Here’s my The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6 review and if you are a discerning viewer, some mental gymnastics are required this week. If instead you are a casual, who is as at home watching reality TV as drama, I think you’ll probably think this is one of the best episodes to date. I myself, well, no, I’m not a fan of this show at all at this point. In fact, I’m convinced it cannot be saved. Yet, I think enough people will watch this to get it renewed. Therefore, eventually this show will form the basis for the lore for millions of fans who claim to be ‘in to Tolkien’. This makes me sad.

Poor Showrunners

The quality of writing in this show and the way it’s edited and structured is like amateur hour. I really don’t see any skill or experience at all in the team making this. The writers clearly don’t truly understand Tolkien or his themes. I have to assume they watched the movies and wanted to make a TV series about the history (they made up in their heads). The writers managed to pitch a good idea to Amazon’s clueless execs who gambled and hired two really inexperienced showrunners. Amazon, the gamble, which will be an expensive one, failed. At this point I would not hire J.D. Payne or Patrick McKay to write news stories for LRM.

Anyway, on to the specifics. As usual for this series this is FULL SPOILERS for both the show and the books they are so loosely based on. Honestly, before I start I do want to point something out, Rings of Power is not just a poor adaptation, if this was their own creative show from the start I would still have many of the criticisms I have of this show. I’ll focus on some of those today.

Numenor

Okay, so the Numenor plot this week has some of the usual issues. Reasonably well put together and once again the acting is decent enough. Elendil is to be put on trial using the old ways and dunked into the water for the big sea monster to ‘judge’. The acting between Elendil and Miriel and Pharazon is, decent, with what little they are given. Earien’s performance though? In fact I’ve been disappointed with the performance of actress Ema Horvath since the start. Her face tells me she’s phoning this in. We could blame the writing, as her dialogue is awful. However, I feel other actors are doing more with just as little. 

My issues with Numenor are going to back to things I’ve said before. One, it feels tiny and they refuse to have any tertiary characters beyond the main roles do anything. Kemen has one line this week, Earien has one awful scene. The rest of the time they stand about like extras. 

It also feels like 2 Episodes after Pharazon took control we are still debating who is King or Queen. Why Pharazon, who is supposed to reject the ways of the Valar, would agree to allowing these two to be judged by the Valar is nonsensical. If the scenes had all been shifted and this happened before Pharazon seizes the throne?

There is no cause and effect. There are scenes they wrote which they struggle to connect to what came before. They (showrunners and directors) don’t have the actual skill to spot these chain of events would work better switched around. Thus any sense of progression and building to climax are nullified. There is just no tension at all in the Numenor scenes. Therefore, they continue to be the worst part of the show for me. 

Arondir

Sorry, I had to. Arondir has one scene this week. His companions are not to be seen and there is no dialogue from him. We see two Orcs seemingly getting away from the Orc army to save their skins. Arondir see’s them and he stares menacingly at them. A third orc is suddenly behind him, because, it looks cool, no other reason. This starts a fight and Arondir dispatches them using his Legolas stand in skills. Arondir checks the pocket of an Orc and finds a little map. Cut.

It’s honestly just laughably bad. it exists for no reason other than to point out Arondir is on his way to Eregion. However, where his companions like Isildur are I have no idea? Ahead, behind, who knows? Did they split up, or will they just appear next week when they are needed in a scene. If you’ve seen Rings of Power, you know it’s the latter. 

I assume they decided they needed a scene showing how they get to Eregion. Though why when they’ve never needed any for travelling so far I don’t know? Maybe that day the continuity director, who will surely never work again anyway, finally told them they had to add it. Then they filmed a quick scene with only one of the cast because the other two were not available. Amateur hour folks, I told you. 

Dwarves

So, Sauron visits the Dwarves to ask for mithril and they say no, but it’s because Durin wants a bigger price, even though he could have just told Sauron what he wished, he instead said ‘they’ll come back’. Little Durin tries to get his dad to take the Ring off and he refuses. I half expected him to say, “it has become, precious to me.” I’m convinced he’ll say it before the end of the season and that makes no sense with actual Ring lore. 

Durin and Disa decide to two-man all the other Dwarves from doing more digging. Oh, and they’ve already hinted the Balrog is going to appear when they dig too deep. Which makes no sense because the Balrog shouldn’t be known about for several thousand years even with the time compression. Disa uses her sonic powers to summon bats who chase Narvi and his road gang away. 

My main issues with this scene are, why we even need Sauron to turn up anyway? But… hard to explain that until we get to the Sauron plot. Nothing much more to say about the scenes, it was really just a waste of time that could have been cut for more scenes elsewhere. This show juggles 2-3 too many plots for the runtime to handle every episode. 

Sauron, Brimby and the Oh So Special Nine

Okay, good first, I still think Celebrimbor and Sauron are two of the best performances on this show. They really do well with the sometimes clunky dialogue they are given to work with. However, none of this makes any sense.

What is Sauron’s plan? It is fundamentally different from his plan in the books which the films are based on. To go back to the Dwarves we have Sauron come looking for mithril and gets turned down. Then in a later scene Sauron shows Brimby some mithril he says he got from the Dwarves. Now, some fans think this is a continuity error, but I actually think it’s intentional. It is clear to me that Sauron instead is making Celebrimbor think its mithril but it is really the blood of Sauron. 

