Amazon’s TV show has been the centre of Tolkien fan discussion since the first teaser was released. On Friday, the final episode of season one was released, and I can begin my account.
Episode 1, ‘A Shadow of the Past’, made me happy right from the title, with the obvious reference to chapter 2 of Lord of the Rings. I enjoyed the prologue, with all of the lovely Silmarillion content,. It showed that yes, these people care about the lore, the question is, how far are they willing to go? I’ll give this a 9/10
Episode 2, ‘Adrift’, started filling in the blanks. We met our characters in these 2 episodes, and I believe they have stayed true to Tolkien’s core themes. No, I will not address Galadriel swimming the Sundering Sea. She’s an elf, she can do that. My only gripe is Arondir, the black elf. With the other races it’s acceptable, but there are no black elves in Middle-Earth (only Moriquendi… insider joke). But Tolkien was inclusive for his era, so I will let it go, and give it a 7.5/10
Episode 3, ‘Adar’, was less to my liking. This new orc regime in the Southlands, led by a man with a Sindarin name, is not canon. The orcs came to Mordor with Sauron, and no orc would bow to anyone with an elvish name like that. I understand from a storytelling perspective that Adar is an important character, even if a placeholder for Sauron, but there are other ways to do this. Galadriel did well in Numenor, and I’m liking Miriel, but I think she should be a little more… Faithful. Elrond and Durin almost embody some of Tolkien’s core themes, done very well, so I’ll reward it with a good 6.8/10
Episode 4, ‘The Great Wave’ was my favourite so far. In Numenor we get a lot with my favourite character in the entire show, Alatariel, more commonly known as Galadriel. Her confrontation with Miriel, and the Sauron’s Playbook manipulation lessons from Halbrand to prepare for the big reveal in episode 8, were very good, and I immensely enjoyed this episode. Elrond and Durin were perfect, and who am I to say no to a speech about Eärendi? 9.5/10
Episode 5, ‘Partings’, was my least favourite of all. Elrond, Gil-galad, and Celebrimbor made up some nonsense about elves needing mithril to survive. After watching episode 8, I must allow some measure of forgiveness, as they only included this to help the story towards the forging of the great rings. In truth, Elves do fade, but not that quickly, and mithril will not help them, though the rings did, in the end. The other timelines all continued as previously stated, so 2.5/10.
Episode 6, ‘Udûn’, is my 1.5th favourite at this point in the series. We see Adar defeated at Ostirith, hear some real Black Speech, and see the villagers beat each other up before… Numenor to the rescue! Our first battle scene was incredible, and I’m glad that orcs aren’t just cannon fodder like they were in the movies. We get the attractive female elf riding in slo-mo saying Noro Lim, a callback to Arwen in the movies, and of course, Galadriel’s interrogation. It was very good and well directed, but I must say, orcs are not people. But, yet again, Tolkien himslef was indecisive on this topic, so I will let it go, giving this episode a 9.3/10
Episode 7, ‘The Eye’ was not quite as bad as episode 5, but not much better. It was confirmed that mithril has healing properties, which it doesn’t, especially in this raw form. The Elrond-Durin pain continues. And apparently the Balrog is a very light sleeper. Miriel, Galadriel, Elendil, and Theo all got nice character arcs, and the episode was well rounded, so I’ll give it a 5/10.
Episode 8, ‘Alloyed’, was a huge success. We see Elrond, Celebrimbor, and Halbrand try to use the little bit of mithril they have, we get the best Galadriel scenes yet (ruining the lives of all you Haladriel shippers) and finally got the Sauron reveal- Halbrand is no king of the Southlands. The forging of the three ring was a bit too fast, as Sauron was in Eregion for 300 years in the lore, but ‘100 years is but a moment in the life of an elf!’ Episode 8 is my number one episode of Season 1, with 10/10.
Overall, I believe Season 1 had a good story, and though there were errors, I think, overall, they succeeded. I will give it a 7.45 score. In short: better than I’d expected, but worse than I’d hoped. They have a good season two to make: I’ll be watching it for sure.