Review: Shadow and Flame

What a weird show.
P&M have finally figured out some of the fundamentals of drama. It would be easy (and somewhat unfair) to say they’re just learning how to do drama by drawing from Tolkien, but “Shadow and Flame” proves that the successes of this season weren’t a fluke. P&M have a creative vision, and it’s one they’ve realized more or less competently this year.
To a degree. Everybody has acknowledged that this show’s pacing is ass. But it becomes most clear in the season finales. I couldn’t tell you, two years on, what the hell happened in the first season of Rings of Power. And this season, while at least structured around three specific, thematically related events — the decline of Eregion, Moria, and Númenor — doesn’t do much better on the pacing front. By the end of this season, Númenor is… closer to becoming Atlantis. So is Moria. Eregion has the decency to actually fall. But the other two stories feel like they’re just waiting for a finale. It’s exhausting. I can’t imagine they’ll do more than another two seasons, but man. There are episodes where seasons happen and seasons where episodes happen.
And those are the three plots that more-or-less unambiguously work. The now-Gandalf/Nori plot doesn’t resolve so much as abruptly end, in a way Chris Chibnall might applaud. Once again, we’re getting a finale is mostly structured around teases of the next season. Ciarán Hinds makes a great Saruman, drawing more from the books’ tantalizing, seductive character than Christopher Lee’s operatic evil (a respectable, even necessary choice). But he’s there to abruptly displace the Stoors in an extremely contrived development — I’d say it’s out of character, but we don’t really have an idea who this version of Saruman is. Now-Gandalf concludes the season as he began it — wandering in the desert and having things explained to him.
That’s a running theme here. Galadriel also has a lot of things explained to her in lieu of doing things. Characters disappear from the story for long periods of time only to return and do… not much. Isildur returns and reunites with That Kid from Season 1 right before getting captured by Númenor’s Madison Cawthorn. And most egregiously, the promise of Adar gets thrown out the window when the Orcs — suddenly and without explanation — murder him (though apparently we can Simon Tolkien for Adar sticking around this long). We had a moment where we could have seen Orcs developing an agenda beyond that of Sauron, and that got chucked out the window.
At the same time, Adar’s murder by his own children is thematically in touch with the rest of the season. Durin watching his father sacrifice himself fighting the Balrog makes for the defining setpiece of the entire show. This season is about something in a way its predecessor wasn’t. And the death of Celebrimbor, at the hands of his tearful foster-son/brother/lover? Sauron, elevates both characters (even if it gives Celebrimbor an obnoxious title drop).
Sure, maybe the overt-but-not distracting hat tips to Jackson’s Middle-earth (the first in this show?) help this episode out a bit. The Balrog. Elendil unsheating Narsil. Galadriel obtaining a soteriologically dangerous shoulder-wound like Frodo. The appearance of what looks like Amon Hen. The possible debut of Lórien. And Gandalf finally picking his name (which… he sure does pick a name that’s not quite the one that the Stoors gave him). There’s still a dreariness to this show that’s hard to call a plus. I’ll never quite trust The Rings of Power. But it’s finally starting to place itself in a century-long tradition of Middle-earth, and it no longer seems to fear having themes and depth. That’s nowhere near enough to satisfy me, but considering my first review of the season, I’m shocked the road led us here.
October 4, 2024 @ 12:00 pm
I wish they spelled out the final location of the elves, like they spelled out Mordor at the end of last season. It was less obvious, because the geography of Middle Earth can be difficult to remember sometimes. I just finished rereading Return of the King, and I was looking at the maps at the end of the book, so I know it better now. I found out from the map that Khazad-dum is Moria, and Hollin (Eregion) is next door on the map. And north of Hollin/Eregion is Rivendell. The riven valley in the mountains with the waterfall. They haven’t built the last Homely House yet, but it definitely looks like the location. Lorien is on the other side of the Misty Mountain range, more of a forest, less mountainous. I don’t think they traveled that far. Thematically, Elrond finding Rivendell/healing Galdadriel sounds in line for that location in the movieverse. Maybe Galadriel finds Lorien later.
I’m also reading the Appendices for the first time, going straight into that. They should have gone into more detail about Numenor’s issues with elves, wanting to be immortal and travel to the Undying Lands. I think they also accidentally called Elrond’s mother Melian of the Valar, when that was his great-grandmother or something like that. I know it’s a bit nitpicky, but just a minor detail. I also looked into the Undying Lands-so the gods, Valar, basically live next door to the elves there? That’s kind of crazy. The dwarves worship Aule the smith, and the elves might’ve met him millennia ago. “Oh, I knew him, he was my neighbor. We said hi.”
October 4, 2024 @ 12:08 pm
Also, Celebrimbor was Feanor’s grandson, if I remember correctly? Did they mention that? That’s kind of an interesting detail. There’s a lot of interesting details, too, looking at the maps and reading the appendices. A lot of different places never fully explored before by the movies, and I don’t know if the TV show would ever touch them. Like the frozen tundra at the beginning of the first season, I didn’t know that actually existed in the world, until I read about it in the appendix. The Forochel/Forodwaith, just a footnote in the book, yet kind of interesting.
October 4, 2024 @ 11:26 pm
It’s even worse—Melian was Elrond’s great-great-grandmother!
October 14, 2024 @ 8:30 am
the word used is “foremother”, which is a perfectly good word for “female ancestor, any number of generations away”