Casual fans will go gaga for this. Oh cool, Sauron is infusing himself into the Nine and that’s how the creates the Nine, wow this is so cool. No, it is utter rubbish.

The Nine are not special, they were not made with the goal of creating Ringwraiths. Why would that be the goal of Sauron? However, the show is making a big thing about the Nine because they didn’t follow the story of the books. Now they need to invent reasons for events happening that never existed.

RELATED: The Rings Of Power Season 2 Episode 5 Review – It Feels Rushed

In the book’s the Seven and the Nine, which were probably not even called that initially were made or ELVES. Sauron took them back in anger because the ELVES refused to wear them. They sensed him when he first donned the One. Probably because of the Three which he didn’t know of. He then gave them to Men and Dwarves hoping they wouldn’t sense him and he’d be able to control them through the One. However, there were unintended side effects. Dwarves didn’t fall under his will, even when he had the One. They were simply made different. Equally men turned into invisible wraiths, which whilst occasionally useful weren’t that great at not letting folks know who was really in charge. 

Now the show is making the Nine have some of Sauron’s own essence in them. Why, because that’s cool bro. Stop asking nerd questions and turn your brain off. 

The entirety of Season 2 is a set up for a battle the writers want to have. The Battle of Eregion. However, all the motivations for that battle in the books are absent from this show. That’s a pickle, as they really need a big battle to keep action fans happy. It seems therefore, the creation of Adar exists for this purpose alone.

Tolkien spent his life writing and revising all this so it made as much logical sense as possible whilst also being a riveting tale. Payne and McKay started this idea with, ‘f Tolkien, his ideas were boring, we can do better.’ Or, if they did not, then they simply lied to Amazon about how competent they were and how knowledgeable they were of Tolkien’s works, More importantly, how knowledgeable they were on some of the themes at play. 

Inconsistency

Here are a series of questions that have no answers.

How does Adar know about the Three Elven Rings? Was it broadcast on social media across ME?

If Adar knew Sauron was Halbrand and wants to kill him…. Why did he send him to Eregion? (Lol.)

How do none of Eregion’s guards spot a massive Orc army building up just within trebuchet range of them before reacting? See below.

Why did any of the Elves listen to Sauron when he said, leave Brimby alone, even though they can see (eventually) there’s an issue brewing outside their gates? Sauron spoke to like 7 people, what about the other thousands of people?

Why did Galadriel tell Adar everything? Was it because he asked nicely? Galadriel who is one said to have the will to potentially bend the One to her will is outfoxed by an Elf tortured by Sauron for thousands of years. (Nice.)

Bombadil saying Gandalf’s lines to…. Gandalf was… Why would Tom be the one to test Istari and if this process was effective what happened to the dark wizard? Probably not supposed to question this and just enjoy the fact he used a line from the movie. I also assume that the test is actually that he has to choose his friends, because if not, the writers really didn’t understand Tolkien at all. 

How did Adar even know Halbrand was in Eregion, was he waiting for Sauron to get there just so he could attack anyway? 

If Sauron intended to use his blood instead of mithril (yeah that sounds great for making Rings) then why did he even bother turning up to ask Durin for mithril. As said above, a wasted scene that could have been cut. 

So, it’s not bad?

What, have you not followed me so far, no, no, no. This is just the tip of the iceberg honestly. I could go on about specific inconsistencies and plot holes created by themselves for pages and pages. I could take each scene of an episode and pick it apart, I could probably also show how the editing could have been handled better to give a flow of story, even without rewrites. There is not one aspect of this show outside of the actors that is professional. Actually, the set design is mostly okay and the locations shots are nice, cinematography is actually decent on the most part. But the costumes are all too clean and look fake. The plot is nonsensical, the editing is ghastly and the dialogue is poorly written unless copied from Tolkien directly, whether it makes sense or not. 

At this point the only way this show could get worse for me is to get into really laughable territory. Like the rumors Tom Bombadil will be Morgoth and Goldberry is somehow Ungoliant. Or the dark wizard being called Saruman, or Sauron giving one of the Nine to Pharazon. 

I actually think I’ve gone into hate watch territory with this show and what a shame that is. Amazon has wasted Billions on two amateurs who should never have been allowed near this universe.

GRADE – D

I don’t think I’ve ever given anything a D. However, I usually stay away from poorly made crap. It’s just so sad that a great idea for a TV show like this was ruined by incompetent showrunners who know nothing about the story they’re adapting. This is honestly as bad if not worse than the adaptation of The Witcher. 

I’ll finish off Season 2, but folks, I can’t see me reviewing all of the episodes in Season 3 when it inevitably appears. I just don’t think it would be constructive for readers. Instead I may just wait for the full series to be over and review it overall, If anyone wishes me to keep going episodic for Season 3, you can let me know in the comments below. 

As always, let me know that you thoughts of my review for The Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 6. Amazon, its too late to save it, cancel this mess and put the money into Wheel of Time instead. At least the showrunner there is marginally competent, just stop overruling them on suggestions Brandon Sanderson makes. 

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