Thomas Mirus, James Majewski, and Nathan Douglas discuss the new Amazon series, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The show thus far is not so much offensive as it is bland in ways similar to much popular film and television today. This discussion attempts to understand why the show generally fails to move, focusing especially on its frequent small-mindedness or arbitrariness in characterization and writing, and on its habit of “telegraphing” or signalling emotion rather than genuinely conveying it. (We apologize for the lip-syncing problems in this episode!) Topics and timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 3:27 The “Game-of-Thronesification” of character motivation 9:34 Galadriel, Valinor, and the elves’ artistic motivations 18:01 A graceless Galadriel and small-minded writing 29:02 Contrasting performances: Galadriel vs. Elrond 35:21 Failure to trust that virtue is interesting 37:59 “IT’S A SNOW TROOOOOOLL!” The “John-Wickification” of action 41:00 Generic tough girl face; telegraphing emotion rather than living it 52:44 Arbitrary conflict and fussy dwarves 59:06 Starting at level 1: the “video-gamification” of character development 1:06:00 Too much harfoot-talk: cliché TV dialogue with a hobbity skin 1:15:09 The political conversation around the show 1:25:40 Shallow and arbitrary diversity is self-defeating 1:37:07 Erasing womanhood in the pursuit of “strong female characters” Links Read Nathan Douglas's film writing here https://vocationofcinema.substack.com Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio