The Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power A Shadow of the Past Television 

Ten Thoughts on The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘s “A Shadow of the Past” and “Adrift”

By | September 6th, 2022
Posted in Television | % Comments

Nearly 70 years after its publication, and 20 years after the classic film trilogy, The Lord of the Rings now has a prequel TV series, dramatizing the events of the Second Age previously shown in the prologue of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring: definitely no pressure on the creators of the series then. Speaking as a devout fan of the book and films, who’s even visited J.R.R. and Edith Tolkien’s gravesite, I was impressed by the two-part premiere on Amazon Prime Video, but also surprised by how slow it is. Let’s dig in:

1. Let’s Get This Out of the Way

As you may have heard, there’s been a racist backlash to the presence of non-white actors in the cast, and I have nothing to add that The Hollywood Reporter‘s Richard L. Newby hasn’t said in his searing essay, except (somewhat tongue-in-cheekly): why are there even white people in Middle-earth in the first place? If Tolkien’s world is supposedly ours thousands of years ago, then most of the cast should have darker skin tones. To paraphrase Tolkien himself when it came to the book’s length: the show is simply not diverse enough. Tolkien created Middle-earth to be an “English mythology,” and people of color — like Black and Asian Englanders, including myself — belong in that vision outside of a faceless eastern and southern horde — anyone who says otherwise is being disingenuous.

2. Alike Yet Unalike

It’s curious how, in telling a prequel story, writers and showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay’s script generates many parallels to prior Middle-earth books and films, as if to evoke a sense of familiarity to ease viewers in. Like Jackson’s Rings films, Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) narrates the prologue outlining the events of the First Age and the death of her brother (Finrod, played by Will Fletcher) at the hands of Sauron. Our two lead Hobbits/Harfoots, Elanor “Nori” Brandyfoot (Markella Kavenagh) and Poppy Proudfellow (Megan Richards), feel like Elijah Wood and Sean Astin’s Frodo and Sam for a new generation, with Nori’s yearning for adventure recalling Bilbo’s (secret) longing.

Then there’s the Sauron and Fell beast designs from the films, which appear in the prologue, and the decision to film in New Zealand, the painterly color grading, a Jacksonesque emphasis on close-ups of eyes, and Bear McCreary’s strongly Howard Shore-inspired score, full of rich string and horn music. (Shore himself also returned to compose the main theme.) There’s even a fight with a troll, and Gil-galad actor Benjamin Walker bears an uncanny resemblance to Mark Ferguson, who portrayed him in Fellowship‘s opening. Some flourishes make it feel more storybook than the Rings trilogy’s balance of high fantasy and Medieval realism, like the location captions, but overall it feels like it’s apiece with the films.

3. Golly Does It Take Its Time

This is a real slowburn of a series: I expected the first episode to establish the High Elves, Harfoots, Wood Elves & Southlanders, Numenoreans and Dwarves, but only the first three groups appear in the premiere, while the Numenoreans only show up at the end of the second chapter. It’s rather surprising a series ostensibly about the Rings of Power’s origins doesn’t mention them in the first episode, settling for only introducing their creator, Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), in much the same way the first Hobbit film had to make do with “Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire” for its climax. Galadriel’s decision to leap off the boat as it entered the Undying Lands, as beguiling and dramatic as it was, was still a case of the protagonist going in circles; no wonder the first two episodes premiered together.

4. “Tell Me, Where is Celeborn? For…”

Two comments on the Lady of Light herself: Tolkien himself never canonized a reason why she didn’t return to the Undying Lands, and the show’s version of her backstory certainly makes her sympathetic to audiences, without having to expound on the darker aspects of The Silmarillion. Secondly, Celeborn, her husband and future co-ruler of Lothlorien, is conspicuously absent: Galadriel is seen here in the immediate aftermath of the First Age, when they were married, but given the show has been confirmed as bending the timeline for dramatic purposes, it’s possible they might not have met yet. Whether that’s the case here, or if they’re merely estranged, it does seem he’s in the back of the showrunners’ minds at least, since there is no romantic undercurrent in Galadriel’s scenes with Elrond (Robert Aramayo) or Halbrand (Charlie Vickers), which is certainly refreshing.

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5. Creating a 3000 Year Older Middle-earth

Generating a sense of historical progress in fantasy and sci-fi settings is tough: look at how the Old Republic Star Wars games struggle to feel like they’re set thousands of years before the films, for instance. Rings of Power certainly tries, with mixed results, to feel like an earlier, less ornate world than those of the films, with Elven armor that’s noticeably rougher and less elegant, and the strikingly short hair of most of the male Elves, which implies they still haven’t lived long enough to grow out their locks.

