in the mind of many viewers, Rings of Power’s approach to including racial diversity in the cast did, in part, detract from the immersion of the show. While there may have been some instances where this is the case, I hardly think that this is even a central issue to the show’s overall quality. There is definitely a trend among writers to superimpose 21st Century American cultural ideas onto anything and everything, regardless of how it impacts to the quality of a story and its characters. Viewers have picked up on this, and I can’t blame them for developing an allergy to it. Many people noticed that in scenes involving groups of extras, it often appeared that a producer had a checklist of all races and historically marginalized groups to make sure to add into the scene. While it comes off as a little silly to see that the Numenorian rowing crew just happened to have pitch perfect 21st century racial representation, I don’t think people would have cared if the show had other redeeming qualities. Many viewers also collectively rolled their eyes at the casting of Princess Disa, Prince Durin’s wife. Again, I don’t think switching the actress for Disa would change anything about the overall quality of the show, and I don’t even think she did a “bad” job of playing her role. Her contact lenses were weird and completely unnecessary, but the color of her skin was hardly the main issue. While the frustration of some audience members will manifest itself as trolling about the actress for Disa, the vast majority of these people are not racist. They are increasingly frustrated that the people who are responsible for creating stories about the material they love are more motivated by modern-day political messaging than a respect or love for the story. This larger concern certainly has some validity, even if it’s not the sole issue behind the failure of Rings of Power.
Another resounding criticism from audiences about Rings of Power pertains to a thematic departure from both Tolkien’s lore and intentions. I have loved LOTR since I was a kid. I read both the trilogy and The Hobbit at an early age, and Peter Jackson’s trilogy is at the top of my list of favorites. However, I will admit that the extent of my expertise and fandom ends there. I don’t have expert knowledge of the Tolkien world beyond what is in the books I have read. I am not going to get into those specifics, because I am not the right person to do that, but more importantly, I don’t think the specifics actually matter in this case. The heart of the matter is that audiences perceive show writers to not share the same love, respect, and admiration for the source material. Is this generally true? Almost certainly yes. Is this true of Rings of Power? Almost certainly yes. Is a lack of strict adherence to the source material the most pronounced constraint on Rings of Power’s quality? It’s complicated.
If we’re being honest, Rings of Power could have been thoroughly “lore accurate,” and it still may have been boring as hell. However, a closer alignment to the source material would indicate that the writers and creators are more invested in telling the story well, which may have affected the overall quality in a variety of different ways.
When listening to Peter Jackson talk about the works of Tolkien, it is pretty obvious that he shares a type of reverence for the beaty of the stories; however, he also fundamentally understood the limitations of what can be engaging on screen. For example, Jackson spared us a cinematic depiction of Tom Bombadil, which would have inevitably been a bit corny in a movie. As is well known among fans of the movies, Jackson also famously increased the presence of Arwen in the movies in an attempt to make the story more engaging. Despite being departures from the source material, these changes certainly don’t negate Jackson’s investment in the work of Tolkien, and they don’t detract from the quality of the movies. Jackson’s obvious love of the story caused him to make educated artistic decisions to make the movies more accessible to a wider range of audiences without sacrificing the true essence of the story. This love for LOTR, and not any one particular element of story or lore, is what informed Jackson’s ability to carefully design each element of those movies.
Rings of Power, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to be influenced by a similar love. This is evidenced by the lack of care placed in dialogue, plot, and casting. Audiences perceive this as arrogance on the part of show creators. When this type of passion or interest in the original story is absent, it messages to audiences that the show creators believe they are more apt to tell the story than author. It signals a lack of value for the very thing that made the story loved in the first place. Audiences imagine some 24-year-old kid with a nasally voice and an Ivy League degree sitting in the writers room making comments about what Tolkien, the author of some of the most widely-read stories of all time, should have done differently.
I don’t know if these writers and creators actually have a disdain for source material generally, and I certainly don’t know if it is the case for Rings of Power. It may be possible that the creators just simply aren’t as educated on the Tolkien, but they were given a job to do and used the typical formulaic approaches used by their counterparts for shows and movies based on popular intellectual property. The larger point is that a more rigid adaptation of Tolkien’s lore wouldn’t have saved the show on its own.
It's difficult to say what could have saved Rings of Power, because the version that we saw could not have been fixed by a single change. The plot was scattered and shallow, the dialogue missed the mark, and much of the acting simply did not land. It is truly astonishing to see Amazon and other studios spend exorbitant amounts of money on productions that fail in such spectacular ways. It is often difficult to see exactly where all that money was spent in Rings of Power. There are some visually great scenes, but that is the extent of it. While audiences do appreciate a visual spectacle, it is hardly the thing that they value most, except in rare circumstances. In most cases, audiences will value great characters, plot, and writing over mind-blowing visual effects.
Others have clearly identified the structural failings of Rings of Power, and I don’t think there are any unique criticisms left to be said. The showrunners traded quantity of plotlines for quality of plotlines, created a host of unnecessary characters, poorly executed the creation of known characters, failed to capture the essence of dialogue that makes LOTR captivating, strangely casted key roles, and over-indexed for visual scale. Even the emphasis on scale was poorly managed, with very rare action sequences, and an absence of compelling dialogue and plot to make non-action sequences engaging. Again, it was all just quite boring.
In an attempt to make the Rings of Power accessible to a wider audience with formulaic strategies, Amazon successfully made it inaccessible to everyone. I sincerely doubt that Amazon brought new fans into the larger LOTR world in any meaningful way, making it one of the worst cinematic misfires from a creative and business standpoint in my lifetime. While it would have been impossible to make all viewers happy, I do believe audiences are truly open to liking these productions. However, their cynicism is growing because they have been continuously let down by creators. In turn, showrunners and writers develop a type of disdain for their audiences, almost seeming to enjoy irritating fans of source material simply out of spite, because these creators believe nothing they do will make these audiences happy. Ironically, the rage that audiences and some critics express at these productions may actually fuel the problem to some degree, but that doesn’t make their positions any less true.
I know that I was open to enjoying Rings of Power, and I believe many other fans were too. Like me, most Rings of Power hopefuls were not experts in Tolkien lore, and we knew that this new thing was not going to be the same as the trilogy we love. Yet, we still wanted it to be good, and we were open to the possibility of it being good. The fact that it was not good is not on the audience, and the overwhelmingly negative perception of the show can’t be entirely chalked up to review bombers and trolls.
Amazon spent a gazillion dollars making a boring show – that is the story. This show had an extraordinarily large existing audience, and the scope of this failure is business malpractice, especially after they made no meaningful adjustments to their approach in Season 2. They may have avoided making serious adjustments to Season 2 because that would involve acknowledging the criticism they received from all corners of the earth – pride is certainly a simple and effective explanation. Or, it is simply possible that their viewership statistics on Rings of Power don’t match the vociferousness of the criticism. I do believe in the concept of “voting with your money,” and if you do believe that Rings of Power is an affront to a beautiful story, then you shouldn’t watch it. I won’t be watching the rest of the series, simply because it’s not entertaining. At all. Unfortunately, Amazon will still get my money, because I want my nicotine lozenges delivered at 8AM tomorrow morning without having to drive to the store this evening. Principles will only ever get you so far.
