‘The Rings of Power’ Season 3 Gets Its Rotten Tomatoes Verdict, and Critics Are Split on Sauron’s Big War

Few streaming fantasy series have divided audiences quite like ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’. The first season became the biggest TV series premiere in Prime Video history, yet it carried a famously harsh audience reception, including a review-bombing campaign that led Amazon to suspend reviews on its own site.

The show returned this week at roughly the midpoint of its five-season plan, jumping several years ahead to the height of the War of the Elves and Sauron. Four of the eight episodes arrived on Prime Video on November 11, with the rest rolling out weekly, and the review embargo lifted just ahead of the launch.

The season debuted with a 79% Tomatometer score. That figure has moved around as critics file their takes, with outlets reporting anywhere from 70% to the high 70s in the first hours after the embargo lifted and fewer than 30 reviews counted at that point.

For comparison, the first season holds an 84% critics’ score and the second sits at 85%, which makes this the lowest critical debut the series has had. It is still firmly in Fresh territory, and the audience scores of 38% for season 1 and 58% for season 2 show how differently viewers have responded in the past. No audience score for the new season was available until episodes began streaming.

The reviews paint a more mixed picture than the glowing early reactions that praised Charlie Vickers’ Sauron as the show’s secret weapon. Empire called it the showrunners’ darkest season yet, and several critics said it grabs viewers faster than earlier seasons did.

On the positive side, Radio Times praised a tighter narrative that balances moments from Tolkien’s writing with original storylines, while Inverse said fresh characters and narrative innovations keep it among the most engrossing fantasy epics on TV. GamesRadar+ called the season dark and thrilling, though it noted the show is still weighed down by dense, dragging subplots. Decider embraced the series’ raucous, nerdy and unapologetically metal energy, and The Daily Beast credited the season for marrying the enormous with the intimate.

Between those camps sits SlashFilm, which called the season an encapsulation of the whole series, with some very high highs, several frustrating lows and a creeping sense that time is running out. That verdict captures the split better than any single percentage can.

The negative reviews are sharper. IndieWire gave the season a C and argued that, once nostalgia is stripped away, there is little ingenuity or investment on show. CBR said the attempt to depict the epic war falls flat and described the season as underwhelming rather than abysmal.

This season, One Ring to rule them all. Watch the official trailer now, then witness Season 3 beginning November 11. https://t.co/YjH5I0bCEu

— The Rings of Power (@TheRingsofPower) October 21, 2026

The most interesting wrinkle is that the show may have improved even as its score fell. Forbes’ Erik Kain argued that the series has not gotten worse, and he suggested that fewer critics will bother reviewing it than in earlier seasons. Metacritic backs up that reading, where the season sits at 73 out of 100, the best score the show has earned and only a small step up from 71 and 67 for the first two seasons.

The Rotten Tomatoes percentage also counts every positive review the same, so a rave and a qualified recommendation carry equal weight. That helps explain why a season described as the best yet by some critics can still land below its predecessors.

The new episodes leave behind several elements that fans criticized in the past. The Harfoots do not appear this season, and the story focuses on Sauron, now in his armored form, as he works toward forging the One Ring. The official synopsis says he enslaves his ring-servants and sows destruction across Middle-earth through deception, a far cry from the quiet corruption of Eregion in the previous season.

That shift makes the season feel more villain-centered than before. The pacing complaint that has followed the show since its debut is the other thing the writers appear to be addressing, since several early reactions stressed how quickly the new episodes get moving. Whether it is enough to win over viewers who have been skeptical since the first season is the question audience scores will begin to answer.

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