The Rings of Power Season 2 Review: Amazon’s Lord of the Rings Epic Improves

The Rings of Power Season 2 is a significant improvement over its uneven first season, delivering a more focused, more suspenseful, and more dramatically satisfying chapter of Tolkien’s Second Age. The reason can be summed up in one word: Sauron. Charlie Vickers, who was revealed as the Dark Lord in disguise at the end of Season 1, commands Season 2 as Annatar — the Lord of Gifts — a charming, manipulative figure who orchestrates the creation of the titular rings while hiding in plain sight. It is the villain performance the show desperately needed, and it elevates everything around it.

How We Reviewed: We grounded this review in viewing all available episodes before publishing and analysis of writing, direction, and ensemble performance. Ratings reflect full-season viewing, critical analysis, and production quality assessment. Brands featured did not pay for or influence their inclusion.

Sauron’s Masterplan

The season’s central storyline follows Sauron’s infiltration of the elven kingdom of Eregion, where he manipulates the brilliant smith Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) into forging the remaining rings of power. Vickers plays Annatar with a seductive intelligence that makes you understand why even the wisest elves fall for his deception. He is polite, deferential, and seemingly selfless — every gesture calculated to exploit Celebrimbor’s ambition and insecurity.

Charles Edwards delivers the season’s most heartbreaking performance as Celebrimbor. Watching this gifted craftsman slowly realize he has been deceived — that the rings he forged with such pride are instruments of domination — is genuinely tragic. Edwards plays the dawning horror with devastating understatement, and his final episodes are among the show’s finest hours.

The War Begins

The season builds toward the siege of Eregion, which delivers the large-scale battle spectacle that audiences expect from a Lord of the Rings property. The assault is well-staged and emotionally grounded — we care about the characters on the walls, which makes the destruction meaningful rather than merely impressive. The show’s billion-dollar budget is evident in every frame, from the sweeping aerial shots of armies on the march to the intimate close combat.

Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel continues to anchor the heroic side of the narrative, and Season 2 gives her a more clearly defined arc. Her pursuit of Sauron and her growing understanding of the threat he poses provide a through-line that the more diffuse first season lacked. Robert Aramayo’s Elrond also steps up significantly, becoming a more active and interesting character as the political and military situation deteriorates.

The Dwarven Storyline

Owain Arthur’s Prince Durin IV and Peter Mullan’s King Durin III remain the show’s most consistently enjoyable characters. The dwarven storyline, centered on the corrupting influence of a ring of power on the aging king, provides both the season’s best comic moments and some of its most poignant drama. The father-son dynamic is beautifully drawn, and Arthur brings such warmth to Prince Durin that every scene in Khazad-dum feels like coming home.

What Still Needs Work

The Harfoot and Stranger storyline remains the show’s weakest thread. While Daniel Weyman’s proto-Gandalf figure has charm, his journey feels disconnected from the main narrative, and the Rhun sequences lack the visual grandeur and dramatic urgency of the Eregion and Khazad-dum material. The Numenor subplot, featuring a power struggle that will eventually lead to the island’s downfall, also feels underdeveloped despite strong work from Trystan Gravelle as Pharazon.

Verdict

The Rings of Power Season 2 is the show that Season 1 should have been — focused, dramatic, and anchored by a genuinely compelling villain. Charlie Vickers’s Sauron and Charles Edwards’s Celebrimbor deliver the season’s standout work, and the siege of Eregion proves the show can deliver spectacle with substance. It is still not perfect, but it is now genuinely good, and that trajectory bodes well for future seasons.

Rating: 7.5/10

For more fantasy television, see our guide to the Best Fantasy Shows Streaming in 2025 and our Amazon Prime Video Best Originals Guide.