The Rings of Power - Season 2, Episode 1 -3 Review ( Spoiler & Non-Spoiler)

[Music] hello everybody and welcome to my review of the first three episodes of the Rings of power season 2 which came out early this morning on Amazon Prime video this is going to be both a spoiler and a non-spoiler review so I'll start off with my non-spoiler thoughts and then transition to the spoiler section if you haven't watched the episodes yet also before I start I just wanted to say very briefly a thank you to so many of you and your comments on the video that I released on Monday it was quite frankly overwhelming what everybody had to say and I know I said in that video that I would be back with charts on uh Tuesday but I did end up taking some great advice from many of the commenters and many of my friends taking a couple of days getting myself settled into the new place not as much into the studio as you can tell it's still a work in progress but we'll get there um but anyway I just wanted to say thank you because it it really was uh an unexpectedly overwhelming response so thank you to everybody that left kind words and everything else and um let's move on to our review of rings of power season 2 I did a review for the first handful of episodes of season 1 and intended to do the full first season but when I sat down to write that review I just felt completely uninspired and that's because I really felt that that first season was unremarkable which is tough when you're trying to you know write remarks about it it wasn't necessarily what I would call bad it just wasn't much of anything but you know a lot of shows have recovered from a bad or a so so season 1 one of my favorite shows of all time Star Trek the Next Generation did not have a very good first season it came back in season two made some adjustments and then really hit it stride in season 3 and that was my hope for rings of power season 2 that they would build off of what they did do in that first season and then improve on the areas where the show maybe wasn't quite connecting with a lot of people because after all it didn't really do Blockbuster numbers as far as viewership flat characterizations unimaginative dialogue and uninteresting story lines were I think the major issues with season 1 and what I was looking for an improvement when it comes to season 2 but it turns out that this second season is almost exactly what you got with season 1 whether you loved it or you didn't like it so much there is a little enhanced interest because of some of the advancing storylines but it seems clear that no one at the rings of power show or at Amazon saw any reason for concern after that first season and made no course Corrections which means that I found these first three episodes largely as flat and unremarkable as the entirety of season 1 with some exceptions that I'll talk about Amazon famously invested around a billion dollars in rings of Power with a five season commitment and the idea the thought that kept rattling around my head is how do you make a show this expensive set in a world this full of story and mythology so dull and and really the answer I think is is largely especially through these first three episodes that 90% of the scenes are just two people talking two people standing around and talking now you see some epic flashes of Middle Earth here and there you see where the budget went there are a few effect sequences but through these first three episodes it's largely just two to three characters standing in front of some very pretty sets or standing in front of some very beautiful locations just talking in a very flat monotone and you can do a season of a show where people talking works the early seasons of Game of Thrones because of budgetary limitations before they had a blank check were largely people standing around in a room and talking the difference is that the writing was so good that the dialogue scenes in that show could feel like action sequences the writing on rings of power usually doesn't transcend cliche dialogue with characters spelling out the stakes of each scene before we move on to the next scene where the characters continue to spell out the Stakes of that scene the cumulative effect is that this is a show that I find in many parts very dull and very slow not in that engaging and interesting way that a slow show or movie can bring you in I know that releasing streaming shows in the middle of the night has been a thing for whatever reason and this one came out at 3:00 a.m. eastern last night but this one especially is a bad show to put out in the middle of the night because I think a lot of even di hard fans that stay up to watch the show will probably end up finishing it in the morning cuz they may have kned off in the middle the only storyline in this second season and there are several that really appeals to me so far is the Sauron storyline I perk up when we cut to him because it's interesting to see Sauron manipulating the elf Ring Maker Kell bmore and the others in Middle Earth as he begins his rise to become the most feared being in the world I actually think that a show just centered on Sauron which is about solely His manipulations and minations and how he was able to get the Rings made Etc would have been a really interesting show but it also would have been a much smaller show and Amazon made such a huge investment in this intellectual property before a frame was filmed before they even knew what show they were going to make that I feel like they couldn't make a show that small because it wouldn't be a big enough show of a return on investment they invested in making a massive show before figuring out what it would be and it's a show that's also constrained in the beginning by what they have the legal rights to make while the Sauron reveal was one of the weaker elements of season 1 for me his presence in season 2 is one of its strongest elements and it really seems like everybody else including gadriel and Elon seem to have been demoted from main characters to just faces