One of the major problems viewers had with ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power‘ was with its pacing. The series’ first few episodes were slow-paced and just couldn’t keep an average viewer invested in its story and characters. Now that all the episodes are released, we feel Prime Video should have rethought its release strategy for the series. It would have saved them a lot of online hate and trolling.
The first few episodes of a series are supposed to get viewers curious about where the story is going. A well-written and wholesome initial episode would have given the series a very loyal fanbase. That is exactly why ‘House of the Dragon’ has become such a raging success. The series is fast-paced and the screenplay is so tight that the viewers don’t take a second away from the screen. Since the series had an episode being released every week, the cliffhangers in each kept the fans excited and hyped for the next week’s episode. Knowing the fact that the first few episodes would be a bit to the slow side and more focused on world-building, Prime Video releasing the episodes weekly was a blunder on the streamer’s side.
The series already has enough hate being directed by the fans of the lore. With a slow screenplay and no major cliffhangers, the release strategy just made things worse. The better release strategy for Prime would have been releasing the first 6 episodes together and then keeping the rest two for a release at a later date. This would have helped keep the viewers interested in the series and the story and when an episode becomes a bit dry, they can just fast forward from that particular part rather than just dismissing the whole series. In times where people are looking for immediate satisfaction, not many have the patience to wait a week to see what will happen next in the larger story. The release strategy would also give the viewers time to understand the power dynamics and politics of each of the races in the series. Then with the kind of engaging episode the finale was, the series would have been much better accepted. This same release strategy was what Netflix used in the 4th season of Stranger Things.
We hope Prime Video has learned its lesson from this mishap. The hype for season 2 is quite high as of now, with the unexpected moments in episode 8. One thing for sure is that the next season will have better initial reception than this one. It is hoped the series would only grow higher from now on.
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