Why ‘The Rings Of Power’ Was A Massive Flop That Most Viewers Gave Up On

Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings drama, The Rings Of Power, was a flop. Not only was it snubbed almost entirely during awards season, it turns out that a mere 37% of people who started the show finished it.

Just under two-thirds of all Rings Of Power viewers quit watching the show before it wrapped up, missing out on some truly ghastly storytelling in the process. The big question I have is out of all the viewers who did stick around for all eight episodes, how many were hate-watching? I finished the show simply because I was reviewing it, and because I have a macabre curiosity normally reserved for rubbernecking car wrecks on the side of the freeway.

The other big question is simply this: Why was The Rings Of Power so bad? At this point, I don’t even think this qualifies as my opinion anymore. The vast majority of people who started watching this show quit. Some attrition is to be expected around a much-hyped show that draws in casual viewers who may not really be interested in fantasy or Tolkien, but the mark of a decent show is viewership numbers that increase by a finale. So what happened here?

One theory I’ve read is that The Rings Of Power was actually written by AI, which is why the story was so bizarre and the writing so . . . fake? Is that the right word for it? So much of the dialogue felt like something a machine would write; not quite how actual people talk. The bit about why stones sink and ships don’t is one of those ‘fake wise’ bits that I can imagine an AI writing. Same with Bronwyn’s speech about fighting the orcs.

The Rings Of Power relied heavily on wild coincidences—and not providence like you’d find in Tolkien’s stories—and those coincidences drove the story forward. Plot devices, like Galadriel jumping into the middle of the ocean and then just happening to come across a raft with Halbrand (aka Sauron) on it is such a wildly stupid plot device it beggars belief. But this is the kind of stuff that drove the story in The Rings Of Power.

Speaking of characters, mostly this show was peopled with very unlikable people who were always in some sort of manufactured conflict with one another. Whereas The Lord Of The Rings focused on friendship and comaraderie, Rings Of Power set up ridiculous, never-ending squabbling between most of the key characters. Galadriel was always in some kind of tussle with everybody she encountered, but so were just about all the characters. Isildur and Elendil spent most of their time arguing. Same with Durin and Durin (the two-piece Duran Duran cover band!) or Gil Galad and Galadriel.

Finally, the show relied on ridiculous events for most of its high drama. The volcano going off to form Mordor should have been cool, but it relied on a stupid Rube Goldberg machine breaking a dam and flooding a bunch of recently dug tunnels that made no sense whatsoever. The big battle with the orcs and the villagers was complete nonsense and it was capped off by the Númenorean cavalry showing up just at the nick of time (more coincidence).

The slightest bit of scrutiny revealed each and every storyline, from the mangled mithril conflict between the elves and dwarves to the entire “King of the Southlands” charade, to be completely nonsensical and riddled with plot holes. $450 million somehow couldn’t pay for the most basic script quality control.

All of this and I haven’t even mentioned fidelity to the source material, of which the show had exactly none. There wasn’t even a hint of Tolkien in this mess, neither in terms of the spirit and themes of his stories, or in terms of basic adherance to the details. The Rings Of Power’s showrunners, in their arrogance, decided that they knew better than Tolkien when it came to the Second Age’s timeline, and so they condensed thousands of years into a few months. Perhaps with better writing elsewhere this could have worked, but it just ended up making everything feel rushed. All the bad fast-travel habits of late Game Of Thrones were here from the start.

And then, of course, there were the Harfoots and their amnesiac wizard buddy contributing nothing more than an elaborate head fake to the story and some galling fan-service to keep audiences guessing: “Is he Gandalf or Sauron?”

“I’m good!” he proclaims in his moment of triumph.

Brilliant stuff.

Detractors of my criticism generally have two (lousy) arguments as retorts:

The first: “If you don’t like it, don’t watch it.” I guess most people took this advice. Unfortunately for those of you who did like the show, this advice is also the surest way to get your show cancelled. I suggest you stop saying this, lest you get what you wish for.

The second: “It’s just fantasy, so what if XY and Z happened?” This is a terrible argument. Even in a fantasy basic rules of plausibility apply. Fantasy has rules and boundaries or else why not just have all the characters become powerful sorcerers who can shoot fireballs out of their eyes? Why have any struggle or conflict at all if “it’s just fantasy”?

Good fantasy is like any other fiction. A quality fantasy story is almost always part of some kind of plausible-but-fantastical world. It has relatable characters who make hard choices. Whatever fantastical elements we enjoy, from dragons to magic, have to be tempered by the things that help ground it and make it feel real.

37% completion rate is incredibly bad and a terrible bit of news for Amazon and its shareholders. Frankly, it’s a stunning rebuke of everything Amazon Studios and the showrunners have done so far, and should result in a major shakeup across the board. If I were Jeff Bezos, I’d be livid. Heads would roll.

Amazon Studios chief Jennifer Salke has done her level best to spin this news.

“This desire to paint the show as anything less than a success — it’s not reflective of any conversation I’m having internally,” says, adding “That’s a huge opportunity for us. The first season required a lot of setting up.”

Too much setup was the least of the show’s problems, Jennifer. That’s not even good spin.

The Rings Of Power failed on all fronts, and the majority of viewers appear to feel the same way. I have little faith that Season 2 will be anything but more of the same. Amazon should cut its losses and start over with a new project helmed by people who know not only how to make a decent TV show, but how to respect Tolkien’s lore while doing it. Fantasy requires a bit more magic than the current team is capable of conjuring.

Check out my video on this topic below:

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