lord of the rings the rings of power

The Rings of Power Season 2: Thoughts, Hopes, and Fears

Spoiler Warning: Spoilers are present for The Rings of Power Season 1 and the trailer for Season 2.

I was one of the folks back in 2022 who generally enjoyed The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. I think I even named it my favourite series of the year – despite there being plenty of competition for that award! But I also noted some weaknesses, both narratively and on the production side of things, and at the end of the day, I felt there was still work to do for the series to justify its frankly insane billion-dollar price tag.

That’s where I start as I look ahead to The Rings of Power’s upcoming second season. But there are a few other considerations before we dive head-first into the meat of the recent teaser trailer and begin to wonder about storylines and set-piece battles! In this piece today, I want to consider The Rings of Power Season 2 not only as a standalone work, but also as one piece of an expanding “Tolkien-verse,” which will soon include an animated film, a new film based around Gollum, and another currently-untitled film.

Still frame from The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer showing Celebrimbor. — What will *The Rings of Power* Season 2 look like?

The Rings of Power was not well-received in its first season, and Season 2 has the difficult tasks of winning back viewers who were left disappointed, convincing those who drifted away to give it a second chance, and also bringing on board new viewers who either missed out last time or weren’t even convinced to press play. None of that will be easy, and while behind-the-scenes changes could’ve provided The Rings of Power with a soft reboot of sorts… none of that was readily apparent to me in the recent teaser trailer. If viewers want simply “more of The Rings of Power,” then that’s good news. But if the show, as has been reported, lost two-thirds of its audience over the course of a truncated first season… I don’t see how “more of the same” will be of any help.

I’ve discussed this before – thanks to another Amazon Prime Video series, by coincidence – but the huge gap of two years in between such short seasons of television is something that The Rings of Power could’ve done without. I was a fan of Season 1, as previously stated, but even I’m having a hard time recalling the details of what happened last time, as well as the names of characters, where everyone ended up, and just the overall state of Middle-earth as the credits rolled. This isn’t a problem unique to Amazon by any means, as it’s something many streaming productions have struggled with. But it simply must be a priority to ensure that Season 3 is produced much more quickly. Were there problems beyond Amazon’s control this time? Sure: pandemic restrictions in New Zealand and a strike by writers and actors surely had parts to play. But waiting two full years for eight episodes of television is unacceptable – and it will cause actual harm to The Rings of Power as it tries to pick up where it left off.

Still frame from The Rings of Power Season 2 first look video showing Elrond and Galadriel. — A glimpse behind-the-scenes…

Let’s talk briefly about where The Rings of Power might fit in an expanding streaming television marketplace. When the series was commissioned, Game of Thrones was approaching the end of its run, and Amazon may have expected – wrongly – that its series would have the high-budget high fantasy space all to itself, at least on the small screen. That hasn’t happened, with Netflix’s The Witcher, HBO’s spin-off House of the Dragon, and several others offering something similar. And now, following the passing of Christopher Tolkien – who had guarded his father’s estate quite vociferously – there are even other competing works being produced out of JRR Tolkien’s stories.

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim is an animated film that’s currently set to premiere later this year, and just last week we got the announcement from Warner Bros. of two new live-action films: one focusing on Gollum, to be directed by Andy Serkis, and another untitled film. Both will be produced by Peter Jackson, who directed The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies.

Promo graphic for The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim (2024). — *The Rings of Power* isn’t the only production based on Tolkien’s Middle-earth that will premiere this year…

Not only does The Rings of Power not have the high fantasy space to itself, but it’s also in direct competition with other works set in Middle-earth thanks to these new films. If Season 3 is slow to enter production and targets a 2026 release date, it could come up against Serkis and Jackson’s Gollum film. While I’m somewhat sceptical of a film focusing so heavily on Gollum – particularly in light of the disappointment of the Gollum video game last year – bringing back Peter Jackson and Andy Serkis is sure to pique the curiosity of fans of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It’s certainly got me interested!

None of this is to say that The Rings of Power can’t peacefully co-exist with all of these productions – in Middle-earth and beyond. There’s a market for fantasy on television, and most of the projects we’ve been talking about have their own weaknesses, too. But what it does do is muddy the waters, meaning it’s going to be tough for The Rings of Power to truly stand out.

Still frame from The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer showing an imposing tower. — Is this going to be Sauron’s fortress?

When Amazon was negotiating with the Tolkien estate prior to The Rings of Power being commissioned, I can’t help but feel that the wrong decisions were taken. Although this may be controversial, in my view it would’ve been better to re-tell the story of The Lord of the Rings instead of trying to create a prequel from the book’s appendices. Re-making such a popular story less than twenty years after the films had been produced would have drawn a lot of criticism – but The Rings of Power caught that anyway, and at least if the series had been re-telling The Lord of the Rings, the story itself would’ve been built on firmer foundations.

