Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, Prime Video review: fiery

Everything starts with a song in JRR Tolkien’s Middle Earth saga. His creation myth, the Ainulindalë, tells of deity Eru Ilúvatar gifting music to his immortal children, who sing in harmony until big old brat Melkor (soon-to-be Morgoth, the biggest bad before Sauron) wrecks the vibe with an obnoxious guitar solo (I may be reading that last bit in).

Tolkien rewrote the details of this foundational fable many times during the following decades, as his son Christopher would soon discover while wrestling with the various drafts his late father left behind.

That’s the thing with stories sung down the ages. They have a habit of changing shape, spun like molten Mithril transformed into the fateful finger jewellery that defines Prime Video’s epic prequel series, The Rings of Power.

Which makes the grumbling around the admittedly significant tweaks to Tolkien’s legend by showrunners John D. Payne and Patrick McKay a little harsh. Even the lauded Peter Jackson made canny changes to The Lord of the Rings to condense such a vast volume (let’s not mention The Hobbit).

A new read on the Second Age

Crafting a rich reimagining of the Second Age of Middle Earth at a leisurely, though not House of the Dragon-stunted, pace, Payne and McKay’s gloriously drawn vision feels well-earned.

Saint Maud star Morfydd Clark shines as a younger, less preternaturally chill Galadriel, with season one’s brightest placing more emphasis on her dark temptation by a disguised Sauron than on Charles Edwards’ big-noting Lord Celebrimbor. Let’s be frank, the latter would happily burn all of Middle Earth for a five-star rating on his unrivalled smithing ability.

Even if the big reveal that Australian actor Charlie Vickers’ supposed lost king of the Southlands, Hallbrand, was Sauron with a new face was obvious, it was all the more gleefully wicked for it. And no one really fell for Daniel Weyman’s wizardly Stranger possibly being Mordor’s glowering eye of the future. His fellowship with Harfoot besties Nori and Poppy (Aussie Markella Kavenagh and Megan Richards) was far too cute to break up.

Robert Aramayo glinted as baby Elrond, whose fracturing relationship with a ring-favouring Galadriel landed punches, even though we know Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving will be fine down the line. Ismael Cruz Cordova’s Arondir was a mighty fine Legolas stand-in.

With so much in play, the Numenor stuff was probably the weakest link, particularly as Queen Regent Míriel (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) and dark fate Isildur (Maxim Baldry), shipped back and forth across the ditch to Middle Earth far too hastily

But the real scene-stealer was Mount Doom, crashing the party in the greatest episode of Season 1 with the Mordor origin we never knew we needed. Can Season 2’s three-episode opening gambit go off quite so spectacularly, successfully melding all these bits into one Rings binge to rule them all?

Orcs organising

Though nowhere near as deathly slow and aimless as roughly comparable Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, the second season does take its sweet time reminding us where everyone’s at. Rather than check in briefly with everyone in ep one, the disparate parties are sprinkled across all three.

Opening with a flashback to would-be king of the Orcs, Adar (Sam Hazeldine, replacing Joseph Mawle), he attempts to slay an Elven-form Sauron to ensure he never again enslaves their kind – ‘My children, you are free’. This deepening of the Uruks beyond simply savage beasts (look out for a baby orc) is a welcome turn, as is their focus on union business.

A Sam Raimi-style horror movie black oil beast-gobbling goo crawling that quickly establishes Sauron’s shapeshifting powers is fabulous filth, promptly reborn in Vickers’ form. Tolkien himself said there’s no unadulterated evil in Middle Earth, so it’s intriguing to see these opening beats play with the idea that he might momentarily harbour a modicum of regret over his actions before being lost at sea, taking us up to the start of last season.

From here, episode one primarily deals with the widening feud between Elrond and Galadriel over the Elven ring imbroglio, with the former so salty. ‘In choosing to wear those rings you have all become his collaborators.’ Foundation star Ben Daniels is a welcome addition, here, as Cindar, Master of the Grey Havens.

While there is a teeny check-in with the dazed and confused Gandalf and the Harfoot gang, they get more to do in episode two’s unexpectedly Mad Max turn. More tease than reveal so far, it sets up Ciarán Hinds as a Saruman-style dark wizard who’s really into kohl.

Owain Arthur and Sophia Nomvete continue to nail both their Scottish accents and status as the most adorable coupling in Middle Earth as the Dwarven royalty to root for. The only niggle here is that a catastrophic earthquake caused by Mount Doom is oddly muted.

Not something you can say about Sauron’s costume changes as he finally tries on a book-beloved face, swinging us into the third ep.

Where’s Sauron?

If Season 1 was all about who Sauron was, this time it’s very much about where he is and just how malignant his influence is even when he’s not around. There’s a big emphasis on the dark lord’s human following, meaning you can never trust a wandering soul in the woods.

We finally get a bit more action in ep three, too, with an arachnid attack that should have been in the opening one, a sassy-ass hill troll with attitude and orcs galore.

The Palantir-spying drama playing out in Numenor – set up to spark succession drama, Thrones-style – is still sluggish, but we finally get Arondir back. His relationship status moves further into ‘it’s complicated’ territory, intriguingly, while his sorta stepson Theo (Aussie Tyroe Muhafidin) continues to be a right ol’ stropper. With Sauron playing Where’s Wally, there are still question marks over the young lad’s connection to Mordor’s mightiest.

Beautifully shot and drawn, with a lush score from Bear McCreary and with deft direction by Charlotte Brändström and Louise Hooper, The Rings of Power might still meander, but the company’s grand.

As Bilbo (via tall tale-telling Tolkien) famously says: ‘Not all those who wander are lost.’

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Season 2 is streaming on Prime Video.