The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power flourishes in its second season after the groundwork laid by the first season, allowing more focused storytelling with greater character depth, moral ambiguity and darkness to take audiences on a thrilling, grand journey in Middle Earth, bolstered by phenomenal production design and visuals effects, and a magnificent musical score from Bear McCreary.

 

Middle Earth has been a permanent fixture in popular culture thanks to J. R. R. Tolkien’s brilliant writing and Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, both of which remain today crowning jewels of their respective mediums. It’s a world that audiences never tire of visiting, and with the growing popularity in long format television storytelling, a prime candidate for an epic fantasy event series. While Amazon Studios spared no expense in obtaining the television rights to Tolkien’s writing or in producing the series’ first season, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was not initially the return to Middle Earth that fans had hoped for. Set during Middle Earth’s Second Age as Sauron returned and rose to power while creating the titular rings that would go onto corrupt the different races of Middle Earth, there was rich history to draw on to create an excellent television series, but the writing of the first season wasn’t able to balance all its aspects to create the epic series fans had been wanting. But seeing the response to the first season, showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay have developed a more focused narrative for the second season that captures the magic, conflict and danger of Middle Earth with effective storytelling that is bolstered by a strong cast and impressive technical aspects to create one excellent season of television.

 

One of the biggest issues with The Rings of Power's first season was its storytelling. Not because it did not have a story to tell, but because it had too much story to tell resulting in it feeling scattered and giving way to poor pacing. But not only does the new season correct this, but it delivers the spellbinding chapter in Middle Earth’s history that fans desired from the series. With the reveal of Sauron’s identity and his return at the end of the first season, and all the introductory groundwork laid for the many characters featured on this show, the second season is able to hit the ground running and focus on the Sauron’s plans, the creation of the rings of power, and the growing conflict within Middle Earth’s Second Age. Instead of featuring every character in each episode, the writers select specific ones to focus on in each episode, allowing more depth to be explored in their characters and the moral complexities of the situations they find themselves in, which leads to a richer and darker story. We see new corners of Middle Earth as our characters embark on new adventures, while familiar faces from the novels and The Lord of the Rings film appear, letting the season fully embrace Tolkien’s lore. At the same time, the season slowly builds towards the Battle of Eregion which is an epic set piece at the centre of the season’s final three episodes that results in one outstanding conclusion to the season as the board is set for the growing conflict with Sauron in Middle Earth. It is nothing short of magnificent television that balances appeasing fans of Tolkien’s work while keeping the same trajectory the showrunners envisioned for the series, resulting in the best addition in The Lord of the Rings franchise since Peter Jackson’s trilogy.

 

With a more developed and focused story this season, the cast has stronger material to work with, which allows every single member of the cast to excel in their performances. Morfydd Clark once again is outstanding as Galadriel and brings a passionate determination and strength to the fan favourite character as she tries to thwart Sauron’s plans. Robert Aramayo is impressive as Elrond, Owain Arthur and Sophia Nomvete continue to be a powerhouse pairing as Durin and Disa that effortlessly steals every second of screen time they have, while Charles Edward and Lloyd Owen give powerful and vulnerable performances as two pivotal figures in Middle Earth’s history, Celebrimbor and Elendil.