That’s all for the birds now, of course, but as new Middle-earth films are being created, set in and around the time of The Lord of the Rings, I don’t think that the comparison they present is a favourable one for The Rings of Power. Ask 100 Lord of the Rings fans whether they’re more excited for the next season of this series or War of the Rohirrim and the Gollum film… and I think you and I both have a good idea about which way that survey would go!

Still frame from The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer showing Princess Disa. — Princess Disa in the Season 2 trailer.

I’ve had a little time to sit with the trailer for The Rings of Power Season 2, and I’ve given it a couple of re-watches to see if I missed anything interesting. We’ll set aside concerns about the long wait, other fantasy shows, and Amazon’s management of the project and take a look at the trailer now. As always, I encourage you to watch the trailer for yourself if you can – it’s available on YouTube at time of writing, and I assume it’ll be somewhere on Amazon Prime Video, too. I’ll drop a link to the trailer at the bottom of this article.

My two biggest takeaways from the trailer are as follows: first, “more of the same.” In terms of costumes, characters, and visual effects, The Rings of Power Season 2 looks remarkably similar to Season 1 – or at least to my two-year-old recollections of Season 1! As discussed above, I think that in itself could be a serious hurdle for a series whose first season was not especially well-received. This trailer is going to be most folks’ first look at The Rings of Power in close to two years, and if that’s the main impression most people get… I’m not sure that bodes well for bringing back wayward viewers.

Still frame from The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer showing Galadriel with a group of elves. — Galadriel and the elves appear to be caught in an ambush.

Secondly, I was struck by the absence of several key characters from Season 1 – characters that we know to be returning in some capacity this time around. Their absences could be hiding spoilers, they could be held in reserve for a future trailer, or the post-production work on those scenes and sequences could be unfinished. But I also wonder whether the proto-Hobbit Harfoots and the humans of the Southlands may be taking on less of a prominent role this time around.

We did get a very brief glimpse of the Stranger – the wizard character whom many are assuming to be Gandalf – seemingly performing some kind of magical spell. I’ve had a theory for a while that the Stranger may, in fact, turn out to be another wizard like Saruman; this would be a different outcome to what many viewers seem to be expecting! But the Stranger was barely glimpsed in this trailer, which could also suggest that his role is going to be less significant this time around. I’m not always in favour of writers and artists making big changes to their work based on complaints, but the Harfoot-Stranger storyline was probably not the most well-received in Season 1, so scaling it back could make sense… if indeed that’s what’s happened.

Still frame from The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer showing the Stranger. — I almost missed this clip in my first viewing of the trailer!

The Dwarves and Elves both seem to be aware of Sauron’s rise, and we saw several clips that could all be from the same battle – or that could be from different fights spread across multiple episodes. One clip appeared to show siege weapons being deployed against a city. Battles in Middle-earth have usually been fun to see on screen – though the titular Battle of the Five Armies in the final part of The Hobbit trilogy was, I would argue, over-stretched and a bit of a mess in terms of some of its CGI. But after Season 1 had ended without a full “battle episode,” it could be fun to have something like that this time around.

We saw most of the main characters, but one character pairing that was missing from the trailer was that of Elrond and the Dwarf prince Durin. These two characters were great together in Season 1, and their dynamic did a lot to bring some of the otherwise heavy stories down to earth. While it’ll be great to see different character groupings in Season 2, and to give the likes of Elrond and Galadriel more screen time together, I hope that doesn’t come at the expense of the wonderful “bromance” between Elrond and Durin that was built up in Season 1.

Still frame from The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer showing Durin. — The relationship between Durin and Elrond was one of the best parts of Season 1.

Season 1 hinted at the fate of Numenor and its people – destruction by a massive tidal wave/flood. Whether that will actually happen in Season 2 wasn’t clear, but with the action potentially returning to the island after Numenor’s excursion to the mainland, I think it has to be a possibility! I didn’t see a lot of Numenor in the trailer, but there did seem to be one interesting clip involving a character I didn’t recognise disembarking from a large Eagle. Does that mean that Tolkien’s somewhat notorious Eagles will be in play in Season 2? That could certainly shake things up!

I can’t help but wonder whether the scene showing what we assume to be Sauron meeting the ring-maker Celebrimbor is actually a flashback. In Tolkien’s original works – which The Rings of Power has diverged from already, I should note – it was Sauron who taught the Elves how to make magical rings, so showing this as a flashback could work. I wouldn’t say I’m 100% convinced of that, but it’s certainly an interesting possibility, and a way to bring the series more in line with The Silmarillion and Tolkien’s own stories.

Still frame from The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer showing King Durin holding a ring. — “Seven for the Dwarf-Lords in their halls of stone…”

There were two creatures/monsters that I didn’t recognise: one that seemed to be comprised of wriggling worms or tentacles and another that resides under the sea. Both of these could be great fun as threats/antagonists, and I look forward to seeing what the series will do with them. In terms of visuals, both looked great – and while they’re CGI creations, they were well-integrated with the sets and characters around them. When looking at video that has been compressed for YouTube, it isn’t always easy to tell how good or bad a CGI moment might look – but these seem to be on the right track, at least.

