Out of a morbid curiosity, I just had to watch the initial episodes of Rings of Power season 2. And it sure is a morbid experience, morbidly dull. The main problem, beyond the apparent forced diversity, is the pacing. Almost every single scene consists of two people talking in a very static environment. It’s hilariously boring because the dialogue spoken is incredibly poor, and rarely moves the plot forward. It desperately tries to sound profound and “ye old English” for authenticity, but just comes off as inept. It’s a repeat of the first season, yet, somehow, even worse now, as it seems the little passion they had for the project has evaporated fully.
What’s going on?
We are now four episodes in, and very little has happened. We are not much further into this tale, whatever it now tries to tell. I think it’s about the creation of the rings that Sauron used to control the leaders of men in Middle-Earth. However, the show seems to be about everything else than that. To be fair, Sauron has hooked up with Celebrimbor to forge the rings, but that’s all we have seen about that. The not-Gandalf is now wandering around in Rhun looking for a stick to use as a staff with the two not-hobbits. Story-wise, this is probably the worst addition to lore. Like everything else, it’s uninteresting and has the pacing of slow moving molasses. The lame assassins and the weird Eminem looking character looking to capture not-Gandalf comes off as pathetic, instead of intimidating. The tension of this side-story is nil, and a negative to the plot overall.
The lack of tension is another issue with Rings of Power. Scenes of adversity are over way too quickly, and what I think is really amateurish film-making, is how they always cut away to the other characters when finally something interesting is about to happen. It kills the tension every time, but the few moments they do let an action-scene play out, it’s over so fast. If you blink, you will miss it. An example of this is the big worm in the swamp. Suddenly, there is a giant marsh worm attacking the protagonists, and it looks like we have a dangerous fight on our hands; how will our heroes manage this? Well, three seconds into the battle, and it’s all over, as the worm is killed with one cut. This is repeated constantly, for all scenes to continue with endless droning in static frames of dialogue. Is this hell?
The orcs are misunderstood
One amusing part of season 2 is the half-hearted effort of humanizing the orcs. You see, in 2024 nothing can just be evil. It’s funny because it feels like they are going for the “poor refugee” angle to manufacture sympathy, but you know, orcs are orcs. So, you get a scene of a hideous looking husband and wife orc with a small snarling goblin baby not wanting to go to war. Yet, at the same time, they show the classic “I smell man-flesh” orcs, looking for something living to gut. It’s incredible skitzo, and it does not work at all. It makes the whole show come off as a farce instead. It’s like they have different writers for every event, with zero communication between them. A Frankenstein script stitched together in the hopes that it will work out.
Oh, and yes, I almost forgot. One of the longer segments of action is off Galadriel defeating a group of orcs by herself. If you thought girl-boss Galadriel was over, keep dreaming! She is more badass than ever, but the action she’s in feels lame. She just does not have the moves, or body to convey a quick agility fighter of Eleven nature. Beside the failure of the actress, I blame the Marvelication of all action-scenes. It has made all scenes of fighting look and feeling unrealistic. It’s like the heroes of a modern story must do impossible jumps and acrobatics or else they will be executed by the state. Imagine having the skateboard scene with Legolas from the Jackson LOTR film, but it’s now in every action-scene. It’s exhausting and banal, which has the opposite effect of creating fear and tension for the protagonist.
And that’s all I have to say for now. I will probably return when a few more episodes have been released. However, I do have a feeling nothing much will happen. The show will probably remain in status quo for a couple of more seasons. From what I have read, they are contractually stuck with having to make five seasons. Oh boy, if true.
Thanks for reading.
/Thomas
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