After an enormously long wait, today Amazon finally unveiled the first two episodes of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power today. Is it worthwhile? Is this the exact story we’ve been waiting to see from this world?

Through the first two episodes, we can say that there are some incredibly-high highs from the world of J.R.R. Tolkien as presented. For starters, the world is stunning and these are some of the best visuals ever seen on television. Amazon spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the show and that’s clear. This is a wonderfully immersive world, and we do think it’s going to be fun to romp around in here and explore. We even had a few funny moments throughout the otherwise-dramatic two hours, and that was very much needed.

With all of this said, the ambition at the center of The Rings of Power is both the show’s greatest strength and also its most glaring weakness. There is no denying the attention to detail in creating so many characters; however, the storytelling also goes beyond what it needs to. The show is too vast for its own good through the first two episodes, and tries to introduce almost all of Middle-Earth at once instead of focusing in on a select few characters. It’s an even broader approach than we had in the early going of the Peter Jackson trilogy, which made it fairly clear early on that the Hobbits were the anchor. Here, we’ve got so many viewpoints and not enough connective tissue on them all.

The high point from our vantage point is Galadriel; we know the character’s warrior nature as presented by the series has been a bit polarizing, but she is the character with the clearest point of view of any in the ensemble — especially when it comes to her desire for vengeance and her ties to Sauron, who we are seeing in a far earlier form. In general, more time should have been given to her to have a stronger basis for the narrative.

The most important thing for almost any show

The characters. It’s hard to view it any other way. Moving through the rest of the season, we’re fine if The Rings of Power shifts away from the fantastic visuals and effects and focuses more on the inhabitants of this world. Because we already know where the story is going with Galadriel, Sauron, and Elrond, seeing them isn’t reason enough to get on board the show. Diving more into their particular world and understanding what makes them tick will do that. It’s like Better Call Saul — what made it work was a fantastic character in Saul Goodman, plus also a newcomer in Kim Wexler who was equally fantastic to watch.

What’s clear through Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is that the foundation is here for something great; more work just needs to be done to ensure the show is not visually stunning while also emotionally hollow. If it can balance out the ambition with more intimate storytelling, Amazon could have the hit they’ve been so desperate for in this genre.

What did you think about the first two episodes of Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power?

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