The arrival of a being from the sky builds up a new-found mystery while giving more insight into Nori's psyche and character. Unfortunately this is delivered in a bit of a cliche generic writing which renders it not bad per se, but just weak. As usual, the show looks visually stunning but as soon as characters open their mouths the show heavily drops in quality. It's like eating a cake that looks delicious but tastes awful. The writing style is still lacking creativity and nuance and decides to keep explaining what we can clearly see. So it feels generic and not as creative as Tolkien's, who as an expert in the understanding and use of languages was able not only to invent new but also had the best grasp of its use and importance in literature. A dimension of the source material that is lost in this "adaptation".
"This was no ground-shake, someone dug this passage"
"Some THING. Men didn't do this."
Top tier mystery writing right here. How? How would this woman know what dug the hole. If the camera had panned to a claw mark or it had been previously shown she had any sort of skill to detect digs then it would have made sense. But there wasn't so here we are, with the show adding writing to the characters so all the hints are given to us instead of shown to us. And no shred of mystery or tense reveal is created, we are told what is attacking villages.
And the scene is followed by yet another boring exposition scene with weak writing, that of Elrond in his new job. Surely it is nice to have an insight at this great evil that was Morgoth and also about an artifact only connoisseurs of the lore might identify. Used uniquely as an analogy of the duality of creation and destruction that always come hand in hand. Leading to the reveal of why Elrond was sent there instead of the heavy work force needed for such an interesting project. Whatever that means, I hope it is revealed further in the season or show and hopefully it'd be for more than access to Elrond's "friends".
The hammer test scene however, plays out nicely with a theme never before explored really: the age and life of Elves and how that can affect their perception of time. Elrond's inability to tangibly realize that for others time passes quicker. Life is shorter and Prince Durin has not only married but had not one but two children and Elrond had missed the chance to witness such unique fleeting moments. As a side note, I have a small nitpick, the dwarves seem too tall. Or perhaps Elves are too short, because I swear Elrond is only one head taller than Durin. Idk, guess I thought there'd be smaller and more squished down but that's just my own preference. Eitherway, this story thread ends with a nice dinner scene featuring the introduction of Prince Durin's wife, Disa. Here some of the better writing for Elrond takes place, cementing him in my mind as an interesting character at least for this entire subplot. So far he seemed like a side character to Galadriel but if he's to be one of the main characters that changes everything. Actor reminds me of Neil Patrick Harris but other than that I have no other complaints for now.
As we see more interactions between Nori and the strange man from the sky, we begin to realize because the show isn't particularly hiding the fact that it's heavily implying this man is actually Gandalf. The cloak she gives him, his overall physical appearance and the interaction where he doesn't know who Nori initially is, is a dead give away as it is executed exactly the same as Fellowship of the Ring when Bilbo accuses Gandalf of wanting the ring for himself. If it turns out it's not Gandalf that's also okay for me but it does kinda look like it would be a magical being so perhaps he'd be another wizard I don't know about. Again, not super versed in the LOTR lore.
The sequence with "the worm" is interesting. Some film making decisions don't make much sense for me, like the extreme abundance of eye close ups. They make a scene in a vast space that is an ocean to be very claustrophobic, which I'm not sure if it was done on purpose. As for the turn of events, it is refreshing to see men as well as women hate Galadriel equally, granted it is mainly because of her kind and the fact that they blame her for bringing the beast to them. But then the handsome guy separates from them to survive and helps Galadriel and the biggest display of humanity is shown by her. Finally empathizing with another as an equal. And like he said, "At last, a little honesty". We are finally let into the mind of Galadriel, who so far has only been grumpy and rebellious against his own character's development, demanding answers but never responding to questions aimed at her. Whether it was planned or not as such, this comes in the nick of time bringing with it a bit of hope that she'd be fleshed out more as the banter and tension between both characters builds up.
Another great tension building scene ensues after, with the reveal of the orcs. One which cleverly involves the subversion introduced earlier with mice. I like the way this encounter with the orcs takes place, it uses elements of horror which is suited for raising the stakes and making the orcs more like horror creatures and less like the bad guy's minion. Also I like the cool transition when she cuts its head, snappy editing.
IN CONCLUSION, the "plot thickens'' as the story continues and the elements presented in episode 1 are developed a bit more. Some threads develop into interesting quests and some characters are more fleshed out which makes them more engaging. It was the much needed redirection and runtime that would build on what was established. In some aspects I was too quick to judge episode 1 where I should have waited and see where it was headed towards. And the episode leaves some intriguing mysteries too, specifically the Sword with the brand of Sauron. However, while episde 2 is more event-heavy and characters are developed further; it doesn't take too much of its time in presentation when it's needed. I recall only one establishing scene where we get a panoramic view of the mines of Moria but that's about it. These types of establishing scenes are mainly for introduccing new settings and characters but it doesn't have to end there, in episode 1 sequences and beautifully framed shots allowed the moment to breath and for us to relish it and sit on the emotional tone of it. But these are hard to master and if used abundantly or incorrectly can lead to pacing issues. So it's best it stayed as such, besides this episode had a lot more action that require more of the runtime.
