I vaguely enjoyed the first season while watching it. Then it ended and the whole thing was revealed to be six episodes of nothing happening, followed by one moderately ok episode and a finale where everything happened at such a rush it meant nothing and somehow felt underdeveloped in spite of seven hours of TV before that.

I could have watched the Jackson movies all the way from Hobbiton to Helm's Deep in that time. Or most of S1 of Game of Thrones. Think about how much narrative and character and sense of place those managed to convey in that time, and how little Rings of Power achieved.

It's a terrible Middle Earth story (I can't really consider it an adaptation, it's going on like 1 page in the appendix) and the plot is such a mess and the characters so badly drawn I think it fails taken entirely as generic fantasy unconnected to anything. Which of course you can't do, because it's only reason for existing, the sweaty essence that drips from every pore, is "the opening of Fellowship of the Ring was so cool, it needs hours of backstory!"


Rings of Power is high on my list of reasons for hoping my favorite things remain obscure, niche, and out of fashion enough they don't get TV adaptations.