A review conducted by Eric Kain, a senior contributor on ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 1 Review: Amazon’s Arrogant Betrayal of ‘The Lord of The Rings’ goes into great depth about the series developed by J. D. Payne and Pactrick McKay as well as original novels written by J. R. R. Tolkien. The opening paragraph starts off strong, providing key information about the series such as "Amazon’s The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power is now over. Its eight-episode, eight-hour, reportedly $1 billion run has come and gone" and “Ostensibly, this is an adaptation of Tolkien’s Second Age” (‘The Rings of Power’ Season 1 Review: Amazon’s Arrogant Betrayal of ‘The Lord of The Rings’, October 18, 2022). This bit of information and the title of the review shows us that perhaps this adaptation is not up to viewer’s standards. Later in the article Kain talks more about the challenges of creating an adaptation that pleases the audience. He shares
When adapting an established work from one medium to another, changes will invariably be made. These will never please everyone, of course, but a new medium demands it (‘The Rings of Power’ Season 1 Review: Amazon’s Arrogant Betrayal of ‘The Lord of The Rings’, October 18, 2022).
This provides great insight to what J. D. Payne and Pactrick McKay had to face, when developing The Ring of Power. The fanbase for the Lord of the Rings is extremely passionate and staying true to the original story line is going to be important for maintaining an audience and having the series succeed. In the case of The Ring of Power it appears they did not succeed. As listed in the review many changes occurred in this adaptation; “...bizarre changes to the actual story” (‘The Rings of Power’ Season 1 Review: Amazon’s Arrogant Betrayal of ‘The Lord of The Rings’, October 18, 2022), and changes in timeline and changes to the characters. Kain talks in great depth about how the newly developed series relates to Tolkien's work. The article does not contain many professional quotations but because Eric Kain is a senior contributor so we can view his review as an expert opinion.
Lord of the Rings has a massive community of viewers, and as mentioned previously, they look out for original story lines and features that they enjoy so much about the book. This review is targeted for Lord of the Rings lovers looking to appreciate a new medium and way of communicating the story. Because there are such high standards when creating an historical piece like the Lord of the Rings, a review like Eric Kain’s helps the audience decide whether or not they want to view an adaptation. When he mentions “The Rings Of Power is an empty husk of a show” and “The characters are forgettable at best” it doesn't make you want to watch the series. In fact, a fan reading this review would probably shy away from watching it in hopes to save their image of the characters and storyline they have already created in their head. It is unfortunate that this series did not keep up with the novels, however, in regards to this review I believe it was well done and provided lots of information for the audience to make an informed decision if they wanted to watch The Rings of Power.
Work Cited
Kain, Eric. ‘The Rings of Power’ Season 1 Review: Amazon’s Arrogant Betrayal of ‘The Lord of The Rings’ Forbes. 18 October 2022, Accessed 2 May 2023.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2022/10/18/the-rings-of-power-season-1-review- amazons-arrogant-betrayal-of-the-lord-of-the-rings/?sh=6183af5018
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