“Partings”

• Creators: JD Payne, Patrick McKay
• Starring: Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Markella Kavenagh, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman

Grade: C

Warning: Reviews of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 will contain spoilers.

With the conclusion of Partings, we’re officially more than halfway done with The Rings of Power’s first season. Which makes it all the more frustrating that little has changed since the beginning of the season to now, and this week’s episode feels like a perfect encapsulation of that frustration. There are some moments to like, but overall, I can’t help but feel like the episode spins its wheels on virtually every front. I’m truly struggling to figure out what has changed from the beginning of this episode to the end, and coming up mostly short.

“The Great Wave”

• Creators: JD Payne, Patrick McKay
• Starring: Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Markella Kavenagh, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman

Grade: A-

Warning: Reviews of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 will contain spoilers.

“Adar”

• Creators: JD Payne, Patrick McKay
• Starring: Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Markella Kavenagh, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman

Grade: B+

Warning: Reviews of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 will contain spoilers.

“A Shadow of the Past” & “Adrift”

• Creators: JD Payne, Patrick McKay
• Starring: Morfydd Clark, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Nazanin Boniadi, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Markella Kavenagh, Dylan Smith, Charlie Vickers, Daniel Weyman

Grade: B+

Warning: Reviews of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 1 will contain spoilers.

A League of Their Own

• Creator: Abbi Jacobson, Will Graham
• Starring: Abbi Jacobson, Chanté Adams, D’Arcy Carden, Nick Offerman, Roberta Colindrez, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Kelly McCormack, Priscilla Delgado
• Three episodes watched for review

Grade: B-

Listen: I’ve never believed that art is sacred, that a film or TV show or comic or book shouldn’t be re-made once it’s put out into the world. For a large swath of people, the prospect of transposing Penny Marshall’s 1992 classic film of the same name for a streaming service sounds borderline sacrilegious. For every Cape Fear or Solaris, there’s a thousand forgotten remakes of movies like Total Recall or Point Break or Bad News Bears. So what could be gained from remaking A League of Their Own?

Irma Vep

• Creator: Olivier Assayas
• Starring: Alicia Vikander, Vincent Macaigne, Adria Arjona, Devon Ross, Lars Eidinger, Vincent Lacoste, Jeanne Balibar
• Four of eight episodes watched for review.

Grade: A

Before diving into Olivier Assayas’s newest project, I had multiple questions about what an Irma Vep television show would be (I had avoided watching any trailers). Would it be a simple retread of Assayas’s acclaimed 1996 film? Would it be a follow-up to the events of the film? How many of the film’s themes would make their way over to the small screen? Would Assayas even acknowledge its existence in the text? How much more does Assayas have to say about movie making that couldn’t have been done in, say, another film? Will the show be accessible for audiences that aren’t familiar with the film? Naturally, some questions are answered simply, and some are more complex.

“The Massacre at Hawkins Lab”

• Creator: The Duffer Brothers
• Starring: Millie Bobbie Brown, Finn Wolfhard, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery

Grade: A-

Warning: Reviews of Stranger Things season 4 will contain spoilers.

“The Dive”

• Creator: The Duffer Brothers
• Starring: Millie Bobbie Brown, Finn Wolfhard, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Joe Keery

Grade: A-

Warning: Reviews of Stranger Things season 4 will contain spoilers.