Did ‘The Rings of Power’ Fumble Its Release, or Just Set Itself Up for Success in Season 2? An Investigation
variety.comCaroline Framke Chief TV Critic Of all the possible outcomes facing Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” the one I didn’t see coming is that I’d end up feeling a need to defend it.
Basically, everything about the show’s production (i.e. a behemoth corporation spending unfathomable amounts of money on a blatant IP grab for a streaming service on the edge of relevance) represents everything I’ve come to loathe about the entertainment industry.
The age of TV reboots seems almost quaint now, in this era of endless prequels and sequels to spinoffs of franchises. As the most expensive television series of all time (all!
time!), “The Rings of Power” should by all rights be Enemy No. 1. And yet, on the eve of its first season coming to a close, all I can muster is a petty sort of confusion that the series isn’t half the pop culture monster it once promised to be. “The show’s good!” I keep yelling at no one in particular. “Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel rules!” I insist at the vocal Tolkien fans saying otherwise, reasoning that even elves are allowed to change over thousands of years when just weeks ago, I was rolling my eyes at the idea of caring about any more elves. “Did no one see the creation of MORDOR?” I lamented after the (literally) explosive sixth episode dropped, as unending “House of the Dragon” memes slam my timelines like the searing comets flinging out of Mount Doom (MOUNT DOOM!).
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