Like many millions of people, I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings films by Peter Jackson. Now granted, I would never consider myself a super fan. I could definitely go more than 5 to 10 years without watching the movies again. I was surprised that Amazon spent a billion dollars making Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The director of the show said it wasn’t even TV, but a new form of entertainment. That’s very bold hype.

The Rings of Power is actually set before Sauron actually causes much trouble for the world. We actually hear about his master Morgoth, and at this point in the story he had been long since defeated. The story does focus a lot around the elf Galadriel, the character portrayed by Cate Blanchett in the movies, but someone entirely new this time.

There really isn’t a central villain of the story for the first season. Instead we see all the races of the world interact with their own problems. The elves for instance have a tree that’s dying which somehow gives them their immortality.

The dwarves on the other hand have discovered a new ore that promises great things for tools, armor, and weaponry.

And we also see a man fall from the sky in a meteor. While looking like a middle-aged guy, he has magical powers but very limited memory and speech skills. But he definitely isn’t of Middle Earth.

One of the newest places we get to see is Numenor, which is a city and island apparently gifted to humans by the elf race. And somehow it turned into a civilization that hates elves. Talk about an ungrateful bunch of humans.

Probably the worst thing about the Rings of Power are the Harfoots. While it is interesting that there was a race that evolved into the Hobbits, their story drags and drags for most of the season.

Another disappointment is that they tease big battles but there’s no such thing. The picture above for example was from a very small flashback. You think that if Amazon spent a billion dollars on the show that we could have at least one epic battle.

If you judge The Rings of Power based on the first half of the season, I definitely couldn’t blame you if you hated it. I almost lost faith in the show myself. But after the second half it really does pick up. I do look forward to the second season. I like the show but I don’t love the show. And somebody really needs to tell Amazon Studios that they over paid tenfold. The director is also just full of complete bologna when they claimed that it was a new form of entertainment. It’s a TV show and definitely not the best one of the year either.