They dwell in utterly different worlds. HBO’s “Game of Thrones” spinoff, ”House of the Dragon,” is the one with beautifully candlelit buttocks and a steady supply of spilled entrails. “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is the other one.
Premiering Thursday night on Amazon, “The Rings of Power” wields a different, family-friendlier set of selling points, though there is a dragon overlap. And in its first five minutes “The Rings of Power” does manage to shoot an arrow into someone’s mouth. For all the obvious contrasts, though, these two streaming fantasy prequels chase the same quarry. They’re after more of the same of whatever worked the first time, but a different sort of same.
“The Rings of Power” gets off to a promising, lavishly outfitted start in the first two episodes made available for review. Guessing here, but I think just enough of the flashy stuff seen in the trailer shows up in the early going to keep casual or less committed Middle-earthlings on the hook for a while. The rabid fans were going to watch anyway. The questions for Amazon: Will their kids watch, too? And can “The Rings of Power” in its chosen weight class turn into a water cooler phenomenon, the way “House of the Dragon” has, even in our post-water cooler age?
