Four days after it returned, The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the number one title on Prime Video. According to the chart-watchers at FlixPatrol, the third season went straight to the top of the service’s rankings both in the United States and worldwide following its four-episode launch on 11 November, and is the most-watched show on the platform in 24 countries. In the process it has shoved aside The Terminal List, Reacher, the Reacher spin-off Neagley and Carrie, which makes this possibly the only week in history in which an Elf has out-muscled Jack Reacher.
The usual caution applies. FlixPatrol tracks chart positions, not hours watched, and Amazon has not published viewing figures of its own. Topping your own streamer’s chart in the week you release four episodes of the most expensive television ever made is the minimum requirement, not a miracle. But the show has had a reputation for viewers drifting away mid-season, so the number worth watching is where it sits in a fortnight.
The critical picture has brightened a little since launch day. When the reviews embargo lifted, the season stood at 79% on Rotten Tomatoes from 29 reviews. It is now at 81% from 37. That is still the lowest of the three seasons, behind 84% and 85%, but only just, and the gap is small enough to be closed by two cheerful reviewers and a good finale. More striking is the audience score, which stands at 68%. That would be a modest number for most programmes. For this one, whose first season was sent to 38% by viewers and whose second managed 58%, it counts as a thaw.
Meanwhile, Bear McCreary’s score for the season has a soundtrack album, and the track listing alone is worth the price of admission. There is an original song, Morning Shall Come, written by McCreary with the Norwegian singer AURORA. There is a piece called Mûmakil on the March, which tells you what at least one episode has in store, alongside Fell Beast, Battle at Gundabad, Crown of Khazad-dûm and a cue named simply Celeborn, for those who have been waiting three seasons to learn where Galadriel’s husband had got to. And there is a track with the splendidly unpronounceable title Nazgnagôl, featuring Jens Kidman, the vocalist of the Swedish metal band Meshuggah, which is the most sensible casting decision anyone has made on behalf of the forces of darkness since Christopher Lee.
McCreary has been the series’ least disputed asset from the start. People who cannot agree on a single thing about the scripts, the timeline or the Stranger will concede the music, and he has scored every episode, a Howard Shore-sized commitment in an age when most streaming dramas make do with a drone and a sad piano. Here at SFcrowsnest, we have always thought you can tell how seriously a fantasy production takes itself by whether it has bothered to write a tune for the dwarves.
The remaining episodes arrive in pairs: two on Wednesday 18 November and the final two on 25 November. A fourth season is already in development, with filming expected to begin early in 2027, so the chart position is welcome news in Seattle but hardly a stay of execution. The Ring is being forged this year. After that, Amazon only has to keep everyone watching for another two seasons while it gets lost.
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