The Harfoots lead charmingly grubby lives that foreshadows them eventually settling beneath the soil in their Hobbit holes, while the Dwarves have a great Akkadian/Sumerian aesthetic (particularly the masks) that makes them feel more ancient; in contrast, the Southlanders’ appearance feels like a very rushed attempt to make them look more primitive than Medieval, that doesn’t go much further than bib overalls — you only need to think of the Celts to imagine how they could’ve been far more interesting.

6. Tolkien’s Sensibilities

Something I found intriguing about the show was the prospect of Payne and McKay, who are both Mormons, interpreting a Catholic author’s work instead of the non-religious Jackson. The sight of Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) immediately deescalating a fight was a striking contrast to the way Jackson had Gandalf casually wallop Denethor in The Return of the King, a desperate act of violence played for laughs that I was never comfortable with, and I certainly never felt Tolkien would’ve liked either. There’s an undeniable sense of religious ceremony to the Elves’ return to the Undying Lands, with the implication of Galadriel’s company humbly submitting themselves to the Valar (Tolkien’s archangels to the unfamiliar) as the priestesses remove their weapons and armor, something that brought to mind the professor’s love of Mass: it bodes well.

7. The Lives of Elves and Everyone Else

There is nothing more relatable than Elrond’s awkward reunion with Prince Durin (Owain Arthur), who points out that while 20 years may be nothing to an Elf, it’s a significantly longer span of time for a Dwarf, especially when he got married and had children in the decades since his last visit. I imagine we all have a friend whom we hadn’t spoken to even before the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a result would find it very difficult to plan catching up with — of course, the fact it doesn’t occur to Elrond that his friend might be genuinely angry at him, and is not being merely playful, says so much about why an Elf may come across as aloof and insincere to the mortal races: he must’ve unconsciously thought of Durin as a toy, unchanging in his underground home. Perhaps this is an unwitting coping mechanism for the fact every Man and Dwarf Elrond knows will pass away relatively soon; it’s fascinating, and I hope it’s explored further.

8. A Middle-earth Horror Film

J.A. Bayona, who directed both of these episodes, has terror in his blood, having helmed The Orphanage, Penny Dreadful, A Monster Calls, and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and with the Orc attack in Bronwyn (Nazanin Boniadi) and Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin)’s home, he gets to stage a mini-horror film that conveys how terrifying an Orc can be when they’re not cannon fodder for a swashbuckling hero. It’s a nailbiting sequence that lets you concentrate on imagining what it would be like to face such a feral creature during a major attack, before the cavalry comes to the rescue; it also ends with a delightfully gross smash cut of the decapitated fiend’s head, something Jackson would probably love.

9. New Mysteries

This is a TV show, and while there are a few unsolved mysteries in Middle-earth, it’d be no use if every question here could be answered solely by reading the source material. As such, we have some major new question marks to enjoy from the show, namely: who is the Stranger (Daniel Weyman) who fell from the sky in Nori and Poppy’s backwoods? He’s presumably a Maiar spirit like Gandalf or Sauron, but which one? Likewise, why was there a Morgul blade hidden in Bronwyn and Theo’s barn? And are the Dwarves hiding a Silmaril or a Ring of Power from the Elves? These are “questions that need answering,” and it’s genuinely thrilling to have no answers to them for the time being — it’s certainly one of the unexpected joys of witnessing a largely original story unfold in this familiar world.

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10. Conclusion

This show is sumptuous: every dollar was visibly spent on screen, easily outclassing most of the biggest Netflix, HBO and Disney+ shows in resembling a film. The cast is excellent, especially Clark, Kavenagh, Richards, and Sophia Nomvete (who plays Princess Disa), yet I find the slow pacing, and the “Sauron is out there!” premise too reminiscent of The Hobbit films, which spread its plot thin over too many films, and bored me to death with its depiction of the Necromancer subplot. Regardless, the Road goes ever on, and I have faith it’ll only grow more engaging as it continues and portrays the most memorable events from the Appendices. I look forward to continuing this journey with all of you in Boomb Tube, our TV column that goes live every Monday afternoon. May the grace of the Valar protect you all in the meantime.

Additional Thoughts:

– J.A. Bayona’s decision to have a character speak while out-of-focus to emphasize the listener’s reaction is a bold one: I understand why it was done, but I’m so used to looking at a speaker that all I kept seeing was a blurred face.

– The face displayed on the Wood Elves’ armor is based on the Green Man, a fixture of pagan-inspired Medieval art, which appropriately reflects Tolkien’s combined faith, and appreciation for pre-Christian mythology.

– As someone who counts Treebeard as one of his favorite Rings characters, I was delighted by the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo from the Ents and (at long last) the Entwives.


//TAGS | The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

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