– Amazon’s The Rings of Power series is heavily focused on predestination and ticking off boxes related to the lore of Tolkien’s Middle Earth
– The series, while immersed in Tolkien’s lore, lacks wit, whimsy, and character detail seen in Peter Jackson’s films
– The show’s dialogue is functional and expository, lacking the metaphor and lore found in Tolkien’s works
– The second season of the show improves as it progresses, featuring big spectacle and a confrontation between characters
– The Rings of Power is criticized for being dutiful and lacking texture and imagination, similar to one of its main characters, Celebrimbor
– The show is described as a work “so contingent on re-creation it has little originality” and is “cursed from the start”