Although we couldn’t see what caused it, some disaster appears to befall the Dwarves at their underground home, with damage raining down on a Dwarven bridge. The theme of this season could be the tearing down of the existing power structures in Middle-earth, with our main characters needing to leap into action to save what they can and prepare to rebuild what’s going to be lost.

Still frame from The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer showing an army on horseback. — Charge!

The soundtrack to the trailer seemed to be solid. Music in Season 1 was generally pretty good – and the song This Wandering Day in particular was exceptional. With composer Bear McCreary returning to compose the soundtrack this time, I think we can expect more decent music. Visually, as noted I didn’t really feel that any of the CGI/VFX were sub-par. Nothing really leapt out at me as being visually stunning or groundbreaking – but again, a short trailer made for YouTube won’t necessarily give you that!

So that’s my look ahead to The Rings of Power Season 2, which will be on our screens at the end of August. Although it feels like spring has only just sprung, August and September will be upon us before we know it – so there really isn’t that long to wait! I’m debating whether or not to re-watch Season 1 before Season 2 gets here just so I’m caught up and ready to go. When the season arrives, I’ll do my best to share my thoughts and opinions here on the website, so I hope you’ll join me for that.

Despite some issues, I’ll end by saying that I’m generally looking forward to the return of The Rings of Power, and I’m crossing my fingers that the series can build upon the genuine successes of its first season. There should be opportunities to learn from what worked and what didn’t last time around, and perhaps to hone and refine things a little. That’s not really the impression I got from the way the trailer was cut… but here’s hoping!

You can watch The Rings of Power Season 2 trailer on YouTube by clicking or tapping here.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2 will premiere on the 29th of August 2024 on Amazon Prime Video. Season 1 is available to stream now and is also available on DVD. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the copyright of Amazon Prime Video/Amazon Studios and New Line Cinema. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

End-of-Year Awards 2022

Fri 30.12.22Sat 31.12.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: Minor spoilers may be present for some of these titles.

As we enter the final hours of 2022, it’s time to look back at the entertainment experiences that we’ve enjoyed – as well as a few that we didn’t enjoy all that much! I’ve cobbled together a few categories from the world of television, film, and video games, and today I’m going to hand out some highly-coveted Trekking with Dennis Awards to some of my favourites!

You’ll find a couple of titles from the tail end of 2021 on this list; I reckon anything released in December is fair game as those titles often get the short end of the stick when it comes to lists like these. Some outlets put together their “best of” lists way back at the start of December, which is far too early in my opinion! But we’re drifting off-topic already!

It’s time to hand out my End-of-Year Awards!

There are plenty of titles that, for one reason or another, I didn’t get around to this year – so for reasons that I hope are obvious they can’t be included. I’m only one person and I don’t have every minute of the day to devote to these pursuits, so the exclusion from this list of certain big titles shouldn’t be interpreted as any kind of deliberate snub!

And as always, a caveat before we begin: all of this is the subjective opinion of one person. I may give an award to a production you vehemently hate, or talk negatively about something you enjoyed, but at the end of the day this is supposed to be a bit of fun. Feel free to disagree with any or all of my picks – but there’s no need to take any of it too seriously!

With all of that out of the way, let’s get started!

Best Television Miniseries/Limited Series:

🥈 Runner-Up🥈
Five Days At Memorial

Five Days At Memorial had the challenging task of dramatising a real-world event – and a gruelling one at that. I remember the harrowing news reports in 2005 showing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and I could absolutely understand why some folks might feel it’s too soon to make a programme like this. But for my money, Five Days At Memorial did a good job at adapting the events at Memorial Hospital as delicately as possible, staying true to what happened while still making the story engrossing and understandable for viewers.

The fact that Five Days At Memorial shows what happened at Memorial Hospital from two very different angles felt a bit strange at first, but by doing so the series lends the events the challenging ambiguity that they continue to have. By refusing to come down on one side or another – to condemn as guilty or exonerate Dr Pou – Five Days At Memorial strikes the right balance. There was some choppy editing in some sequences that meant the miniseries didn’t feel as smooth as it could’ve, but other than that it was a very interesting look at a very difficult moment in the recent past.

🏆 Winner 🏆
1899

Netflix original 1899 is taking the crown in this category this year. The show goes on a wild and unpredictable ride, blending themes of mental health that resonated strongly with me with mystery and psychological horror. The multilingual series is, in my view, best enjoyed without being dubbed, as the different characters and the language barriers between them are key elements in the story at several crucial junctures.

I was first attracted to 1899 because of its setting – both in time, at the end of the 19th Century, and on a boat making a transatlantic voyage. But what I found when I got started was one of the most unique and different television productions that I’ve seen in a long time. 1899 may not be to everyone’s taste, but I found it absolutely riveting all the way through.

Worst Television Series:

🏆 “Winner” 🏆
Obi-Wan Kenobi

After I’d enjoyed what The Book of Boba Fett brought to the table, I felt a pang of hope that Obi-Wan Kenobi might at least be passable. But it wasn’t to be, and the series was a horrible slog through the absolute worst kind of tacked-on story that used increasingly desperate nostalgia plays to try to recreate some of the magic that, frankly, Star Wars hasn’t had since the ’80s.

