The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season three review, Digi Mart USA News: It might seem strange to describe the leading streaming show from one of the most dominant corporations on the planet as a scrappy underdog. But after a lavish yet dramatically stilted debut in 2022 and a similarly well-funded but darker second season in 2024, the prequel series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power still appears to be on the back foot.
For all its finely wrought art direction and respect for JRR Tolkien’s elaborate high-fantasy taxonomy, this expansion of the mythos, set in the Second Age of Middle-earth thousands of years before Bilbo Baggins first went walkabout, risks being remembered as simply a bit dull. It desperately needs more rizz than more rings.
Season three has the feel of a soft relaunch. A five-year time jump from the second-season climax, in which silver-tongued villain Sauron (Charlie Vickers) ensured the industrial elven city of Eregion was sacked by orcs, makes it a relatively clean entry point.
Characters and concepts beloved from Peter Jackson’s films are beginning to accumulate, which producers must hope will attract more viewers.
After an extended period of coyness over his identity, marquee wizard Gandalf (Daniel Weyman) is ready for his closeup. The enchanted rings of power often mentioned in The Lord of the Rings are finally forged and in play, with one notable exception.
Meanwhile, the harfoots, diminutive nomads prone to singing, pratfalls and boorish online criticism during the first two seasons, have been sidelined.
Perhaps the sweet-natured proto-hobbits are wise to make themselves scarce. Five years of unchecked orc marauding have scarred the bucolic landscapes of Middle-earth.
Despite wielding three rings of power, the elves have been pinned back to sanctuaries on opposite sides of the map. Gandalf is far off in the arid east, weighing how to take down the badger-bearded Dark Wizard (Ciarán Hinds).
The usually boisterous dwarves, now led by King Durin IV (Owain Arthur), are gloomily hunkered down in their mountain fortress.
To the west, the remote island nation of Númenor, conceived as an Edenic utopia for humans, could turn the tide on the mainland if it were not embroiled in its own religious civil war. In the chargrilled southern realm of Mordor, the shapeshifting deceiver Sauron, now settled into the form of a sleek-haired, stubbly figure, is determined to forge the ultimate weapon of magical destruction.
The intention is that this will be the one ring to supersede all others, even if product development has so far been fitful.
With characters scattered further across every point of Middle-earth, the constant challenge facing The Rings of Power is making movement between them feel natural and story-driven rather than arbitrary. The war footing means elves, humans, dwarves and even Sauron all clearly feel safest in their own power bases, making most plotlines feel more closed-off than ever.
A markedly increased mortality rate at least creates room for new faces. Sporting wild thickets of hair and an untamed Scottish brogue, Eddie Marsan is clearly having fun as Durin’s hard-partying older sibling Thrain, who may covet more than his brother’s dwarven throne.
Presenting himself to anti-Sauron forces as a willing turncoat with vital intelligence, the ingratiating Marnûkh (Adam Young) breaks from the long tradition of portraying orcs as an anonymous mass of thuggish cut-throats. Pairing this motormouthed character with high-minded wood elf Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) on a risky mission behind enemy lines is the highlight of the opening episodes.
The splashiest new addition is Jamie Campbell Bower. Formerly the nightmarish big bad of Stranger Things, Bower is now granted a polished makeover as dashing blond Celeborn, the long-missing elf husband of warrior-queen Galadriel (Morfydd Clark).
Introduced in a far-flung flashback where he and Galadriel meet through gravity-defying sword sparring in the swooning style of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Celeborn brings a full-blooded romance that even the most devoted Tolkien fan would admit was never the author’s strong suit.
Will it be enough? As the pivot point of a proposed five-season run, The Rings of Power seems to have its battle lines clearly drawn at last and is trying to put its best foot forward.
It is certainly more action-packed and seems less like homework. But for viewers not already devoted to Tolkien’s mythical framework, it may be too little, too late.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is now streaming on Prime Video.
