So I finally did it.
I sat down and watched the entire first season of the “Rings of Power”, the much-awaited Amazon Studio funded and created epic Series set Tolkiens’ Middle Earth.
I had been, at once, waiting and dreading this event, for a few years, pretty much since the news came a few years ago that Amazon had bought the rights from the Tolkien Estate. As a fan – nay – fanatic of the work of Tolkien, how can one remain indifferent. I was all the more hesitant and wary of how this could turn out given that even as much as I loved Peter Jackson’s LotR trilogy, I had my fair share of complaints about changes made (chief amongst them what they did to one of my most beloved characters in the books Faramir).
I pretty much avoided any news, any trailers, any reviews and comments on the web leading up to the release of The Rings of Power (RoP), other than learning that I was going to try do something that had never been done, create a new story (of sorts) within the universe of Tolkien’s work, while -supposedly…hopefully – respecting and building upon the pre-existing lore. The choice of the Second Age was not illogical, given that it is the period where there is the least amount of lore from Tolkien himself, hence leaving a lot of room for an original creation.
So let’s get right to it
First Impressions
Well … I’m certainly not disgusted, nor despondent, nor angry. The first viewing went over quite nicely, I was mostly into it, some times more than other. Some moments of great excitement and joy , other moments of confusion or surprise, and some of downright disappointment.
Thank goodness for lowered expectations.
What did I like ? (Let’s be positive to start with)
The visuals
As much as stunning CGI has become commonplace, it can still be done badly, and worse yet, it can be done out of context. That is definitely NOT the case here. I suppose having the likes of – Tolkien veteran – John Howe as part of the art direction helps, but most of what we see remains faithful to the world of Middle Earth, as much according to the visual language reference established by Peter Jackson, as much as by Tolkien himself.
For example, I sincerely LOVED and was awed when we first pull into Numenor! It’s not quite as I personally had imagined it, but it is quite beautiful and awe inspiring, and marks emphatically the difference between the Edain and the men of Middle Earth
The Lore
I think there is a genuine effort and willingness by the writers to stay faithful to the Lore of Middle Earth as established by Tolkien (as much father as his son Christopher, who has as much responsibility to the mythology at this point as his father).
We’re not talking perfection but there’s not an effort either to completely break with the lore. (Even as I read what I write, I feel the presence of lowered expectations).
The Harfoots
This might come across as controversial but I actually … like…the Harfoots! I think there are decent reasons to have included them, which become more clear, to me at least, as the story goes forward, especially in the rapport that is established between Nori and he-who-turns-out-to-be-Gandalf. It’s not necessary, sure, but It’s completely frivolous and empty either … like some other things.
The Harfoots actually look great! I would not have thought including some proto-hobbits in the story to this extent would have tickled my fancy to such a degree, but it seems to have. They’re cute, funny and whole. The look is great and they fit well into this world.
The Elrond-Durin friendship
It’s … cute. I’m not so googoo-gaga over it as a lot of people I seem to see on the internet, but it’s cute, it’s nice. I mean given that one of the weak points of the series seems to be character development, their relationship at least seems like an attempt at just that. It’s nice to see the different characteristics of these people in their original written forms are more archetypes and bi-dimensional than anything else.
The casting … or at least some of it
It’s actually great! I mean first coming across Elendil, it’s such an agreeable surprise. Sure I mean Elendil the Tall can and should be taller, but I like the actor, love his voice and the authority he exudes when we first cross paths. I also liked Celebrimbor, at least as far as the ‘look’ goes. Ditto for Ar-Pharazon, Elrond … well this is definitely not your granddad’s Elrond (nor Peter Jackson’s), but at least it is one of the more multi-dimensional characters in the show at this point; I will give them benefit of the doubt and see how he evolves. “The Stranger” also is pretty awesome, no idea where they found the guy, but he looks great! And finally the Adar character looks so….eek..creepy and awesome!
I’ll leave what I find as misc-astings for later …
The overall concept
I have to admit, when I first heard that Amazon had bought the right from the Tolkien Estate, with the express intent of building an original series, I was filled with a lot of forboding and instantly anticipated a disaster. As a fan – nay fanatic – I would obviously have loved to see some of the tales from the First Age come to the screen. It is the very part of the mythology that is most rich and most appealing in the Tolkien oeuvre, at least to yours truly. But the more I thought about it, the more the idea of a story set in the Second Age appealed to me, where there is much less information, outside of the Annals of Middle Earth in the appendices to the LotR. At least any original creation here wouldn’t overtly clash with established lore.
It’s a bit of a gamble, in that they can completely veer off of the themes and styles well-established by Tolkien, or they can adhere to them and still create something new.
Moreover the idea of going to Ring Lore seems a natural choice, given that the extent to which most normal people – I.e. not geeks like me – know of Tolkien doesn’t go far beyond the Lord of the Rings movies and perhaps The Hobbit trilogy, henceforth referred to only as the-trilogy-that-shall-not-be-named.
To be continued in Part II : What i like less …
