I generally enjoyed watching Rings of Power season 1 when it came out in 2022. But after a couple more watches I realized that I ultimately found it to be disappointing. Some rather weak plot lines (OMG, which character is Sauron?), plus some cringy scenes (Galadriel really likes horses) and some underwhelming dialogue ("I am good"), left me feeling disappointed in the end.
The first 3 episodes of Season 2 dropped last night, and I settled down to watch all 3 with a healthy dose of skepticism. But I am pleased to say that (so far) Season 2 is leaps and bounds better that the first, in my opinion. I can't guarantee that the entire season will be this excellent, but I was very pleasantly surprised.
I'm not going to give away any spoilers right now, but I'm curious to see if people agree or disagree that Season 2 is much improved.
Comments
2 episodes in and I am enjoying it so far. I plan to watch episode 3 tonight.
I've seen a few bad reviews online, and they make me wonder if we're even watching the same thing. So far season 2 is a huge improvement over season 1 IMO.
I agree, and honestly I enjoyed the first season. I feel series like this, the same as star wars, have the built in fan base that will never really be satisfied with how the series gets done resulting in bad reviews. Some people just can't let go, so if you change one little thing about a character then the whole series is crap and they will hate the whole thing.
i found the first season to be underwhelming -- enough so that S2 was out just in time for me to have a 5 day LDW and i didn't even watch it. I'll get there eventually, but it is not a priority or appointment viewing for me, unfortunately
I think you're going to like the new episodes a lot more. They seem to have learned some lessons, and maybe even listened to fan criticism. My biggest problems with season 1 were the totally unnecessary and unhelpful Sauron reveal, some genuinely mediocre writing/dialogue and their inconsistency in making characters/regions worth caring about.
The second season solves some of the Sauron-Galadriel-Adar weirdness, and (so far at least) I think the dialogue is noticeably better. I'm still not totally digging the Istari-Hobbit storyline, although even that is better too. Numenor was a big disappointment for me in season 1, and whether that improves is still TBD in my opinion.
But honestly, the biggest difference for me is that season 2 is just a lot more fun. It's exciting as a Tolkien fan to see Sauron finally doing Sauron-y things, and the dynamic between Galadriel, Gil-Galad, Elrond and Cirdan, as the three elven rings cause conflict, is fun to watch. We're finally seeing the slow burn of Sauron's long game start to yield results, and it's satisfying. In particular the Annatar and Celebrimbor relationship causes tension for the viewer that I think was lacking in season 1.
Agree. For a show called Rings of Power, its nice that they are actually getting to showing the forging of the Rings of Power.
haven't read most of the comments below for fear of spoilers
watched eps 1-4 this weekend and about to watch ep 5 now -- I'm impressed at how the plot has advanced on so many fronts. anything with the Dwarfs is especially captivating: such presence, very wow
I will add that I dislike the recasted Adar, but he works well enough. felt the first guy did a better job of playing a complex character
I'm very much enjoying this show right now. I actually appreciated the slow build of Season 1, allowing the show to breathe a bit before getting to the good stuff. Because they came out at the same time I find myself comparing it a lot to House of the Dragon, and seeing how each handled the first season does have me thinking different things right now.
With HotD, they sped run through the first year, glossed over major inflection points, and just went straight to the meat on the bone. Made for a rapid-fire first season, sure, but now that they're in the heart of the story, I am finding that I really just don't care about the characters, and half the time I'm having to look up who is who because they spent so little time on developing anyone.
With RoP, the slow build seems to actually be paying off now. I know who everyone is, I know what their reason for acting is, and I can understand and appreciate their decisions. They can jump between 3 or 4 different plotlines and I'm able to follow it all because they did what was necessary up front.
Also, holy crap this show has some amazing visuals.
I had hoped season 2 would be more eventful, and it has been for sure. I've been really impressed with Charlie Vickers as Annatar, watching Sauron/Annatar slowly deceive and influence Celebrimbor, and even Galadriel, is great. The last episode (episode 5) was clearly the best of the whole show, IMO.
I've come to accept that the show isn't going to be perfect, but I'm cautiously optimistic that the showrunners have gotten their feet under them as far as the plot and overall writing. The acting and cinematography have always been excellent.
I thought the finale was great, and overall season 2 was far better than season 1. I hope they get to continue the series and we get a season 3.
I was pleasantly surprised how much better season 2 was than season 1. Not that every aspect was an A+ (cough, Hobbits, cough). But every episode was good, and the Sauron-heavy episodes were great. Charlie Vickers (Sauron) and Charles Edwards (Celebrimbor) could each legitimately be nominated for Emmys.
If I were going to rate the two seasons relative to the Peter Jackson movies, this is how I'd stack them up:
Fellowship - 10
Two Towers - 9
Return of the King - 10
Hobbit I - 7
Hobbit II - 6
Hobbit III - 5
Rings of Power Season 1 - 6
Rings of Power Season 2 - 8
Only a "9" for the The Two Towers? The Battle of Helm's Deep was so freaking epic! Okay, if you have to rank the three of them, then sure, Two Towers comes in third behind Fellowship by a Hobbit's whisker. Greatest three movies adapted from novels ever made in Hollywood history. Or just the greatest three movies ever, end of discussion. I may be a tad bit biased, but not much.
That was horrifying and awesome. Kendrick stole the spotlight which is perfectly fine.
Wait are you a book purist who likes the movies?
I am a huge SF&F fanboy who has read many of the book series out there dating back to the 70's. I hate when movie studios take a beloved literary work and "retell" the story in a way that either politicizes the work (The Witcher, Wheel of Time, et al) or simply changes the plot for no apparently good reason (Dune, 1984). I accept that the movie-making process must reduce the content of immense novels in order to fit the time constraints of the movie industry. Peter Jackson combined brilliant cinematography with excellent scripts that borrowed heavily from the source material and sought to honor those novels in the cinematic production. Prominent omissions from the Lord of the Rings trilogy including the Tom Bombadil sequence in Fellowship and the Scouring of the Shire chapter from Return don't trouble me because the movies don't lack impact or context without those passages. Jackson's Rings Trilogy is faithful to the source material at a level rarely seen in Hollywood productions, both in the massive investment in special/practical effects that brought the movies to brilliant life and in the faithful storytelling that accurately portrayed all of the principal characters in a way that I like to think Tolkien would have approved.
I don't mind merging the stories of Erkenbrand and Eomer into Eomer's character, or giving to Arwen some of Glorfindel's heroics, or the omission of Old Man Willow and Tom Bombadil, or the Scouring of the Shire.
I do mind having Elves be at Helm's Deep. Just like I didn't like the Dead-Ex-Machina at Pelennor Fields.
I really think the 3 lotr movies would've been better suited to today's day and age where source material is more fragmented for cinema -- could the three books have been better told in four or five movies than three? Likely.
I definitely would have liked four or five movies, but from what I heard about the level of commitment required of the cast, it may have been hard to keep them in New Zealand for much longer than Jackson was able to pull off. While I didn't mind the elves being at Helm's Deep, I really hated that they killed off Haldir. So unnecessary. I have to confess that the Men Under the Mountain plot in the movie actually felt better rather than the plot from the book where Aragorn gathers up the remaining Gondorians and arrives in the Corsair boats to help win the Battle of Pelennor Fields with just human reinforcements. Tolkien portrays the victory as having a lot to do with Sauron's army losing heart after the Witch King dies from Eowyn's blow, but that always bothered me a bit because Sauron's forces still vastly outnumbered the defenses and they had broken into Minas Tirith successfully which would have encouraged them. Militarily speaking, it just didn't feel like a victorious situation for Gondor and the arrival of the undead army made for a dramatic and convenient plot piece in the movie that felt very satisfying, albeit convenient for Jackson. Who knows, maybe someday a completely faithful version will get produced though I highly doubt that anyone will ever achieve the levels of commercial or critical success that Jackson enjoyed with LOTR. Please don't get me started on the Wheel of Time mess, I loved that book series and Amazon is not doing it any justice. It could be so much better.