So Rings of Power turned out to not be very faithful to Tolkien's work, but an enjoyable show nonetheless. It's generally played fast and loose with canon, but they're trying to base it on the books, and there are little hints scattered throughout for avid book fans. The cinematography, landscapes, and VFX are amazing, but the writing is where the show falls short.
Episode 1 started out with Galadriel's revenge-driven hunting of Sauron, and introduced us to many main characters, among them Elrond Half-Elven, Arondir the Elf, and Nori Brandyfoot, and ended with the arrival of a large and strangely fiery meteorite to the land of the Shouldn't-Be-Herefoots.
Episode 2 expands the show's world, introducing us to the Dwarves of Khazad-dûm, which is depicted as a beautiful and grand city with cool elevators, though disappointingly we don't see the Bridge. The meteorite contained a guy who looks like Jesus's weird cousin* and who can levitate rocks. This episode also introduces us to Halbrand, a mysterious man of the South.
*Technically that's John the Baptist, I guess.
In Episode 3 we meet the Númenóreans and arrive at the isle of Númenor, which is a beautiful Gondor-esq land that staggers the viewer with its scale. We meet Míriel (portrayed as the Queen Regent, because her father Tar-Palantir is basically on his deathbed) and her cousin, (not yet Ar-) Pharazôn, who advises her.
Episode 4 continues these plotlines. Halbrand beats up some Númenórean smiths and goes to jail. Amazon appears to have simplified the growing darkness of Númenor as "not liking Elves".
Episode 5 is kind of a mess. The plot makes so little sense that I don't really want to write about it. There's a sword fight, which you'd think I'd be happy about, but while it's elaborately choreographed, the filmmakers chose to make the characters' faces visible in almost every shot, and the actors are simply not that good. The few shots with stuntpeople are clearly better, though.
Episode 6 is amazing, in part because it's basically one big battle scene that ends in a huge explosion. It's very violent (seriously, they couldn't put this in a PG-13 movie) but that's not a bad thing—I disliked the general "cleanness" of the previous episodes, though the troll fight in ep.1 was cool. Mount Doom erupts, and it's really awesome.
Also, near the beginning of the episode, Isildur (sorry, forgot to mention he's in the show) throws an apple with his left hand (he was left-handed in the films).
Episode 7 details the Númenórean army's getting out of the ruin of the area they were in. Isildur appears to perish in a burning house, and Queen Míriel has gone blind.
Episode 8 is a good one. The entire episode, we are being pushed to believe that Meteorite Man/The Stranger is an amnesic Sauron, with one character outright stating it, but then we get an absolutely awesome reveal that he's an Istar and that Halbrand is Sauron (also, Halbrand does some Mysterio-type magic). That means the Stranger is a Wizard. At the end, he says, "When in doubt, Eleanor Brandyfoot, always follow your nose," which blew my mind, because as we remember:
Overall, I like Rings of Power, and I'm sad that we may have to wait over a year for season two. It's a good show for all its flaws, and they are, in my opinion, respecting Tolkien and Jackson.
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