REVIEW: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power – Season 1, Episode 3, “Adar”

Television Reviews

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power continues with episode 3, “Adar,” which, once again, is a bloated, nonsensical slog that breaks every fundamental rule of writing, characterization, and dialogue. The plot could have easily been condensed into less than 15 minutes, just like the previous episodes. It may even be possible to cut this episode out of the show entirely and lose nigh on nothing relevant to the overall plot of the series. The plot-related material for these first three episodes of The Rings of Power requires less time than a single 45-minute episode. The bloat of “Adar” cannot be understated; nothing of import happens for long stretches of this poorly paced and poorly acted narrative.

Perhaps the only saving grace of this episode is that there is far less dialogue, which prevents the countless cringe and senseless lines that plagued the previous two. Beyond that, nothing about “Adar” sets it above its predecessors nor improves upon the abysmal state of the show’s scripts. The Rings of Power is working hard to redefine what it means to be bad television.

Many of the same criticisms from the prior episodes carry into “Adar,” such as poor costume/set design, out-of-place haircuts, and modern phrases, idioms, and word usages. Additionally, lore issues are rampant throughout this episode, as before, but they will not be mentioned in depth here. This review will merely look at the show in and of itself. For lore breakdowns, check out Nerdrotic, Nerd Cookies, Just Some Guy, and others on YouTube.

**Spoilers**

“Adar” sees a Galadriel and Halbrand hanging around the island Kingdom of Númenor, accomplishing nearly nothing throughout the episode besides Galadriel finally looking at a map to determine what the Mark of Sauron is. The rest of Galadriel’s plot is almost irrelevant and rife with terrible dialogue and unnecessary scenes. The only other major contribution that her story arc offers is the introduction of Elendil and his son Isildur, both of whom have the barest bones of character development, driven primarily by “tell, don’t show.” For the Harfoot storyline, nothing is developed besides the other Harfoots now knowing that Nori has been babysitting a wizard. The final subplot of “Adar” follows Arondir, who has been imprisoned by orcs and forced to dig. He and the other captured elves attempt to escape but fail. This is the grand total of plot-relevant developments within “Adar.”

To briefly mention the few positive things this episode offers, the orc designs are fine, mostly competently made prosthetics. There are some very strange characterizations with them to facilitate the completely unsubtle visuals of a black man in chains. They also made the nonsensical choice to switch from digging tunnels to digging trenches, among other things. The orcs look fine; that’s where the necessary praise for them grinds to a screeching halt.

Another positive comes in the production design of some of the exterior sets of Númenor. The interiors are still as barebones and basic as has become customary for The Rings of Power, but the exteriors seem competently made and rather detailed. This, added with some interesting CGI wide shots, make for the best and most compelling visuals of the episode. The final positive also comes from Númenor. There’s a brief shot of a puppet show depicting Galadriel in passing. These puppets do more to differentiate between humans and elves than the show has with their casting and depiction of the different races. The puppet Galadriel is a better character and more lore-accurate than the actual Galadriel of The Rings of Power. That is where the praise ends.

The cringe dialogue from the previous episodes continues in “Adar.” There are so many attempts to sound pompous and profound, but they all come across as incomprehensible, as they don’t actually mean anything. Sometimes a character will ask a question, and the response will be about something entirely random and unrelated or show the complete insanity of the character and their fundamental lack of intelligence.

At one point, Queen Miriel rebuffs Galadriel’s claim that the elves gave the Númenóreans their island by saying they paid for it with their blood. Galadriel — a character that we’ve been told is smart but has only displayed an IQ barely in the double digits — responds to Miriel’s defense of her ancestors by saying, “If the price of passage is blood, I will pay it.” What is she talking about? Miriel wasn’t talking about passage off the island or anything like that. She was merely responding to Galadriel’s claim that they should be grateful to elves for giving them this island. The dialogue sounds profound but is ultimately meaningless.

The scene where Galadriel meets Miriel is perhaps one of the most insufferable ever put to screen. Galadriel is a terrible, off-putting, and downright bitchy character with zero intelligence. Throughout the episode, she’s shown as ungrateful for being rescued from, in her words, “certain death.” However, her unlikability is never more apparent than it is when she meets Miriel. This sequence also features another cringe attempt at comedy. Galadriel introduces herself with all her titles and pompous arrogance, similar to Dani in Game of Thrones. Then, Halbrand just says his name and nothing else. It’s meant to be hilarious but comes across as tryhard. Galadriel’s title worsens later when Isildur calls her the “scourge of orcs,” as if that’s a common title for her. How can she be known to these men as the scourge of orcs if, in general, orcs haven’t been seen in centuries, as stated in episode 1? This is easily Galadriel’s worst episode, where she is the most insufferable and unlikable. If the show’s main character is its worst part, there is really no saving it.

There’s a common belief that no writer can write a character smarter than themselves. That is proven with Galadriel here. The audience is told that she’s vastly intelligent and superior to all she comes across. Yet she makes nonsensical decisions and fails to see the obvious in so many situations. The writers could not make her seem smarter than they were, so they dumbed down everyone else in the world to make her seem smart by comparison. That was the only way to show her as even basically competent.

The rest of the characters’ plotlines were already described in full detail above; there is little to say beyond that. They’re just long, drawn-out, and bland scenes that fall apart under any sort of logical evaluation. As with the previous episodes, where is all the money for the show going? The Rings of Power is supposedly the most expensive television series ever made, yet everything is cheap and lazy, from writing to costume and set design. Even the CGI of this episode is far inferior to its predecessors. The warg fight that closes “Adar” has graphics more at home in She-Hulk or a PS2 game, not CGI that feels at home in a show with this much money behind it.

There are more issues in “Adar” than this article has time or space to evaluate properly. Every single line of dialogue, the interaction between characters, and the decisions made falls apart under the most basic of scrutiny. Only a MauLer-style video or a full live stream can truly dissect the rampant offensive and unforgivable ineptitude that is rife throughout this abomination of television. The Rings of Power seems determined to redefine the definition of bad television, and “Adar” succeeds in that goal with flying colors.