The Rings Of Power Season 3 Review: Prime Video's Lord Of The Rings Series Still Falls Short

If there's one theme the latest installment of "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" highlights above the rest, it's this: Time comes for us all. Whether it's the glacial pace experienced by immortal Elves or the nonstop blur the rest of Middle-earth's mere mortals have been doomed (or gifted?) to receive, this army's inevitable march is one that nobody — not even a Dark Lord — can hope to defeat. 

Four years after the Prime Video series first made waves among a passionate, if divisive fanbase, it's clear co-showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay have felt this pressure as keenly as anyone. An up-and-down debut season with glimpses of potential eventually found itself surpassed by a sophomore effort that went darker, bolder, and better than before. But, to date, fans have been left waiting for the moment when this J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation truly comes into its own.

Time, unfortunately, is a commodity that "The Rings of Power" doesn't have on its side this year. There's Amazon's head-scratching release strategy that (mostly) becomes clear in retrospect, with eight episodes of streaming television squeezed into three total weeks. More troublingly, the actual story does itself very few favors. There are simply too many far-flung locations to check in on, too many main characters and uninteresting supporting players to service, too much nerdy lore for casuals to digest (if any are even left) ... and, despite some of the most sluggish pacing in streaming, there's hardly enough space to let them breathe. It's an issue that rears its ugly, Balrog-shaped head again and again.

In short, Season 3 is an encapsulation of "The Rings of Power" as a whole: some incredibly high highs, several frustrating lows, and the creeping feeling that time is finally starting to run out.

Season 3's big claim to fame has been heavily teased as the creation of the legendary One Ring, which is the one doomsday event overshadowing over every single storyline this year. Five years after the conclusion of Season 2, as Galadriel's exposition-dump narration explains in the premiere, Sauron's armies wage war on the rest of Middle-earth. Only the Elves and their magical, untarnished rings remain capable of holding out. But when a suspicious Orc arrives (Adam Young as Marnûkh, easily one of the season's best new additions) bearing game-changing news of Sauron's plans, this kicks off a series of events that will either lead to good's greatest triumph over evil ... or as stunning a failure as anything in Tolkien's legendarium.

As a prequel, of course, "The Rings of Power" uses our knowledge of what's to come in "The Lord of the Rings" to its advantage. As a result, every moment Sauron is on screen trying (and failing) to forge his superweapon to rule them all absolutely soars. Whether he's cruelly bossing powerless underlings around, casually committing murder, arguing with the ghosts in his head, or generally sulking over his inability to seduce Galadriel to his cause, Charlie Vickers's Sauron will have you rooting for the villain every step of the way. He brings a delightful sense of theatricality and purpose to every evil act, while the long-awaited introduction of Galadriel's MIA husband Celeborn (Jamie Campbell Bower, another major highlight of Season 3) finally provides the third point of the unlikeliest love triangle in the canon.

But if Sauron is the main driving force behind the best narrative arc of them all, "The Rings of Power" fares far worse everywhere else.

This "Lord of the Rings" series has always had trouble finding the right balance among its varying subplots, separated by narrative relevance and theme just as much as by distance. Nowhere does that feel more glaring than in Season 3. The courtly intrigue and succession struggles taking place in the Dwarven realm of Khazad-dûm aim for "House of the Dragon"-like dramatics, but neither of the plucky performances by Owain Arthur's King Durin or Sophia Nomvete's Queen Disa can make this feel like anything less than a misguided detour. 

Similarly, the brewing civil war in Númenór takes ages to click into place (and, even then, not because of any established locals, but because Robert Aramayo's ever-conflicted Elf Elrond finally gets involved). And don't forget there's another B-plot entirely in the desert of Rhûn, with Daniel Weyman's Gandalf and Ciarán Hinds' Dark Wizard circling one another.

The further we get from Sauron's antics in Mordor, the less effective "The Rings of Power" undeniably becomes.

The five-year time jump should've allowed for J.D Payne, Patrick McKay, and co-writer Justin Doble to regroup strategically and reset the creative board a bit. And, to an extent, they do manage to cut things down to a more manageable size. A major character death or two helps trim an unwieldy ensemble that has only grown more so over the years, while others undergo some overdo changes in both personality and role. Even the lovable, pint-sized Harfoots have been written out completely this time around. But these are half-measures, at best. As this saga hits its midway point, viewers will be left with the impression that merely reshuffling the deck wasn't nearly enough.

These structural issues extend to the main conflict of Season 3, as well. In the early episodes, the creative team struggles with establishing the stakes of such an abstract threat as the One Ring. Season 1 had the (seemingly) unseen menace of Sauron working in its favor, while Season 2 organically built up to the epic siege of Eregion and the manipulation of Celebrimbor as its big emotional payoff. Season 3 pays lip service to the idea of Mordor's forces on the brink of total victory; but, other than a few minor skirmishes here and the aftermath of some battles there, we barely actually see this for ourselves.

It's a shame because, creatively and technically, the most expensive series on streaming has never looked better nor felt more cinematic. Directors Charlotte Brändström, Sanaa Hamri, and Stefan Schwartz depict a breathtaking level of scope and scale that modern viewers have almost become inured to these days. Together, J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay dream up some of the most spectacular fantasy concepts Tolkien nerds could only ever dare to imagine. As of the seven episodes out of eight made available for critics to review, it all builds up to the moment we've all been waiting for — one that, for a moment, absolutely lives up to the hype.

Is that enough? "Always is a long time," Galadriel suggests with a twinkle in her eye early on. With its five-season plan hopefully still in place, "The Rings of Power" doesn't have anywhere near that long to make up for lost time.

/Film Rating: 5 out of 10

"The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" Season 3 premieres with four episodes November 11, 2026 on Prime Video.