I was expecting to agree strongly with Stefano Rebeggiani’s review of “The Rings of Power” in the Sept. 23 issue, but I find myself defending the show.

As I read it, the review argues that the show is failing to exhibit Tolkien’s philosophy, and where it does, waters it down to the point of cliché. I believe that judgment is premature. One indispensable element of Tolkien’s “philosophy” is that the story always comes first. If we had a clear sense of the “moral of the story” after roughly three hours of the planned 50, we would be in flagrant violation of that central principle.

As for the argument that the similarities between the Second Age of Middle Earth and today’s world “are too obvious to be ignored”: The more the show stays within its own world, the better. Any attempt at allegory will undoubtedly be of the Trump-is-Sauron variety. Its absence thus far has been one of the show’s redeeming (or at least non-damning) qualities.

— Andy Lessard, St. Therese Church, Alhambra