Is “The Rings of Power” Worth Watching?

Within the November of the year 2017, the whole internet got racked with the news that Amazon bought the television rights of The Lord of The Rings for 250 million dollars. Some got excited, some got anxious, but all were unsure whether Amazon would come up with a TV Show that is going to live up to the expectations set by the Peter Jackson trilogy or do justice to Silmarillion at all. The wait has been long since, and finally, the day has come. The Lord of The Rings: Rings of Power is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and there are currently two episodes released out of the complete eight. However, the thing is, are they any good?

General Opinion

Apparently, while it made some of the audience happy, it also confirmed the doubts of the others. Determined by the ratings of 53K users, it currently has a 6.5/10 IMDb score, and thanks to the extreme polarization of opinions throughout the internet, you should take this score with a grain of salt. What I mean is that, if you care to check the screenshot I have attached below, you will see that most of the voters rated the series either 10/10, or 0/10. Therefore, we can infer from the fact that their votes were not cast over a ground of rationality, but rather over a motivation to pick a side. You can regard these votes as “like” and “dislike” buttons, and 6.5/10 means that The Rings of Power met the expectations of more than half of the audience, while it failed to gain the appeal of the rest.

Should You Watch it?

As I said, the audience is divided over whether The Rings of Power is a good The Lord of The Rings TV adaptation or not. So, in light of the fact, we would not be wrong to say that there isn’t a consensus over the quality of the show; and therefore, in order to give you an idea about whether you would enjoy The Rings of Power or not, I will briefly unravel the general opinion from both of the sides and let you reach to a verdict of your own.

Apparently, even though the show seems promising regardless of being a part of The Lord of The Rings collection, it has some fidelity issues when it comes to being in line with what is written by Tolkien. What I am talking about is not related to cosmetic matters like the skin color of the Elves or the beard length of the female dwarfs. It is rather about the compliance of the show with the core events and the characterization featured in the Silmarillion. Apparently, the writers of the show carried out their tasks with a great extent of liberty. Personally, I am not against this; however, I have some standards. If the departures from the original enhance the quality of the adaptation, I am on board; but if they -instead- decrease the quality without any benefit whatsoever, you will lose me there in an instant. The Netflix adaptation of The Witcher is a great example. The first season was okay: They were not strictly following the books, but what we had on screen was not so bad. However, in the second season… Well, it was a disaster. Characters went off the grid. Nearly none of them did live up to their names. At that point, I believe there is no meaning in calling the show by the original name. Just call it something else instead of exploiting the brand value of the original.

Anyway, getting back to the subject, even though The Rings of Power is nowhere near as disastrous as The Witcher, it is still problematic for the fans who have deep knowledge of the lore and expect to see it carried flawlessly onto the screen. Nevertheless, from what we have seen so far, it seems to have the potential for being an above-average TV Show on its own. Long story short, unless you have great expectations, you will have a nice time watching the first two episodes of The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video.