Why The Rings Of Power works better as a binge watch

If you’ve been waiting for the entire first season of The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power to be available before diving in, your time has come. You can now watch all eight episodes on Prime Video, all at once or at your leisure. It’s a risky strategy in this day and age—when spoilers abound on social media (there won’t be any major spoilers here, though, so proceed without fear)—but in the case of this series, your patience might just pay off.

Evening out the pace

The Rings Of Power is a show that takes its time, luxuriating in the elaborate details of its fantastic settings. The production team didn’t put all that money on the screen to just rush past it, after all. For those who watched from week to week, this lingering pace could feel sluggish at times. The show doles out its plot points sparingly in favor of character development and world building. Things do kick into gear later in the season, but getting to that point is a bit of a slog. These pacing issues tend to smooth out when you watch the episodes back to back. They flow seamlessly from one to the next, with a momentum that’s steady and deliberate. And it’s still less of a time commitment than the extended version of Peter Jackson’s original Lord Of The Rings trilogy, which clocks in at 11 hours and change.

Seeing the forest and the trees

Watching the episodes back to back also helps strengthen the connections between them. There are through lines and callbacks throughout the first season that become clearer with a condensed viewing time. Your attention to these subtle particulars will be rewarded. You might catch references you would have otherwise missed, or be able to trace a character arc more fully as it develops over time. There is a grand plan at work in this show, and it comes together even better when it isn’t chopped up into smaller parts.

Those who did watch Rings Of Power weekly, or tried to, may find this approach works better for them as well. Without giving anything away, if you’ve seen the finale you can imagine how certain scenes and character motivations might play differently the second time around. It’s like going back and watching a murder mystery again once you know who the killer is. You may see the clues with different eyes. We’d especially recommend the binge model to anyone who found they couldn’t get through the first two or three episodes and stopped watching there. Now that you don’t have to wait a week for the next one, you may experience it differently.

Watch it your way

Another advantage to binging after the show has been fully released is that you can do it on your own schedule. There’s no need to watch at the same time as anyone else. Take in a few episodes in a row, take a break, then come back later for more. Or settle in and watch all eight in a single day. If you’ve managed to go this long without being drawn into the discourse, it doesn’t matter how long you take to finish. Jump back in when you’re ready.

Of course, your mileage may vary. There are certainly plenty of fans out there who enjoyed watching Rings Of Power from week to week and have no desire to dive back into it right away. The question of whether to binge or not to binge is one that streamers and viewers still haven’t quite figured out yet. Some shows benefit from a slower rollout, extending the pop-culture conversations around them. Others might do better when they’re released all at once, triggering a wave of FOMO that brings in even more viewers. That’s just taking into account viewership numbers, not necessarily the viewing experience. There is no one-size-fits-all approach. The beauty is that the versatility of streaming gives viewers a choice, so you can decide for yourself the best way to consume your favorite content.