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

Rated TV-14 • Prime Video

The second season The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power continues to explore the Second Age of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth. While this modern television take on Tolkien doesn’t perfectly capture the author’s spirit, it comes an ent-sized step closer than Season 1.

Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) returns as the primary protagonist in Season 2, but she takes a back seat in some episodes as other characters come to the fore. This new season focuses on the forging of the Rings of Power as Sauron (Charlie Vickers), in angelic disguise, manipulates elven metalsmith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards). The mysterious Stranger and his Hobbit-like Harfoot companions continue their wanderings through Middle-earth as political treachery unfolds in the realm’s centers of power.

The series is one of the most expensive in television history, and the massive budget shows in this season’s production values. Middle-earth hasn’t looked so real and historied since Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. But the series’ improvements go beyond the visual. Middle-earth becomes enchanted again. Good and evil permeate the hills and trees themselves.

Gone almost entirely are the strangely modern elf/human power politics of Season 1. Instead, the new season paints powerful pictures of temptation and forgiveness.

Much as in Tolkien’s original books, heroes are enticed to wield morally dubious power for the sake of good. The titular rings offer power over the natural world, and Rings of Power depicts the tragic fall of those who embrace this offer. The show’s heroes allow nature to belong to itself; the show’s villains seek to dominate and profit from the world around them, whatever the cost. Viewers might wonder whether this better matches Tolkien’s own environmental conservatism or the climate activism of today.

Yet for all the show’s technical prowess, some turns still fail to capture Tolkien’s intentions. Showrunners Patrick McKay and J.D. Payne refer to Tom Bombadil as the show’s “Yoda.” That’s an apt comparison, because this Bombadil acts more like a riddle-cracking Jedi Master than the cheerful, unconcerned Tom of the books. There’s also a certain moment of tenderness between two of Tolkien’s original characters that has already baffled and infuriated some fans.

Daniel Weyman plays the Stranger, a mysterious wizard who fell from the sky in Season 1. For Weyman, playing a role in Tolkien’s world is a childhood dream come true. The theme of friendship stands out to him as key to the series. But he also points to the theme of the seduction of power.

“When we meet [the Stranger], he has no knowledge of his past, and so as such, every experience that he has is a building block in terms of his personality,” says Weyman of his character. “And along that journey ...  he realizes at times he can choose whether he indulges, we might say, the ‘dark side’ of his personality, or he indulges the light side of his personality, or somewhere in between.”

The show is refreshingly friendly for families with older teens, free of modern agendas and the blatant sexuality rampant in other fantasy shows. This season contains several moments of jarring violence, evident from a bloody stabbing in the opening scene. But most of this brutality remains in the realm of fantasy.

At the end of the day, there are two ways to approach Rings of Power. You may choose to approach the show as a Tolkien purist, arms crossed—perhaps smoking a pipe, having dragged your armchair in front of the TV—certain to have a bad time. Or you may choose to take the show on its own terms, as a well-produced piece of televised fantasy with rich themes to explore.