Say it with me, folks: it’s time for Star Wars to move on! The vast sandbox that is the Star Wars galaxy has trillions of inhabitants, millions of star systems, thousands of planets, and hundreds of factions and organisations – and tens of thousands of years of history that could explore any of them. For more than forty years, Star Wars has been laser-focused on the same handful of characters and the same tiny sliver of this wonderful setting, but it’s over. If Star Wars is to survive, something’s gotta change. Obi-Wan Kenobi proved that.

Best Television Series:

🥈 Runner-Up🥈
Halo

Halo wasn’t spectacular, but as the first real attempt to bring the long-running video game franchise into a new medium, it got a lot right. The story it told was a riff on the familiar story that fans will remember from the games, but there were important differences which not only kept the mystery going, but also gave genuine characterisation to the Master Chief.

In terms of cinematography, I liked the way that Halo incorporated some first-person sequences into its action-heavy moments. This could have easily felt like a gimmick, but the way it was done – and crucially, not overdone – made it feel like a throwback to the series’ source material while also mixing things up in the television space. Halo used a fairly standard format that would be familiar to anyone who’s seen a made-for-streaming television show in the past few years, with a slowly unfolding mystery, multiple storylines, and characters who grow and change over the course of the series. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, and I certainly get the argument that it wasn’t as action-packed as some fans might’ve wanted. But it was, all in all, a decent bit of sci-fi.

🏆 Winner 🏆
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

The Rings of Power had a lot of work to do to impress me. It had to live up to the legacy of the trilogy of films from a few years ago. It had to show that it could go toe-to-toe with the likes of Game of Thrones, The Witcher, and other big-budget productions in the fantasy space. And, to be blunt, it had to justify its billion-dollar price tag.

Whether The Rings of Power managed to accomplish all of those goals in its first season is still arguably an open question. But it certainly laid the groundwork for what should be a television spectacular, and it was, on balance, probably the best show I’ve seen this year. When I was at a low ebb in the autumn and didn’t have the energy or headspace for watching many new things, The Rings of Power was the one show that I made time for. Sure, there were big battles and other CGI spectaculars, but there were also some genuinely wonderful performances that brought to life some incredible character-focused storytelling. I can’t wait for Season 2!

Best Web Series:

🥈 Runner-Up🥈
How To Cake It

After a hiatus of more than a year, YouTube show How To Cake It made a welcome return this year. This time, there’s less of a focus on the kind of attention-grabbing, visually spectacular cakes that look like rocket ships or Princess Elsa or a completely different food, and I think that’s actually been a positive thing! Host Yolanda Gampp has branched out, doing much more of a variety when it comes to baking. Some highlights include flavoured cookies, baklava, and even popcorn.

As often happens when a web series takes an extended break, recent episodes of How To Cake It haven’t been doing the same numbers as the series used to get. But I hope that, as time goes by, it will pick up some of those wayward viewers – and perhaps bring on board a whole host of new ones, too. This new version of How To Cake It seems to be making more down-to-earth recipes that you or I might feel brave enough to attempt, rather than showing off impressive designs that only a master baker could create. For me at least, that’s a great thing, and I hope to see much more from Yolanda and the team in the new year.

🏆 Winner 🏆
Anti-Chef

If How To Cake It shows a master at work, Anti-Chef – as the name suggests – is the complete opposite! The show is a lot of fun, and Jamie, the host, isn’t shy about sharing his failures in the kitchen as he works his way through some very complicated recipes. Though he’s not a total newbie any more, many of the techniques in the recipes he challenges himself to try are very advanced, and the personal, relatable style makes me feel like I’m right there in the kitchen.

I love a good cooking show, and as much fun as it can be to see an experienced chef at work, it can be even more entertaining to see an inexperienced home cook tackling some of these recipes. Anti-Chef has given me a lot of laughs this year – but also some cooking tips and inspiration, too.

The Worst of Star Trek:

🏆 “Winner” 🏆
Most of Picard Season 2

I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to call out Picard Season 2, but I think it’s earned a place on this list. The first episode of Season 2 was absolutely fantastic, and if the rest of the season had been anywhere close to that level, we’d be talking about Picard as the best show of the year. But unfortunately things took a pretty sharp nose-dive after the second episode of the season, with Picard and his crew wandering aimlessly for much of the season in a present-day setting that didn’t feel inspiring or enjoyable in the least.

By the time the action returned to the 25th Century in the second half of the season finale, the damage had been done, and despite Farewell pulling out a decent ending, this disconnected, disjointed, overly-long story has to go down as one of Star Trek’s big misses – perhaps even one of the biggest missteps in the franchise’s history. There were individual elements in most episodes that I can honestly say that I enjoyed… but Picard Season 2 overall feels like a massive disappointment.

