The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season three review – this dull show’s revamp is too little, too late

They’ve sidelined the harfoots, introduced a Stranger Things star and thrown in full-blooded romance. It’s probably not enough to stop the fantasy prequel feeling boring, though

It might seem strange to characterise the leading streaming show from one of the most dominant corporations on the planet as a scrappy underdog. But after a lavish-but-dramatically stilted debut in 2022 and a similarly well-heeled but darker second season in 2024, it does feel like prequel series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is somehow stuck on the back foot.

For all its finely wrought art direction and respect for JRR Tolkien’s elaborate high-fantasy taxonomy, this no-expense-spared expansion of the mythos – set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before Bilbo Baggins first went walkabout – is…