The Rings of Power: The Eye Review (Patreon)

Sorry for the delay. I've been dealing with an extended personal emergency.

The pre-season finale is often an interesting one. Game of Thrones tended to used it as The Spectacular Episode Where Shit Goes Down before a more understated season finale. Seeing how Game of Thrones is (for better or worse) The Rings of Power’s most obvious predecessor, and Bryan Cogman's fleeting involvement in the latter must have shaped it somehow, it may show us the show’s direction here.

No doubt “The Eye” is one a spectacle-driven episode full of major character beats. Charlotte Brändström makes the opening a Pompeiian nightmare. Characters like Sadoc and Dies stand out. The way the episode ends with the Balrog awakening is a predictable but strong movement, and suggests that I’ll be able to write about Moria for Nowhere and Back Again sooner than I expected.

Otherwise, the typical flaws are on display. The plot is in permanent stasis — Númenor arrives in Middle-earth and goes straight back home? The various subplots struggle to bond together even as plot reasons motivate them too? And then there are some deeply tedious ideas, like Gandalf creating the Shire (bleh!), the endless moral platitudes that would make Tolkien puke in his herbs and stewed rabbit, and lines like “hearts as big as our feet.” Can’t wait to not think about this show for a year. Ugh.