Star Trek’s Biggest Surprises:

🥈 Runner-Up🥈
Kobayashi
Star Trek: Prodigy

We ought to talk more about Prodigy here on the website – and I hope we will next year! But for now, the episode Kobayashi came out of nowhere in January to be one of the biggest surprises in the show’s first season. The Kobayashi Maru training programme famously tests would-be captains in a “no-win scenario,” and you wouldn’t think that premise would lead to such a genuinely heartwarming and wholesome episode – but as a longstanding fan, I really appreciated what Kobayashi brought to the table.

Without giving too much away, the Kobayashi Maru scenario plays out on the holodeck, and a cast of fan-favourite Star Trek characters all join in on the action. It’s a nostalgic treat – but it doesn’t overplay its hand, keeping a tight focus on the new characters introduced in Prodigy.

🏆 Winner 🏆
All Those Who Wander
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Strange New Worlds had an incredible first season, showing off a varied, episodic approach in which it wasn’t shy about trying out many different genres. All Those Who Wander draws inspiration from the likes of The Thing and Alien to create a tense, claustrophobic sense of horror aboard a crashed starship.

It’s hard to say too much more without getting into spoiler territory – and of all the episodes in Season 1, All Those Who Wander has to be the most important to go into un-spoiled! Suffice to say that the episode takes the horror angle right up to the edge of my personal comfort zone, but never crosses that line. It’s an intense experience, and one that shows just how incredible Star Trek can be when it throws itself into another genre.

The Best of Star Trek:

🥈 Runner-Up🥈
Coming Home
Star Trek: Discovery

Discovery’s fourth season plodded along, in places, and definitely teased us with mysterious factions and characters that ultimately turned out to be brand-new. But by the time the season finale rolled around, most of that was already settled. What we got was an incredibly emotional episode that saw Captain Burnham and the crew racing against time to reach an unknown, uncontacted alien race.

There were resolutions to disagreements between characters, several incredibly dramatic moments, and a storyline involving Admiral Vance at Federation HQ that showed off Starfleet and the Federation at their very best. Coming Home is, without a doubt, one of Discovery’s very best episodes.

🏆 Winner 🏆
A Quality of Mercy
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Captain Pike gets a visit from “the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come” in A Quality of Mercy – and the episode is incredible. In Discovery Season 2, when it became apparent that Captain Pike knew in advance that he was going to suffer a debilitating accident, an obvious question would be “why didn’t he try to prevent it?” And A Quality of Mercy takes that idea and runs with it.

In addition to a very emotional story involving Captain Pike – one that I, as a disabled person, found incredibly relatable – there’s also a wonderful callback to an episode of The Original Series, and moments for all of the main characters to get a chance to shine. Ethan Peck puts in a spectacular performance as Spock, and there was even time at the very end of the episode for one final twist as the curtain fell on one of the best seasons of Star Trek ever put to screen.

Best Animated Film:

🥈 Runner-Up🥈
Minions: The Rise of Gru

The Despicable Me franchise is usually good for some fun escapism, and so it proved again with The Rise of Gru. There isn’t anything completely groundbreaking here; you know how the titular Minions behave by now. But stepping back in time to a ’70s setting allowed for some fun jokes, and the over-the-top villains that Gru encountered were a ton of fun.

There was still heart and emotion in The Rise of Gru thanks to Gru’s relationship with the villainous Wild Knuckles, and that did enough to ground what was otherwise a pretty wacky adventure. There were plenty of references and callbacks to other franchises for nerds like us to enjoy, and on the whole, I had a good time with the film. I’m not in a desperate rush to re-watch it, but it was good fun for what it was.

🏆 Winner 🏆
Encanto

After several years in which Disney has focused on live-action adaptations and sequels, Encanto came along like a breath of fresh air! It’s one of the best Disney films of the current era without a doubt, with a deeply engrossing and frequently emotional story that has an uplifting message. And thanks to a wonderful soundtrack by the phenomenally talented Lin-Manuel Miranda, there are some incredible songs too!

A setting inspired by Colombia was also something different for a major Disney production, and the company has done well at diversifying the peoples and places it depicts in its major releases. But that would have been meaningless had Encanto not been such a wonderful, well-told story – and I’m so very pleased that it was.

Best Live-Action Film:

🥈 Runner-Up🥈
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

With the caveat that I didn’t see that many films this year, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is definitely up there as one of the better ones! I genuinely couldn’t believe that this film existed when I first heard of its premise – Nicolas Cage playing a fictionalised version of himself and going on a wacky adventure. But you know what? I’m very glad that it does!

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent could have ended up as a bargain-bin B-movie – or worse, it could’ve tried to take itself far too seriously. But instead it leans into a kind of self-deprecating humour as well as tropes of the action genre, coming across as light-hearted and just plain fun. Nicolas Cage is a good sport for taking part, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already.

🏆 Winner 🏆
All Quiet on the Western Front

Netflix’s reimagining of this classic German war film is absolutely brutal. If any film has ever come close to accurately depicting the true horrors of the First World War, this is it. The story follows a young conscript from Germany as he joins the army and is dispatched to the front line, and then jumps ahead to the closing days of the war.

