Season 2 of Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power ends on Amazon Prime this October 3, with a grand finale that condenses the best and worst of the series.
The beginnings of Rings of Power had divided the editorial staff. It took him one more season to get over her.. If it is difficult to review a series episode by episode when no one agrees, season 2 allowed two editors of Ecran Large to enter into a true state of critical communion, proclaiming in unison moment of reaching the climax of their psychic osmosis: “What the hell is this?” » The event being quite rare, we can only thank Amazon, JD Payne and Patrick McKay.
However, it is clear that episode 7 was by far the best. Although it was wrong on many fronts (including that of the spectacle) and had some great moments of laughter in store for us (thinking back to this cavalry charge which piles up right in the middle of the battlefield like an unbridled Corsa in front of a speed bump ), it offered what we despaired of seeing again one day: finally a meeting between the characters scattered throughout the four corners of Middle-earth and a more generous exploration of its shimmering universe. Does the grand finale also manage to limit the damage? Yes and no.
The end of beans
The battle rages at the gates of Eregion and the end is near for Elrond and his brothers in arms, who were waiting for the army of dwarves to defeat the orcs of Adar, himself having arrived at the end of his term. In short, nothing is going well and Sauron intends to take advantage of the situationwhich is not a big surprise for anyone who has seen Jackson’s trilogy (so everyone) and knows that he won’t keep his blonde wig for long.
When taking stock of the first season for Vanity Fairthe showrunners promised us a battle « massive » in two episodes. As expected, the announcement was a bit exaggerated, and this second “part” includes too many walks in the forest to claim this adjective. And it’s for the best, because it follows through on one of the great ideas of the series: a grueling siege, ending in a clash lasting until early morning. If the rare action scenes are always disappointing, they now reflect the fatigue of an endless fight, aimed at postponing an inevitable fall as much as possible.
A weariness that comes through less through the staging than through the usual narrative sleight of hand (the trick with the stolen rings…), even through absurd sequences (the confrontation between Galadriel and Annatar). But it’s still better than the fan service the writers had accustomed us to. Moreover, the episode is inaugurated by the real moment of grace of this season 2, conclusion of the arc of the dwarves which counterbalances clumsy writing by a plan with undeniable mythological significance, transcending said fan service. Enjoy, it only happens at the beginning.
The beginning of the troubles
Finally The Rings of Power takes stock of its most under-exploited asset: its artistic direction dripping with Bezos moneywhich would have deserved to gain such magnitude much earlier. Unfortunately, this is still not a long-term goal, since this opening is the only truly grandiose sequence of the season. For the rest, television staging, even programmatic, remains the norm, to the point of sinking into ridicule when Adar speaks (we’ll let you count the shots shown).
This is because despite the few good ideas scattered in these last two episodes, the series does not change course. The heading in question being Lord of the Rings of course. It therefore doesn’t matter if the dictatorship that is established in Númenor is told with XXL clogs. It doesn’t matter if everyone doesn’t care about Isildur, one of the most blatant victims of the unconscious multiplication of narrative arcs. It doesn’t matter if no one got enough attention to get a touching death or even live up to Bear McCreary’s epic score.
We must at all costs cling to the issues not really of the literary saga, but of Jackson’s trilogy, even if it means prioritizing which finally becomes one of the worst narrative arcs seen on television in a long timesymptomatic of the specifications imposed by Amazon. We are of course talking about the story of the Stranger, an audiovisual torture which could very well have happened on Mars if it did not exist solely to keep the audience in suspense. « fan » as designated by the marketing department.
Ultimate middle finger: the cliffhanger of this season is more or less the same as that of last season! A way like any other to summarize the ambitions of the screenwriters, forced to continue their game of Who is it ? while the Second Age advances, and therefore to lug their protagonist around in the worst clichés of the Hollywood origin story. It’s very simple: the Stranger’s arc ends as it begins Harry Potterwhich says a lot about the way Amazon considers its flagship product, purchased at a high price it should be remembered.
And since the series has just evacuated its most interesting betrayal (Adar and the attempt to nuance a little the wickedness of the orcs), we fear season 3 even more.
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