The Lord of the Rings- The Rings of Power: The Eagle and the Sceptre

 "You're not my father..."

More good stuff here as Sauron's dark persuasive powers continue to bear rotting fruit. He convinces Celebrimbor to lie to Gil-Galad about the rings, but convincingly, playing on Celebrimbor's artistic pride like a lute, or whatever stringed instrument elves prefer to use. And the rings are the reason Durin finally makes himself apologise to his father. We end with the five Dwarven rings about to be forged- no doubt to save Khazad-Dum from the volcano. Yet at what cost?

We also return to Isildur. His adventures are many, not least with a convincingly horrible Shelob-like arachnid. Yet he meets a girl and connects with her- future wife, from whom Aragorn will, surely, be descended?

He also meets Arondir, who struggles to connect with the orphaned young Theo... unlike Isildure, who also lost hs mother at a young age. And the circumstances of how this happened tell us much about his drive to greatness. All of this is very good writing.

Yet the true drama is in Numenor, where we return for the first time this season. All episode we hear rumours about the unpopular, blind, Queen Regent, only for uproar and revelations to derail the coronation... and for the traditional eagle (why does it not speak?) to choose Pharazon instead. 

As with every episode this season so far, this is exciting, dramatic writing, and it's about a series of character who are all flawed in their own way. Compared to the first season, a lot seems to be happening, amd fast...

The Lord of the Rings- The Rings of Power: The Eye

 "We move at first light."

"What light?"

After last week's triumphant victory, all is lost after an unnatiral volcano which sees Adar and his Orcs claiming the Southlands for themselves, reneming it, inevitably, as Mordor.

And all is entropy and decay. The Queen of Numenor is blinded. Elendil has lost his favourite son, and Isildur his brother. He is bitter and wants no more to do with Middle-Earth. The Dwarven king refuses to dig for Mithril and save the elves, and proudly disinherits his son after a row. The Harfoots are ruined and have sent away the Stranger, who briefly gave new life to their forest before three evil cloaked woman arrive and destroy everything... who are they?

Yet, in the land of Mordor, there is yet hope. Durin plots with his lovely wife. The throne will be his. The Numenoreans will return. The enemies of Sauron have lost, if not the battle, the context. Yet there is time and space to regroup. The war goes on. Again, this is very mythical, very Tolkien.

This episode is not quite so exciting as last week's, but after some shaky early episode the first season seems to have found its stride. The directing is enormously impressive especially the early scenes, which feel like a very orange disaster movie.

The Lord of the Rings- The Rings of Power: Udun

 "New life... in defiance of death!"

Wow.This is when Rings of Power really comes alive. I may not be a huge fan of battle scenes, but this is a proper, awesome, cinematic, Lord of the Rings battle scene. And I love it.

The men of the Southlands fight well, with Bronwyn and Arondir being real heroes. The tactics, and the ebb and flow of battle, work well narratively. It's hard to do this, yet the episode does it with aplomb. And verve. And CGI,

Yet the characterisation is superb, too. Isildur getting to fight as a soldier, and imprressing Elendil. The nobility of Bronwyn. Her romance with Arondir, Leo's attachment to the artifact- like Smeagol. The arresting interrogation of Adar by the deeply charismatic and awesome Galadriel- we learn that orcs were once elves, and that he claimed to kill Sauron. 

And then there's Halbrand... I don't think he's a king at all. We shall see. Yet he and Galadriel seem to find love in battle. Like Spartans without the gayness...

The conclusion is shocking, if CGI heavy. We know Galadriel, Elendil and Isildur must survive the eruption. But the others?

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power- A Shadow of the Past

"We thought our light would never dim..."

 Fear not: Netflix problems are now solved and I'll be carrying on with Sandman alongside What If. However, I absolutely had to add this rather exciting little series to my schedule. I'll alternate all three until I reach the point, very soon, where I'm only able to watch one episode a week of this. That's the forseeable future.

I knew very little of this going in except that it was set well before the Third Age- the First Age, presumably?- and based on those appendices to Lord of the Rings that I last read at a very young age. So it was pleasing to see how well made this is, and hoe epic it feels, beginning with a bit of narration from Galadriel herself on the early days of Valinor, the centuries-long war (no doubt Tolkien's allegory for 1914-18), and the slinking away of Sauron and his orcs, leading to Galadriel's obsession. Galadrielis the main focus here, the Cassandra who insists Sauron is still a threat yet seems to be ignored, but we see lots of visual Elven awesomeness. We also get much of a very young Elrond... and finally get to meet the legendary Gil-Galad.

We also have some human villages, with elves still seeing humans as tainted from their erstwhile loyalty to Morgoth. So it's an interesting twist to have an elf- Arondir- in love with a human, Bronwyn, both of them going AWOL to investigate disturbing portents from the East of disease and decay.

Finally, we have the Harfoots, progenitors of Hobbits, recognisable similar but just a little wilder and less technologically advanced, with Lenny Henry excellent as their wise and troubled leader.

There's a lot going on, but the characters are alrewady distinct and clear, and thisall feels very big indeed. I'm already enjoying this.