Every version of All Quiet on the Western Front – and there have now been three adaptations of the original novel – have shown just how senseless and meaningless war can be, taking a very individualist, human look at warfare. This version hammers that home, and can be uncomfortable viewing. But it’s an incredibly powerful film – one that absolutely deserves to be in contention for some of the top awards.

The “I-didn’t-play-this-game-but-you-probably-should” Award:

🏆 Winner 🏆
Elden Ring

I wish I could say I was interested in Elden Ring… but I’m just not. The “difficult for the sake of it” style of gameplay that has come to be known as the “Souls-like” genre just isn’t my cup of tea, but by all accounts Elden Ring is one of the best examples of this type of game, and one of the best games of the year – if not the generation.

Taking the Dark Souls format into an expansive open-world setting, Elden Ring has won almost universal acclaim from critics and players alike, becoming one of the most talked-about releases of the year. For a single-player title in a gaming landscape increasingly dominated by the online multiplayer scene, I think that’s a fantastic thing, and even though Elden Ring isn’t for me, I still think it’s worth noting it as one of the most important releases of the year.

Best Browser Game:

🏆 Winner 🏆
Wordle

I wouldn’t usually dedicate much time to browser games on a list like this, but since I first played Wordle back in February or March, I don’t think I’ve missed a single day. The format is fun, with a single word each day to guess and only six chances to get it right. Wordle was snapped up by the New York Times and has since spawned dozens or perhaps even hundreds of clones – including variants that have multiple words to guess, and variants based on specific topics or franchises. There’s even a Star Trek-themed one!

Wordle blew up to become an internet phenomenon in 2022, and for a while it seemed like you couldn’t move for people showing off their Wordle results on social media. It’s become part of my daily routine – and my current streak is 77 wins in a row, going all the way back to the middle of October!

The “buggy piece of crap” Award:

🏆 “Winner” 🏆
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection (PC version)

The PC port of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is the worst I’ve come across in recent years. I’d thought that the days of amateurish PC ports were finally over, but PlayStation Studios, Naughty Dog, and Iron Galaxy Studios showed me that I was wrong about that. In short, Uncharted is incredibly poorly-optimised for PC, with a piss-poor frame rate and weird visual and texture bugs that were incredibly offputting. The screenshot above shows off one such glitch.

It’s such a shame because the Uncharted series has always been a blast. The Indiana Jones-inspired games still feel like something different in the action-adventure space, even with the likes of Tomb Raider being reimagined for a new generation. The stories present here are great – but if I have to spend as much time battling bugs as I do enemies, I’m going to have a bad time. Other PlayStation titles – like Spider-Man and God of War – don’t have these issues, so I don’t understand how Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection managed to launch on PC in such a bad state.

Best Expansion Pack/DLC:

🏆 Winner 🏆
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass

The Booster Course Pass has given Mario Kart 8 Deluxe a new lease on life – even if it’s not as transformative as a new entry in the series would’ve been. I was disappointed as the year went by and it became clear that there would be no Mario Kart 9, but the Booster Course Pass has definitely convinced me to dust off my Nintendo Switch and pick up Mario Kart 8 Deluxe again.

The “wave” approach to the DLC has been fun, too, keeping the game feeling fresher for longer when compared to dumping all 48 new racetracks at once. Don’t get me wrong, the longevity of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still an issue, and I now have the additional concern that there will be fewer racetracks left to adapt whenever Mario Kart 9 eventually comes along. But in the short-term, the Booster Course Pass is proving to be great fun.

Game of the Year:

🥈 Runner-Up🥈
Stray

Stray is absolutely adorable: a game in which you get to play as a kitty cat! I was sold on that premise alone, but what I found when I got stuck in was a genuinely enjoyable, well-paced, well-structured indie title. Stray has great graphics, with the movement of the main cat character in particular being incredibly realistic. There’s some wonderful art design in both the environments and the robotic non-player characters, too.

Stray is further proof that there’s plenty of life in the narrative, linear, single-player space, and that not every game needs to be forced into the open-world mould. But at the same time, it’s something very different. Not only is the idea of playing as an animal unique, but the game’s slow pace and focus on peaceful interaction with the environment instead of combat and quick-time events all make for a relaxing, yet deeply engrossing experience.

🏆 Winner 🏆
Disney Dreamlight Valley

If you’d told me a few months ago that my favourite game of 2022 would be an early access Disney title, I wouldn’t have believed it! But I’ve sunk well over 150 hours into Disney Dreamlight Valley since its launch at the end of August, and I’ve been having an incredible time. The game basically took all of my criticisms of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and fixed them, then threw in dozens of new features I didn’t even know I wanted – and some fun Disney-centric stories with a diverse cast of characters for good measure.

Disney Dreamlight Valley is so much fun and has so much to offer, even in this early access form, that it’s hard to know where to begin. There’s an interesting main quest, dozens of character-focused missions, the kind of home-building and design gameplay that players loved about titles like The Sims, and all of the fun of living another life in a fantasy land as you’d expect from an Animal Crossing game. There’s so much to love about Disney Dreamlight Valley, and I’m happy to crown it my favourite game of the year.

