I DECIDED to wait a few episodes in before saying anything about Amazon Prime’s “The Rings of Power.” I am afraid to call myself a big fan of Tolkien because I have seen devotees who know so much of the lore and trivia, I look at them wide eyed and awestruck. They’ve read the books and know the names, events, timelines and lineages. I’ve even seen a heated argument over the lineage of Aragorn — this was before we could Google things on the phone. I may not be at this level, but I do love his work and of course I love “The Lord of the Rings.”

I am wary about Amazon using The Lord of the Rings as part of the title of this show. It is deceptive as the show takes place in The Second Age which is pre-Lord of the Rings. For the precious $250 million Amazon paid to the Tolkien estate, Harper Collins and New Line, they only had permission to work with this era; they used the appendices from The Lord of the Rings for some history and filled in the blanks with “fan fiction.” Those rights were close to a third of the supposed $715 million to come up with the first season of the show, making it the most expensive series ever.

Admittedly, I was still looking forward to seeing something Tolkien brought to life. I was curious, despite already growing tired of Hollywood flogging big IPs (intellectual properties, like “Star Wars,” Marvel, “Game of Thrones”) and franchises to make money.

The first two episodes of The Rings of Power I saw were pretty and shiny — I saw the two trees of Valinor, Telperion and Laurelin, I saw magical, green landscapes, I saw the Elven realm of Lindon and the majestic interior of Khazaddûm. I saw the woods the Harfoots inhabited. It felt like expensive fantasy but it didn’t feel like Tolkien — at least to me. I join the segment of geeks who think the imagery is gorgeous but the writing is found wanting.

By the time the third episode rolls around, we get to see Numenor — also very pretty. But by now, I’m looking for a favorite character whose story line and next more matters to me. I’m looking for a plot or subplot to hook me. For now, it’s just a lot of arguing between characters and a guessing game as to which one turns out to be baby Sauron.

And by saying it doesn’t feel like Tolkien, doesn’t mean I have any issues with the casting. It’s not an issue for me or most people I see online. The Substack author known as ‘The Bottom Feeder’ put it best, it’s “not a question of not liking the casting, 99-percent of normal people don’t care how diverse a show is as long as it’s good.” I would have been a bit entertained if it were at least good fan fiction.

In The New York Times opinion piece, “Please Don’t Make a Tolkien Cinematic Universe,” Dr. Michael D. C. Drout, an English professor at Wheaton College in Massachussetts and co-editor of Tolkien Studies asks, “Is it fair to the legacies of writers like Tolkien to build franchises from their works without their knowledge or permission?”

Tolkien was very protective of his work. His son Christopher was steadfastly so as well. Christopher died in 2020 at the age of 95 but said this much in the French publication Le Monde, “The commercialization has reduced the aesthetic and philosophical impact of the creation to nothing. There is only one solution for me: to turn my head away.” (He said this of the New Line Cinema movies, which I actually loved and watch from time to time.)

Maybe I was spoiled by “RRR,” which I wrote about last week — it is a hard act to follow. It was exuberant, vibrant and fresh. Perhaps, there was no turning back. Jeff Bezos can throw hundreds of millions to buy the sets and costumes and rights but can you really buy the unique Tolkien magic?

“The Rings of Power” is supposed to run for five seasons, let’s see how this fares with the fans.

New episodes of “The Rings of Power” are available on Amazon Prime every Friday. The season finale airs on October 14.