It was always going to be an impossible task. The expectations for the tv-shows were that high that it wouldn’t be impossible for the Rings of Powers to be perfect, but episode after episode, the show grew and ends it first season in an interesting place.
The series is set thousands of years before the events of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and follows an ensemble cast of characters, both familiar and new, as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil to Middle-earth.
Patrick McKay and John D. Payne pitched a show based on the 30 pages in the appendices of the Lord of the Rings which doesn’t give them a lot of move to maneuver even though the story is told in the Silmarillion (which Amazon doesn’t have the rights to). The two writers decided to create new characters and tell new stories even if everything seems very familiar and the main storylines are the creation of the rings of powers, the rise of Sauron and the Last alliance of Elves and Men. Shot in New Zealand like ‘The Lord of The Rings’, the series is gorgeous, with Khazad-Dûm, Numenor and Lindon being created to dazzle the viewer. The problem is the build-up which is a little slow in the beginning but starting at episodes six the series really takes off. The reveal of Sauron promises an explosive second season.
The series is wel cast with a special shootout to Sophia Nomvete playing the dwarf princess Disa, Morfydd Clark as Galadriel, Ismael Cruz Cordova as Arondir, Charlie Vickers as Halbrand, Lloyd Owen as Elendil, Robert Aramayo as Elrond and Owain Arthur as prins Durin IV.