So that’s it!

At the first Academy Awards in 1929, Joseph Farnham receives his award from Douglas Fairbanks.
*Image Credit: oscars.org*

We’ve dished out awards to some of my favourite entertainment experiences of the year. The countdown is on to 2023 – there are just hours left until the sun will rise on a whole new year! Stay tuned in the days ahead because I plan to take a look at some of the things I’m most looking forward to between now and Christmas. Is that the earliest you’ve seen someone mention Christmas 2023?

I hope that this was a bit of fun. There were plenty of enjoyable films, television shows, and video games this year – despite the delays that still hang over the entertainment industry. Though I wouldn’t say that 2022 is likely to go down in history as one of the best-ever years for entertainment, I think we still got a wide variety of experiences, many of which were enjoyable.

So I suppose all that’s left to say is this: Happy New Year! Whatever you plan to do, I hope you have a wonderful time!

See you next year!

All titles listed above are the copyright of their respective owner, company, studio, broadcaster, developer, distributor, publisher, etc. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.

Check out reviews or articles featuring some of the films, games, and TV shows mentioned on this list by clicking or tapping the links below:

The Halo TV Series

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Strange New Worlds Season 1

Star Trek: Discovery 4×13: Coming Home

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass

Disney Dreamlight Valley

Looking ahead to The Rings of Power

Wed 23.02.22Dennis

Spoiler Warning: There are minor spoilers ahead for The Lord of the Rings films and for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

It’s been several years since Amazon announced that it had purchased the rights to make a television series based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s work. In that time, the corporation has kept a tight lid on the show’s progress, and very little news has trickled out. However, with the series aiming to premiere later this year, Amazon has kick-started the marketing push! After the show’s actual name was finally revealed a couple of weeks ago, we got a few different poster designs, and then a few images featuring some of the cast, before the first official teaser trailer made its debut a few days ago.

Today I thought it could be interesting to look at what’s been revealed and teased so far, and see what we might be able to gleam about The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. This is going to be the most expensive television series ever created, and was greenlit out of the gate for five seasons. Intended to be Amazon’s answer to Game of Thrones, the show aims to build on the renewed success that the high fantasy genre has been experiencing. Based on Amazon’s financial commitment we should be in for a series with high production values and great visuals – one which can push boundaries and set a new high bar for television in general. That might sound like I’m asking for too much, but with a billion dollars on the line and competitors like Disney doing some incredible things with visual effects on streaming shows like The Book of Boba Fett, anything less would be underwhelming in the extreme.

Morfydd Clark as Galadriel in a promotional image.

First up, let’s talk about the title. I’m sorry, but The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an incredibly clunky, unwieldy title for a television series. In its short form, I guess we’ll be referring to the series as The Rings of Power, which is better! But the first thing that struck me was that it wasn’t a particularly inspired or original title. It frames the new series entirely around the rings Sauron had made for the Elves, Dwarves, and Men of Middle-earth, and that seems to take the series back to the familiar story that we’ve already seen play out.

Rather than this prequel using Tolkien’s work as a base for building its own story, the title seems to suggest that we’re really going to be seeing earlier chapters in the story we already know. There was scope, when stepping back literally thousands of years, to do something different. Early rumours suggested that the series might look at the rise and fall of Númenor, one of the kingdoms of Middle-earth that was extinct by the time of The Lord of the Rings, and while Númenor’s story may indeed play a role, the title of the series now suggests that we’re really going to be focusing more on Sauron and his rise to power.

Such a focus makes The Rings of Power more of a direct prequel to the events of The Lord of the Rings and less of an expansion of Middle-earth and Tolkien’s work on the small screen. That isn’t to say it will be bad as a result – but The Rings of Power will be confronted by the typical “prequel problem” that many such productions face: namely, we already know how this story ends. We’ve already seen what is arguably the more interesting part… so just convincing people to stick around and see what came before is automatically a challenge for The Rings of Power to surmount, one that wouldn’t have been present if the series had been structured differently.

Over the past few years since Amazon announced this project, I’ve heard a lot of people saying that the corporation shouldn’t be using the placeholder title “The Lord of the Rings on Prime” because the new series isn’t going to be about The Lord of the Rings. But it now seems that it actually is going to be all about the One Ring, Sauron, and his rise and fall. I’m not the only one who had been expecting the series to go in a different direction, and I think that the decision to stick closer to the established, familiar story represents a lack of boldness on Amazon’s part. Having spent all of this money for the rights to Middle-earth, there may have been a fear that steering away from established characters and storylines would be detrimental to the show’s prospects.

The character of Bronwyn – a healer and single mother, played by Nazanin Boniadi – was created for *The Rings of Power*.

On the flip side, I’ve heard fears from some fans that The Rings of Power will stray too far from Tolkien’s stories, so I guess there’s no way to satisfy everyone! For those folks, though, I would suggest that the title of the series, and the fact that characters like Elrond, Galadriel, and others will play significant roles means that it can’t be diverting too far away from storylines we might be familiar with.

