Season 2 of the most expensive TV series ever made is here, and it still feels like something of a loss leader.
Prime Video’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” has yet to develop characters we care about or put them in settings and situations — regardless of however handsome or awesome they may be — that make their fates more than rudimentarily moving.
The eight-episode season also fails to move the narrative needle much beyond where the smoking ruins of Season 1 left matters. Sauron (Charlie Vickers) is still the shape-shifting superbad. Elves, dwarfs, humans and orcs remain too blinkered by their own political in-fighting to counter him effectively. The goofy cosmic Stranger (Daniel Weyman), who we all know will become J.R.R. Tolkien’s most famous wizard, is still wandering around looking for his magic staff with some proto-Hobbit pals. More rings get made.
Some of these prequel plotlines do fill in fascinating data for the wonkier fans of “The Hobbit” and Tolkien’s actual “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. And each episode — half of which were directed by French/Swedish TV wiz Charlotte Brändström — has good action beats, scary stuff, whimsy and intrigues. But most of “Rings of Power” still feels mechanical and superficial, and doesn’t build enough of a bulwark against the show’s soporific saga exposition and perpetual meandering. Sending everyone on quests is the bane of all Tolkien productions; this season, shot in the UK, makes for even more tedious travelogue stretches than its New Zealand forebears.
Forever doomed to be negatively compared to the “Game of Thrones’” prequel series “House of the Dragon,” the second season of “Rings” does do one thing better: it delivers the brutal climactic battle that failed to materialize on its rival’s just-completed sophomore run. Yet even with its lack of action, the HBO series wins on compelling characterization points, a strategy our Middle-earth mavens have yet to learn. Almost everybody in “Rings” is defined by what they have to do next, with little complexity of feelings or motives.
That said, two Season 2 performances stand out, both due in different ways to the corrupting power of the magic rings. This theme is what made the franchise’s third film, “Return of the King,” resonate more than any other Tolkien show. It ain’t nothing new, but at least it’s a sure way for a few skilled actors to rise above all the fairytale sword and sorcery nonsense everyone else takes so seriously.
These would be Charles Edwards’ Celebrimbor, the master ring crafts-elf whose ego makes him an easy mark for Sauron’s deceiving, pointy-eared incarnation (Vickers does yeoman work as the now-he’s-human/now-he’s-elf-god/he’s-really-just-made-of-black-goo Dark Lord). Celebrimbor’s spiritual and cognitive declines are on par with those of the future Gollum’s, but more poignant. His is a farther fall from such an honorable starting place.
Peter Mullan delivers the other Shakespearean performance as Dwarf King Durin III, who goes mad with greed and a Trumpian belief in his infallibility while wearing a ring. With this one, Mullan (“Ozark,” “Top of the Lake”) further corners the market on toxic TV patriarchs.
Most everyone else plays a note or two beyond their heroic or villainous assignments, but doesn’t do a whole lot with them. Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) feels a bit guilty about falling for Sauron’s human disguise, but even wearing an infernal ring doesn’t hinder this elf warrior’s righteous fight against evil. A serviceable, sub-Sauron embodiment of all that’s terrible, orc leader Adar (played by Sam Hazeldine this season) has some spark of concern for the horde of drooling uglies he calls his children, yet thinks nothing of sacrificing them to achieve his aims. The next generation of dwarf royalty (Owain Arthur and Sophia Nomvete) perform profoundly uninteresting domestic slapstick, slathered in Scottish burrs, before rising to the occasion and rebelling against demented Dad.
Stumbling about arid wastelands with his plucky Harfoot sidekicks Nori (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy (Megan Richards),The Stranger encounters jolly, aggravating, sphynx-like wizarding guru Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear) and gets eaten by a tree, among other misfortunes.
Meanwhile, venal human usurpers are screwing up Númenor. The Maxfield Parrish wet dream city’s blind, rightful Queen Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) and her loyal Captain Elendil (Lloyd Owen) suppress their passion for one another with statements in the stilted noble-ese that too often substitutes for believable dialogue around these parts.
“You are walking a treacherous path,” Elendil’s collaborationist daughter Eärien (Ema Horvath) warns him.
“And yours is made of sea water!” He thunders back. “Take care to keep your feet beneath you. It’s a long way to the bottom.”
Hitting the depths of “Rings’” dialogue generator is obviously a much quicker process. At one point showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay just seem to give up and have someone mouth metaphorically that “a storm is coming,” as if to concede defeat to the “GOT” writers room.
In addition, an unsettling number of folks break into song. We’re indifferently introduced to new characters and love interests, none of which rise above a furtive, fully clothed kiss (another win for the “GoT”/”HOTD” column). Another subspecies or two emerges to unmemorable effect. There’s a pretty cool roster of monstrous creatures; while some appear to have escaped from an unmade “Pirates of the Caribbean” sequel, others — like the temple moths that turn into a spooky white lady and Damrod, a hill troll that’s like a giant Hulk orc who enjoys biting off the heads of puny humanoids — earn all the VFX budget that went into them.
Indeed, “Rings” continues to be a production of unparalleled sumptuousness, played out amidst medieval cities both wondrously glistening and horribly distressed, in underground kingdoms and haunted caves, across seascapes, forests and unforgiving deserts. It’s an immersive vacation to Middle-earth, but one that feels confined to a package tour agenda. Maybe we’ll actually get into the place, and its various people/beings, next season.
“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Season 2 premieres Thursday, Aug. 29, on Prime Video.