Warning: This review contains spoilers for the Amazon series “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” Season 2.
The second season of Amazon’s “Rings of Power” somehow managed to be worse than the first season of the show, which is a rather high bar.
The first season showed a disrespect for J.R.R. Tolkien’s world, but this season made things worse. It seems as if the showrunners don’t understand the basics of fantasy—or even storytelling.
Before I get into the great sins of the season, I’ll address a few smaller quibbles.
The second season introduced “the Faithful,” a religion in the kingdom of Numenor, and failed to give even the slightest taste of what the religion involves. It also introduced the barrow-wights (which the Peter Jackson movie adaptation of Tolkien’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” cut out).
There’s just one…
