The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022) – P. McKay & J. D. Payne

The pull of J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy universe is strong and so, when we accidentally signed up for a free trial of Amazon Prime, the kids urged me to let them watch the new series based on the old books. Having read and loved the books as a child (and enjoyed the spectacle of the movies), I acquiesced. Across eight episodes, this first series (of a promised five) weaves together numerous plot strands to begin telling the story of how the One Ring (that Bilbo found and Frodo destroyed) and its (eventually) subsidiary rings (3 for the elves, 7 for the dwarves, 9 for the humans) were forged in the Second Age of Middle Earth (thousands of years before The Hobbit). Galadriel (later Cate Blanchett, now Morfydd Clark) is part of this story, although we first meet her during a quest to find out if and where the vanquished evil minions of defeated Morgoth, including right-hand man Sauron, have fled… if they have survived at all.  But of course, they have and soon orcs are pillaging in the human-controlled territory of the Southlands (in which we meet a number of characters, both human and elf). Will they receive assistance? Perhaps the other human colony on the island of Numenor can be called on for help? We follow a number of other players there, especially after Galadriel finds her way there alongside the lost king of the Southlands, Halbrand (Charlie Vickers). Elsewhere, high elf Elrond (later Hugo Weaving, now Robert Aramayo) negotiates with Prince Durin IV (Owain Arthur) of the dwarves to secure the necessary force to build the forge and metal (mithril) to make the rings. Finally, we do see hobbits, er, harfoots, a migratory subspecies who stumble upon a giant who appears to have fallen from the sky inside a meteorite. I may have forgotten a subplot or two (and the many different human characters did become a bit of a blur when I was too distracted) but I think we’ve caught the main thrust of the story so far. Given that this is projected to be the most expensive TV series ever made (thanks to Jeff Bezos’s deep pockets), it does look impressive (with more real special effects than CGI, I’m told). But is the pull of J. R. R. Tolkien strong enough to get us to sign up for Amazon Prime to watch any future series? A shock twist at the end of series one has already encouraged my son to ask how much a single month of Prime might cost…