Unexplored potential leaves you wanting

JRR Tolkien’s novels and Peter Jackson’s trilogies made the world of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ (‘LOTR’) an epic that fans of the fantasy genre couldn’t get enough of. The lore of ‘LOTR’ is sacred and not many have thought of touching it, let alone re-imagine it. But Prime Video took upon itself the task of giving stiff competition to ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel ‘House of the Dragon’, and set out on a prequel of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ with creators Patrick McKay and JD Payne.

The first season (2022) laid the groundwork for a grand drama. With the three episodes of the second season that dropped on Thursday, we enter the middle earth and the pace, kept intentionally slow, keeps you on the edge.

The first season culminated in the forging of three rings for the elves. The second boasts of Sauron’s evil plans to make more rings and how he will bend the will of others to his benefit. The story follows multiple character arcs of important, and familiar, names, thanks to Tolkien’s books. This season also sees more characters crossing the paths to be present at the same ground at the same time. It also introduces new characters such as Dark Wizard, Stoors and Gaudrim.

Season I ended with the revelation of Sauron’s identity as the ‘one with many names’. The first episode picks up from there. Half of it is spent on establishing Sauron’s demeanour and actor Charlie Vickers does a fantastic job of holding your attention. His manipulating powers grab you by your soul and, for a minute, you feel for the villain!

Gladeriel (Morfydd Clarke), who was infatuated by Sauron’s previous avatar, Halbrand, has done an impressive job of expressing the jeopardised confidence of her character. Her expressions and actions of how she has a hard time accepting being deceived by Sauron are telling. There should have been more personal interaction between the characters to make it dramatic. The chemistry that’s most organic is between Elrond and Durin IV, played by Robert Aramayo and Owain Arthur. Cynthia Addai-Robinson plays blind Queen Tegent Miriel with panache.

Several dialogues seem prophesies for the future and are mediocre work from the writers. But the actors do them proud, as does the production budget. From mountains to bright sacred trees of the elves to each blood-oozing orc from Adar’s army, the attention to detail is impressive.

There are no spoilers to conceal as everybody knows how the story pans out in the end. Yet, you root for the characters who you know will fail now to win another day.

‘To speak plain’, a dialogue uttered several times while searching for answers in the land of Rhune, the Hobbits’ predecessors — Harfoots and the loving Gandalf (Daniel Weyman) — could have also searched for a bit of wit, which was much appreciated in Jackson’s adaptation.

Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards), the maker of rings, says, “The rings of power will be your prison.” Perhaps, the creators are also entangled in the legacy of ‘LOTR’ and stop short of experimenting much.