Disclaimer: In our “fellowship of critics reviewing the LOTR series, I’m more on Mike’s team than Jami and Ricky’s. Mike described episodes one and two perfectly:
“Have you ever been on a date with a beautiful person at an expensive restaurant, only to have zero chemistry with that person and a mediocre meal? Something just isn’t clicking. And maybe feelings will grow from there, and you may give this person another shot since they started to show signs of life in the second hour of the date. But you can’t seem to get yourself excited about it.
Watching the first two episodes of THE RINGS OF POWER was like that.”
Well, after five episodes, that feeling continues to grow. However, Ricky was much more generous in his E4 review by giving it a glowing review and stating, “All roads are leading to The Southlands, but it’s taking a while.”
I’m sad to report that it’s still taking a while after five lengthy episodes, and we are still not at The Southlands battle. I’m all for slow burns on TV (see SEVERANCE or BETTER CALL SAUL). However, this show is so expertly crafted technically that it’s a damn shame that more isn’t happening in the way of story structure. There’s that much world-building and that minimal story.
The lyrics to the catchy opening song tonight were, “Not all who wander are lost.” I’m sad to report that this expensive TV series continues to be lost. And, when it comes to “one ring to rule them all,” that ring will always belong to Peter Jackson’s LOTR trilogy.
It’s available on Prime Video.