in a growing crowd I do have to give Amazon credit for one thing and that's the length of each one of these first three episodes they're all at one hour plus so they are delivering the quantity that fans expect with a show that's associated with a name this big but I still think they are failing to deliver the quality and again it's not that it is a bad show it's just sort of there it's almost like background noise and it's in that same kind of background noise it's fine range that I felt about the first season I don't mind watching it but I also don't see myself watching it again and on that level I think it is a disappointment given the possibilities of this series and telling these stories that are a little more Det Ed from The Lord of the Rings proper so to get into that I want to talk about each one of the episodes in a spoiler discussion part so we'll talk about some of the specific things that happen in each one of them before we get to those episode reviews though I want to thank the sponsor for this video Miracle maid this video is brought to you by Miracle maid I don't know about you but I love a good night's sleep and for me the two biggest factors are comfort and temperature if I'm too hot of the sheets are too scratchy and thin I'm going to have a bad night but with Miracle Ma you can sleep comfortably every night Miracle ma sheets use silver infused Fabrics inspired by NASA that not only stay fresh longer than regular sheets but are also temperature regulating so you can stay cool and clean all night long I look forward every night to tucking into my Miracle made sheets because they're so soft better than a lot of hotels I've been to and because they also keep me cool I know I'll be drifting off to sleep in no time go to try miracle.com to try miracl made sheets today today and whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift for a loved one if you order today you can save over 40% and if you use our promo code Dan at checkout you'll get three free towels and save an extra 20% Miracle is so confident in their product it's backed with a 30-day money back guarantee so if you aren't 100% satisfied you'll get a full refund upgrade your sleep with Miracle made go to try miracle.com sdan and use the code Dan to claim your free three-piece towel set and save over 40% off again that's try miracle.com sdan to treat yourself thanks to Miracle made for sponsoring this episode those rings are more than our lost hope they may be the Lost hope for all Middle Earth it is a risk we must chance to take episode one was called Elven Kings under the sky and it starts with a flashback that I did not grasp at first was a flashback it does say at the beginning there that it's the second age I just need to get my tolking ages straight but for a show that spoon feeds information to the audience to such an extent that every shot of Mount Doom is accompanied with an onscreen identifier that says Mordor this was one crucial element where I think I was maybe not the only audience member that was lost and ironically could have used a little bit more information than just an onscreen identifier we see the first attempted rise of Sauron and his betrayal at the hands of Adar and the show did not skimp on the brutality of his attempted murder unfortunately Adar was not aware that Sauron is also Venom and that he could slink around Middle Earth as black goo until finding human form again this is an interesting way to show sauron's resilience but it felt very comic Booky in a show that feels very magicky otherwise and I mean somebody must have seen the renders on this thing or read the script and said hey guys you know you're making him seem just like Venom right I mean somebody has to have said that right gadriel and eler back with the elves and king gilgalad is not happy that gadriel was deceived by Sauron but the elves have salvation now with the Elven rings of power which can extend their time on Middle Earth however elron isn't sold because he knows Salon had a hand in making the Rings and instead of handing them over he pulls a Richard Kimble and does a Peter Pan over the waterfall again somebody had to flag this similarity right but it doesn't really matter because elon's choice of Confidant the ancient elf Kyan is seduced by the Rings returns them to goad and the elves become the first in Middle Earth to wear the Rings which seems to make elon's daring Escape kind of pointless like kind of a time fill I don't know we also have some adventures with the harfoot Nori and the Mysterious Wizard who's definitely not Gandalf they're wondering the wastelands until they're joined by nory's friend poppy who brings a convenient map and a song to get them out of the wastelands they're trapped in cool episode two called when the stars are strange brings us back to kazad Doom where an earthquake from Mount Doom has cut off access to sunlight causing a dwarf famine Prince Duran and his father father King Duran are still mad at each other so we get a lot of scenes where Duran's wife daa tries to convince them to make up you know those dwarf families they're always so dramatic somebody's always angry at someone we also get a little bit more in this episode of The Wizard and the harfoot as they struggle to come up with a name for him but they are pursued by minions of the dark wizard Kieran Hines who's um a dark wizard played by Kieran Hines that's all we know so far after Conjuring up a tornado to fight off the pursuers the Wizard also sweeps away Nori and Poppy into at least least episode 4 because that's the last we see of them in this first batch of shows also Nory makes sure to point out that the wizard is looking for a stick or a staff which she calls a Gand which proves that this is most definitely not Gand off guys he's afraid he'd lose control again without a Gand so we find a Gand there's plenty sticks all over the place but the really compelling stuff in the second episode was the manipulation of Kellin boore by Sauron first he pulls a Fight Club routine by hanging out