(RNS) — “Concerning Hobbits,” composer Howard Shore’s theme for Peter Jackson’s “Fellowship of the Ring,” does something to me. If you’re reading this, you might feel the same way. The lively strings prance back and forth between merry frivolity and soothing grandeur, aptly capturing this tiny, peculiar corner of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
It punches my buttons not just because it’s very good, which it is, but because it takes me back to the first time I watched Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy, which still stands as a cinematic miracle — three nigh-perfect home runs from a then-untested filmmaker, charged with adapting one of the most beloved fantasy texts in the English language.
Subsequent attempts to re-create his wizardry have foiled even Jackson, whose “Hobbit” movies lacked both the detail and grandeur of his trilogy. But two years ago, Amazon threw a reported $1 billion at a prequel TV series that would flesh out some of Middle-earth’s backstory. Hoping to recapture the magic, Amazon hired showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay and the unspared expense was visible in handsome cinematography, sharp CGI and real, physical sets stand out amid our streaming age’s muddy gloop. They even brought back Howard Shore.
The first season of the show, “The Rings of Power,” focused on Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) and a collection of humans, elves and dwarves as they react to a mysterious new power rising in the East. Reviews were mixed, but the core audience seemed to appreciate that all stops had been pulled out.
Now, two years later, “The Rings of Power” returns for a second season. The first few episodes made available to critics are solid and make it clear that some of the first season’s criticisms were taken to heart. This season features more propulsive storytelling and grander action set pieces than the first season had, resulting in a more confident and ultimately more compelling show. While Galadriel remains a major presence, Season Two shifts its gravity toward Sauron (Charlie Vickers), who is not yet the pervasive, reality-threatening force he will become by the time Frodo and his friends walk into Mordor, but his plans are taking shape.
Actor Charlie Vickers as Sauron, left, and Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in Season Two of “The Rings of Power” on Amazon Prime. (Photo by Ben Rothstein / Prime Video)
“Sauron presents himself in an extraordinary form,” Vickers told me in an interview. “Everything is intentional. The way he looks, the way he talks. There’s a seduction element at play.”
The Machiavellian power grabs as Sauron rises to power bring to mind another sword and bow fantasy show from recent years in which various factions schemed for the throne, however much the ROP cast and showrunners studiously avoid calling out by name. But as much as George R. R. Martin has expressed his admiration for “The Lord of the Rings,” his world takes place in a very different moral universe than Middle-earth’s, which Payne and McKay very much explore through Sauron’s eyes.
“You’re only as good as your villain,” Payne told me recently. “The best villains are villains you can relate to, who have goals that are understandable, who are the heroes of their own story.”
“The Rings of Power” wisely retains Tolkien’s stark morality and firm lines between good and evil. But Payne and McKay get creative in where they place their characters along that spectrum.
“Sauron wants order in the world,” Payne said. “He believes that the world is chaos and that if he controls everything, he’ll make it perfect. He’s a reformer, right? He’s going to do horrible things along the way, but in his own mind, he’s right and everyone else is wrong.”
Payne said that it’s precisely Sauron’s aspirations and ambitions that draw people in. “That’s what makes them so dangerous,” he said.
Actor Charlie Vickers as Sauron in Season Two of “The Rings of Power” on Amazon Prime. (Photo by Ben Rothstein / Prime Video)
The echoes of current headlines are obvious. Fans have always been prone to graft current events onto Middle-earth, just as readers of Tolkien’s day drew comparisons from the One Ring to everything from nuclear energy to original sin (Tolkien himself adamantly denied such interpretations, writing that “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations.”)
The ROP team, too, took pains in interviews to avoid mentioning connections to modern-day politicians or political groups, but don’t hesitate to draw lines in the other direction. “The Rings of Power,” for instance, shows that might doesn’t make right. “If we had to sum up the morality of Tolkien, it’s that light can be found in unexpected places and embodied in unexpected characters in unexpected ways,” said McKay.
It’s true that one of the most distinctive elements of “The Lord of the Rings” was its focus on the Hobbits, “the most unlikely creature imaginable,” as Jackson’s voice-over says. The only thing distinguishing Frodo is that there is very little to distinguish him. Gandalf is more powerful, Aragorn is braver, and basically everyone is of more consequence. That the fate of the world hangs on Frodo and his friends who drag him and the Ring to the Heart of Mordor, McKay hopes, will inspire viewers.
“The shadow is a passing thing,” he said. “When you read Tolkien, it gives you a broader view because it’s so many thousands of years of history that you see this big shadow that rises and that everyone’s afraid of, and then it passes. The world moves on. And though it seems really scary and horrible at the moment, you turn the page and the story moves on.”
He sees this as promising at a time when Americans need healing. “So much we see in this world is people who are dissolving their bonds of friendship and family over things that are passing,” he said. “Nothing makes me sadder than to hear people aren’t speaking because, this person voted for that person. I get it. Those things are all very real things. But Tolkien teaches us to keep a bigger view of what it means to have relationships with people and to stay true to those relationships even in times of darkness.”
Clark, who plays Galadriel, put it a different way. “The existence of the hobbits is something that makes this world really special,” she said. “It has to be a world that’s safe enough for them to exist in. You can’t just be for the elves or for the dwarves or for the men. That’s something that will always bring me back to Tolkien’s world. It’s hoping for a world that can be gentler, kinder, sweeter.”
(Tyler Huckabee is a writer living in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife and dogs. Read more of his writing at his Substack. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)
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