It’s been a long time since I read The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings, and I don’t claim to be a Tolkien super-fan who knows all of the ins and outs of Middle-earth and the stories set there. So from my point of view, if the show’s central story arcs are engaging and exciting, they can dip in and out of the so-called “established canon” of Tolkien’s world at will. The same applied in some respects to Game of Thrones, a series which moved progressively further away from its source material season by season. If the stories continue to be well-written and entertaining, and the world populated by fun characters, that’s going to go a long way to making up for any deviations from the stories Tolkien wrote.

Charging horses seen in the teaser trailer.

In terms of the look of The Rings of Power, there’s definitely a heavy influence from the Peter Jackson films. I noted in the poster of King Durin in particular that the Dwarves seem to be modelled on those we remember from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. In other areas, The Rings of Power has seemed to move away and begin to chart its own course, but this will likely be a balancing act that the series will need to keep up for its entire five seasons. New showrunners, designers, and other creatives will always want to stamp their mark on their creation, but if Amazon is banking on fans of The Lord of the Rings films turning up in droves – and nostalgia for those films being a driving force – then it makes sense to expect to see many familiar visual elements.

There will be a marked change after Season 1, though, with production moving from New Zealand to the UK. New Zealand has become practically synonymous with Middle-earth for many folks because of The Lord of the Rings being produced there, and the country has even traded on that, using Middle-earth to bring in tourism. Unfortunately it’s the fault of the pandemic that production had to be moved, but we won’t see the consequences of that – in either a positive or negative sense – until next year. It’s possible, in my view, that if Season 1 is deemed underwhelming the second season could be a soft reboot, changing up the look and feel of the series. Time will tell!

Robert Aramayo as Elrond and Morfydd Clark as Galadriel.

The trailer itself was action-packed and looks exciting. We saw different races (Men, Dwarves, and Elves) featured, as well as a few magical creatures and CGI monsters that I confess I’m not familiar with. But the whole thing was well constructed and cut together, and I think it showed off a diversity of characters and locations without revealing too many spoilers or too much about the potential storylines. It was a tease to get viewers interested, and I think it largely succeeded in that regard.

I noted what could be either a sinking ship or, perhaps, the sinking/destruction of the island of Númenor among the clips in the trailer, something that was also shown off in one of the behind-the-scenes photos. There was also what appeared to be a large battle taking place; this can’t be the climactic battle between Sauron and the Last Alliance, surely, because it was that battle that led to Sauron’s defeat and the loss of the One Ring. So I assume that this battle is taking place somewhere else between different groups of forces.

There is definitely a contingent of people who want to see The Rings of Power fail, either because they dislike Amazon in a general sense, or because they see The Rings of Power as moving too far away from their understanding of Tolkien’s works. Personally, I don’t think it’s fair to pre-judge the series at this stage, with a one-minute-long teaser and a handful of photos being all we’ve seen, and I’d encourage everyone to try to lower the temperature in some of these discussions. There’s definitely a racial edge to some of the attacks I’ve seen thrown at The Rings of Power, with some so-called “fans” decrying the inclusion of non-white performers.

Because of Amazon’s status as one of the biggest companies in the world, I guess I can understand the bloody-mindedness of wanting to see it fail – even though it isn’t a sentiment I share. But to have decided already, months before the premiere, that The Rings of Power is somehow going to be unenjoyable – particularly if one of the primary reasons for thinking that way is because non-white actors are in it – seems utterly ridiculous to me. For some of these so-called “fans” to be actively willing the series to fail because it isn’t as white as they wish it would be is just pathetic.

As a fan of fantasy, and as someone who has enjoyed Tolkien’s work since I first read The Hobbit before I was ten years old, I want to enjoy The Rings of Power and for it to be an enjoyable and entertaining ride. Some of Amazon’s past productions in the sci-fi and fantasy genres – like The Expanse and The Wheel of Time – have been great, and while this project is certainly bigger and more ambitious, and thus has farther to fall if it doesn’t work, the potential exists for a fantasy series that could be on par with, or even eclipse, those early seasons of Game of Thrones. Amazon certainly has precedent and knows how to make some excellent television shows.

But I will judge the series on its merits when it’s here, and if I review it either as a whole season or as individual episodes I’ll be sure to give my honest thoughts and opinions at the time. I’m not a cheerleader for Amazon, but I’m certainly not going to go on the attack this early on. In my view, the trailer and photos show promise. Everything from costumes and set design to CGI work looked impressive, and The Rings of Power should be on course to make good use of its high budget in that regard. Whether the show’s writing, pacing, editing, acting performances, and the like are up to scratch… the jury is still out and we won’t know until September! But anyone pre-judging the series this early is, in my view, misguided.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power will premiere on Amazon Prime Video in September. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the copyright of Amazon, and The Lord of the Rings, Middle-earth, and other properties are the copyright of the Tolkien Estate. This article contains the thoughts and opinions of one person only and is not intended to cause any offence.