outside of Kell bmb's place after he's been told to leave until Kell bmore who comes out with his Nifty umbrella comes out personally to get him the hell out of there but is hooked in by news of how his Elven rings have fared then you know nothing of what's happened nothing of the Rings what of the Rings I guess King yogad forgot to send the thumbs up emoji to kellmore who also does not know that Sauron is s because the Elven Messengers that were sent to warn him have been killed by Sauron after coming inside Sauron says he wants kellmore to for rings for the race of men then appeals to his vanity by saying that the elves don't appreciate his work but should they continue his work together Kell bribor will be known as the Lord of the Ring unfortunately that title is copyrighted by the estate of JRR tolken and Sauron can expect a cease and desist letter very soon then Sauron takes takes on a new form anatar the Lord of gifts a friendly being who just wants Kell bmore to reach his full potential and save the people of Middle Earth and this is the Sauron that I love to see not manipulating and getting his way through force or evil but by being a false friend and it goes back to the origins of the source material that they are allowed to adapt I so wish that this is the concept that the show would have committed to season 1 would be the Exile that we saw in the first part of this episode of Sauron and him returning to human form making his way back into society season two would be the manipulation of Kell bmore and the forging of the Rings I think it would have been a much more focused and a much more solid story and given what we've seen from these two characters and these two actors so far maybe even a much much better show I have to give credit to actor Charles Edwards as Kell rimbor who's able to play a character who's sympathetic yet easily manipulated without coming off as stupid which is a tough balance to strike and Charlie Vickers is doing great as Sauron especially because according to him he filmed the first two episodes of season 1 without knowing that he was even playing Sauron if he was playing the part too evil it would be hard to believe that Kell bmore wouldn't catch on to what's happening but he plays his cards with Kell bmore just right while also being evil and devious in other scenes these two actors so far through season 2 are hands down carrying the show episode three called the eagle and the scepter was my least favorite of these first three so far mainly because it heavily featured two story lines that I just don't care about very much although I'm sure some hardcore tolking readers would disagree the first storyline is the palace Intrigue in numor the king is dead and the newly blinded queen regent Muriel faces a challenge to her ascendants to the throne by ferzon the anti-elf advisor to the Royals it seems like a good omen that an eagle decides to Grace her coronations the only time in this franchise someone didn't yell that the Eagles were coming but this is tempered by the Revelation that she's also been using a paner which the people believe to be dark elf magic so fison decides to seize the moment and say that the eagle has endorsed him for the crown which the crowd seems to love and I just don't really care as a fan of Lord of the Rings obviously the thing that I'm most interested in is the Sauron storyline and that's not to say that I would never be interested in this storyline to go back to Game of Thrones I didn't know anything about that show before I started watching it and they hooked me instantly because they knew how to write these characters in a compelling way so I don't mind that this storyline is in the show they just haven't given a non-extended tolken reader like me a reason to care about these characters so largely I don't we also catch up with aelor who's alive which we knew cuz he shows up in The Lord of the Rings he's found by his horse baric then loses his horse Barrack and then finds his horse bar again he also meets a girl on the road named estd who at some point pledged fty to Adar and he's making friends with Theo remember Theo the kid whose mom was in love with the elf well the character of Bron one his mother isn't back because the actress decided not to return for season two but the elf is back arere is still around unfortunately in the attempt to rescue baric Theo has been snatched up by I presume a troll so that's going to have to get resolved again I don't really care about any of this but but we did get a pretty nifty spider scene with the seal door out of it so you know we got that going for us I think I liked this third episode the least because it had the least to do with the rings of power basically Sauron and Kell bmore sell the dwarves on using the Rings to help repair kazad Doom Duran makes up with his father also Duran and The Dwarves show up to get their Rings which Sauron himself insists on helping to forge I think he slipped a Mickey into those dwarf Rings something tells me he's up to no good and that something is the knowledge that he's up to no good so the formula so far in this season seems pretty simple more Sauron I'm going to like it more less Sauron I'm going to like it less the Kieran Hines dark wizard has some potential and if we can ever get elron and Duran back together I love their Dynamic but the more the show sticks to its title the stronger it is we're three episodes in let's see where we go from here I may return with more reviews or I may not I mean again if this second season is as unremarkable as season 1 I may struggle to come up with my thoughts for that one as well stay tuned so those are my thoughts on the first three episodes of rings of power what do you think do you think it was Improvement on season 1 do you care about some of these other storylines the ones that I don't care about let me know down in the comments below and as always thank you so much for spending part of your day here with me until next time stay safe and I'll see you then bye [Applause] [Music]