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The feeling that season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is hollow usually does not come from one broken element. It comes from a mismatch. The season is built around a large historical slide toward war, but many of its individual storylines ask viewers to care about people before those people have been given enough room to matter. Reviews published in 2024 reached this conclusion in different ways, and not every critic agreed with it. Read “empty” as a response that some viewers have, not as a measurable quality of the season itself.
What “empty” means in the reviews
Critics who found season 2 thin rarely said the show lacked scale or budget. Their complaints clustered around four things: plotlines that did not build momentum, mysteries that stayed unresolved longer than the audience’s knowledge of Tolkien’s story seemed to justify, spectacle that felt familiar, and moral questions the show raised but did not dramatize. Those four points are where the feeling of emptiness is most often located, and each one is separate enough to test against your own viewing.
The creators meant a darker, larger story
Season 2 picks up after season 1 revealed that Halbrand is Sauron. The Washington Post describes the disagreement over whether the Elven rings are safe to use as one of the season’s main drivers, and the season spreads its attention across several geographically and politically separate plots.
Co-showrunner Patrick McKay set out the intended arc in a TheWrap interview published August 27, 2024:
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“The journey of the Second Age is every one of those societies falling into chaos, conflict and war.”
In the same interview he described season 2 as “a season that’s dominated by villains, a battle between two villains in Adar and Sauron,” and said viewers would find it “decidedly more mysterious, mistier and darker.” These are descriptions of intent. They explain why the season darkens. They do not show that every plotline delivers emotional weight, and critics who disliked the season generally accepted the tonal goal while disputing how it was executed.
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Why the season can feel empty
Plotlines that move at uneven speeds
KPBS/NPR reviewed the season under the headline verdict “Fun but frustrating.” Its central complaint was that some plotlines move with purpose while others crawl or circle, so the audience’s investment in one thread does not carry into the next. TV Guide also treats pacing as a continuing problem. When a season asks you to follow many places and conflicts at once, a slow thread can drain the energy you built in a faster one, and the sense of a single story unfolding can give way to a set of separate waiting rooms.
Mystery when the destination is already known
The Atlantic’s central structural criticism is that viewers already know where the prequel story ends. Withholding revelations in that situation can produce what the magazine calls artificial suspense: the audience is asked to wonder about outcomes it can largely predict, and the wondering can feel like delay rather than tension. The Atlantic’s 2024 analysis also argues that compressing Tolkien’s Second Age, which it describes as “nearly 4,000-year,” into a series of episodes makes the show feel both overlong and cramped. Those two problems pull in opposite directions: too much time is spent on the wrong questions, and too little time is given to the people asking them.
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Spectacle that feels familiar
KPBS/NPR says some of the action feels like something the audience has seen before, and that returning characters have less to do than their presence suggests. Scale can make a scene impressive without making it meaningful. TV Guide offers the counterpoint: when the action and the major conflicts come together, the season is “ultimately rewarding” and can feel like a worthy addition to filmed Tolkien. The difference often lies in whether a battle changes a relationship or a decision, or simply demonstrates that the production can afford a battle.
Moral questions raised but not dramatized
The Washington Post’s review finds season 2 more graceful in some character arcs, but it criticizes the treatment of orcs and says key motives and disagreements remain off-camera. This is a concrete case of a theme that is introduced clearly but never given the consequences or interiority that would make a viewer feel its weight. When a character’s choice has no visible cost, and the reasons behind a conflict stay offscreen, the moral argument can register as a statement rather than a story.
Rank #4
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- Compact without compromises: Our sleek design won’t block neighboring HDMI ports, and it even powers from your TV alone, plugging into the back and staying out of sight. No wall outlet, no extra cords, no clutter.
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- Shows on the go: Take your TV to-go when traveling—without needing to log into someone else’s device.
Where the reviews agree and where they split
The four complaints above are not evenly distributed across the season or across critics. The table compares the creators’ stated aim with what critics observed and where the strongest counterpoint appears.
| Axis | What the creators set up | What critics observed | Strongest counterpoint |
|---|---|---|---|
| Story momentum and episode payoff | Societies on a planned path toward chaos, conflict and war (McKay, TheWrap, August 27, 2024) | Some plotlines move with purpose while others crawl or circle (KPBS/NPR); pacing remains an issue (TV Guide) | TV Guide calls the season “ultimately rewarding” when the action and conflicts come together |
| Mystery versus known destination | A “more mysterious, mistier and darker” season (McKay, TheWrap) | Delayed revelations create artificial suspense when the outcome is largely known (The Atlantic, 2024) | Not stated in the reviews cited here |
| Spectacle and callbacks versus original character work | A season dominated by villains, with Adar and Sauron in conflict (McKay, TheWrap) | Some action feels familiar and returning characters have less to do (KPBS/NPR) | TV Guide finds the action rewarding when it works; The Washington Post finds some character arcs more graceful |
| Moral conflict changing relationships and decisions | Darker moral terrain as the Second Age’s societies fall apart (McKay, TheWrap) | Orc treatment criticized; key motives and disagreements remain off-camera (The Washington Post, 2024) | The Washington Post’s praise for certain arcs, though it does not extend that praise to the orc storyline |
The disagreement is real. Some critics found the season frustrating, while others found it rewarding once the threads converged. A viewer who cares most about one character or one moral question may respond very differently from a viewer who values the season’s scale.
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How to tell whether this describes your experience
- You wanted the season to answer a character question, such as why someone chooses a side, and the answer kept moving to another location.
- Each episode felt like setup for something later, rather than a scene that changed what you knew or felt by its end.
- The battles impressed you visually but did not change the people fighting in them.
- A moral argument, such as the treatment of orcs or the safety of the Elven rings, was stated clearly but never tested through a consequence you could see.
- You were already familiar with the destination of the Second Age, and the reveals felt more like confirmation than discovery.
If several of these describe your reaction, the emptiness you felt is likely tied to the structure and pacing critics identified. If none do, the season may simply be pitched at a tone you did not share.
Audience numbers: what they can and cannot tell you
The Washington Post reported that the season 1 pilot had some 25 million viewers, and that 37 percent of viewers who started the series completed it. Both figures refer to season 1, and they are the outlet’s figures rather than audited measurements. Neither says anything about how viewers felt about season 2, so they cannot confirm or refute the emptiness critics described.
The season was also presented by Amazon as available exclusively on Prime Video. Availability can differ by region and can change, so check your local catalog before assuming access.
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