4 Years Later, Prime Video’s Most Expensive Gamble Remains a Weak Imitation of Game of Thrones

Prime Video‘s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premiered 4 years ago on September 1, 2022. Back then, it arrived with nearly impossible expectations. It was clearly Prime Video’s attempt to cash in on the popularity of HBO’s Game of Thrones (even after it fumbled its last couple of seasons). We know this because there were many such attempts by other platforms (Netflix’s The Witcher being another one). 

The show had the advantage that the franchise came with an existing fan base courtesy of the author J.R.R. Tolkien, who incidentally passed away today (September 2) in 1973, and Peter Jackson’s hugely beloved The Lord of the Rings trilogy. On paper, it was indeed positioned to become a GoT-sized phenomenon. But despite the money and the scale involved, it has at best been just okay. And that’s not good enough for a fictional world as iconic as Arda/Middle-earth.

The Rings of Power Lacks Game of Thrones’ Magic

The problem here is the same one that causes most shows to fail: bad writing. I could not care less about the fidelity to the source material, as adaptations are allowed to reinterpret the source material. And the Second Age is largely unexplored in Tolkien’s writings, and thus the show had much thinner material to work with. But the writing is just not that good.

For instance, Galadriel’s (Morfydd Clark) arc resets almost every season (thus far) instead of building on where we left her. There is little connective tissue between the two versions of her. Sauron (Charlie Vickers) fares a little better, mainly thanks to Vickers, who brings a silken menace to the Dark Lord. But the writing keeps explaining to you that he is a great villain, instead of showing it. Then there is the Harfoot and Gandalf subplot, which I think is shoehorned just so the writers could include the Hobbits and the Shire in the story.

Compare that to Game of Thrones, which at least until season 5 pruned storylines ruthlessly the moment they stopped pulling weight. It also built years of patient character work before cashing it in on big events like the Red Wedding. It keeps reaching for that scale of impact without doing the necessary groundwork first.

Why Even Prime Video’s Massive Budget Wasn’t Enough

Galadriel and Sauron in The Rings of Power | Credits: Prime Video

Good writers are worth their weight in gold. This is one of the reasons DCU’s Lanterns TV series is almost universally beloved even though it is relatively grounded and doesn’t constantly lean into the cosmic spectacle. Rings of Power, by contrast, has preferred to throw money at the problem rather than fixing the writing itself. Money and grand visuals (Rings of Power remains the most expensive TV show ever) cannot compensate for thin characterization.

Season 3, premiering November 11, features several new characters. It also brings the show’s biggest swing yet: Sauron finally forges the One Ring. This is important as it is the actual hinge point of the entire legendarium. It’s the moment this whole prequel has been building toward, and on paper, it should be unmissable. But four years in, on the anniversary of the death of the man who brought this world into existence, Rings of Power still hasn’t learned what great shows seem to understand instinctively — spectacle and scale are worthless without characters worth caring about first. As of September 2, the show has a score of 84% on the Tomatometer, but 48% on the Popcornmeter.

Do you think The Rings of Power has lived up to its potential? Share your thoughts in the comments.