As The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s second season prepares for its August 29 premiere on the 2024 TV schedule, the critics are going to war over it. The season, which has promised big battles and thrilling villains in its trailers, will show the rise of Sauron, the creation of the rings and the battle over Middle-earth. While some critics are calling this new set of episodes epic and incredible, others find it overstuffed and boring, making for a very big and bloody battle, like the one at Pelennor Fields, over Amazon’s LOTR prequel series.
Quite A Few Critics Do Not Like The Second Season Of Rings Of Power
This battle begins with negative reviews. Coming off a first season that received mild praise as well as bold and at times intense criticism, Season 2 has some critics not feeling hopeful about its future. Bob Strauss’ review for The Wrap claimed the show “remains stunningly boring” despite its cost to create:
But most of 'Rings of Power' still feels mechanical and superficial, and doesn’t build enough of a bulwark against the show’s soporific saga exposition and perpetual meandering. Sending everyone on quests is the bane of all Tolkien productions; this season, shot in the UK, makes for even more tedious travelogue stretches than its New Zealand forebears.
Noting ongoing storylines, like the mystery surrounding The Stranger’s identity, he did not love Season 2. Carly Lane from Collider didn’t either. Explaining that she thought the pacing of the show was “disjointed," and, in a lot of ways, this season felt “stuck,” she wrote:
The biggest and most unfortunate consequence of The Rings of Power having such a large ensemble is that some characters are ultimately going to draw the short straw, and two seasons in, that symptom has become even more obvious.
Overall, the negative reviews hone in on the many storylines and claim that the show falls short and lacks depth because of it. However, a different camp of critics beg to differ.
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Meanwhile, on the positive side of this battle, /Film's, Jeremy Mathai praised the second season for being “a darker, bolder and more complex return to form.” He noted that Season 2 is a major improvement from the show’s first outing, as it tightens its story and ups its game entirely, especially when it comes to the writing:
This time around, extraneous characters are ruthlessly written out, unwieldy subplots have been streamlined or trimmed, and we often go entire episodes without forcing visits to certain protagonists or places, all to the benefit of a much stronger and more focused season.
Overall, Mathai concluded that while this Rings of Power season is an “imperfect improvement,” it’s also “a confident, thrilling, and gloriously nerdy return to Middle-earth.”
Along with the praise for the overarching story and improvements it has made since Season 1, the love for the action and character-driven performances are also highlighted in these reviews. Bradley Russell made that point in Games Radar’s review, writing:
The fact it all culminates in an epic multi-episode battle is an extra bonus. It's not the Battle of Helm's Deep – partly due to chunks of the set-piece feeling decidedly too clean for an all-out war – but it harkens back to the days of Game of Thrones' golden years with how it effortlessly stitches together the adrenaline of its action with well-earned and emotional character beats.
Bringing all this to a close, Lyvie Scott’s review for Inverse blends these two polarizing takes together. While she sees and notes the flaws in the show, explaining that it’s a bit overstuffed with storylines among other things, she also is a fan and enjoyed the season. She wrote:
Frustrations aside, it’s hard to fault a series that tries so hard to get it right. The Rings of Power is the kind of series you want to live in, and its sweeping visuals and immersive score oblige whenever possible. If nothing else, it does look the part — and any narrative blindspots are just as easily filled by a cast that leans wholeheartedly into the material. It manifests a story that, while muddled on occasion, is buoyed by so many earnest performances.
We know the series will pick up where we left off with the creation of the rings and the after-effects of learning Saruon’s identity. Big battles have been teased, and we’ll finally get to see the continuation of beloved characters’ stories, like Galadriel's. The question is: will viewers like it and will Rings of Power be one of Prime Video’s best shows?
The answer is unclear based on these reviews. Therefore, it’s up to you to decide. To form your own opinions about the second season of Rings of Power and pick your side of this battle, you can stream the first three episodes of Season 2 with an Amazon Prime subscription on August 29, after that, new episodes will drop every Thursday.
