Thus far, my general assessment of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has been one of cautious optimism and patience. Having initially seen no violations of J. R. R. Tolkien’s vision so egregious as to warrant rejecting the show, I was willing to see how its story unfolded. And episodes three and four had improved enough to indicate a long-term vision of possible interest.
This week’s episode has cast that all into doubt for me. Yes, there were hints of potentially engaging storylines to come. As Númenor, heeding Galadriel’s counsel, prepares for war in Middle-earth, the wily Pharazon, as well as the far-seeing King Tar-Palantir, both provide warnings of how this well-intentioned effort may spell long-term trouble for the great island of men. And the explicit revelation by elven king Gil-Galad that the light of the elves is fading in Middle-earth, requiring extreme action (securing vast quantities of mithril), sets the stage for the primary motivation of elves in the Second Age: to preserve beauty and prevent decay. This motive will eventually lead elf-smith Celebrimbor to create rings of power. (Notably — given the show’s title! — absent from the show so far.) These could be the seeds of compelling stories down the line. (The treatment of mithril as some kind of mythical cure-all is a bit of a stretch, although one of the elven rings of power is made of mithril, so perhaps that is where this idea is heading.)
But that is all they are for now: seeds. In the meantime, we are trapped in a show that, in this episode, became something I did not exactly expect for the series: boring. Little else happened this week. Illustrative of this are the scenes set in Númenor. After the show established the place as such a fascinating setting, the story struggles to leave it; I inadvertently shared in the same labored process of the Númenorean characters to depart the place, but in my case, because the story’s insistence on lingering there had begun to tire me of the island.
The other stories in this episode falter as well. The relationship between the elves and the dwarves, centered around the importance of mithril to each, may become compelling later on. But for now, it seems largely to consist in journeys back and forth between the elf city Lindon and the dwarf city Khazad-dum undertaken by Elrond, who has yet to assert himself as much of anything. The plight of the men in the Southlands seems a haphazardly constructed pathway toward the sort of orc siege of a redoubt of men that we have seen before. And the harfoots mostly experience more enigmas surrounding the Stranger, who now has some ominous trackers, clad in white, on his trail. That’s . . . pretty much it.
This far in, I’m obviously sticking to at least the first season of Rings of Power. And there are still enough episodes left in this season for all these disparate threads to come together and for the show to make good on its various intimations. It is easy to hate something like Rings of Power, which is why I have indulged and even forgiven some of its faults and looked for the good in it up to this point. And I won’t regret having done so even if I turn out to have been mistaken. But the show is beginning to test my optimism — and my patience.