In some golden age of streaming now gone, Amazon once threw a mountain’s worth of gold at the Tolkien estate for the rights to make five seasons of a live action Lord of the Rings show. When the The Rings of Power finally debuted, it was a hit, but not the cultural juggernaut HBO’s epic fantasy franchise, Game of Thrones, was. After two seasons wandering the appendixes, can The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 finally find land as a truly epic television show?

Opening Shot: “FIVE YEARS LATER.” Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) speaks in voice over to give us an update on the war against Sauron as flame and fire spreads across a map of Middle-earth. So, it’s, you know, going badly!

The Gist: The Rings of Power take us to the Second Age of Middle-earth, thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and the LotR trilogy, to explain how exactly Sauron (Charlie Vickers) managed to forge his One Ring (to rule them all!) in the first place. Season 1 was a lot of table-setting, Season 2 finally got into some jewelry-making, and now in Season 3, the show is finally cooking with the fiery flames of Mt. Doom. (Complimentary.)

We learn that because Sauron’s forces burned all of Celebrimbor’s (Charles Edwards) research last season, the secrets behind the Rings’ magic has been lost. Except has it? A rogue Orc named Marnûkh (Adam Young) slips away from Mordor in the beginning and finishes the episode trying to convince the forces of good that he wants to team up to stop Sauron from discovering there’s one surviving smith in prison.

Meanwhile, Sauron isn’t just thinking about hammering away at forges; he’s actively recruiting men to become Naznagôl, aka Ring-servants. This includes the long-dead Bronwyn’s (Nazanin Boniadi) son Theo (Tyroe Muhafidin)…

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power has always been chasing the shadow of Peter Jackson’s iconic film trilogy, but this season, we finally get visuals that evoke the likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the most sumptuous of animation.

Our Take: We’ll admit it: We were a bit meh on the first season of The Rings of Power and absolutely baffled by the erratic tone of Season 2. Expectations were low heading into The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3. But, by the light of the Valar, The Rings of Power suddenly has transformed into quite the entertaining show. The plot moves at a far more propulsive clip, the most boring storylines have been officially jettisoned, and knotty human drama has been injected into the lives of Orcs, Elves, and even Dwarves!

In my official DECIDER review, I wrote:

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 3 has moments of real pathos and moments of real charm. It’s a show that is finally confident in its direction and unburdened by the need to please everyone. The Rings of Power is proudly an idiosyncratic, raucous, nerdy, and extremely metal show. By fully committing to its creative swings, it finally cuts through the cynicism that persnickety Tolkien fans (like yours truly) had watching seasons past.

Performance Worth Watching: Earlier seasons gave Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel the spotlight, but Charlie Vickers is officially the lord of, uh, Lord of the Rings here. His fully unleashed Sauron is half supervillain, half tortured poet.

Parting Shot: Theo has accompanied a group of fellow disaffected Southerners who have arrived at Mordor to beg Sauron for help fighting their cruel Númenorean overlords. Instead, Sauron makes like Heath Ledger’s joker in The Dark Knight: he tosses a dagger on the floor and promises a Ring of Power to which ever man can outlive the others.

Our Call: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power was always visually stunning to behold, but now it’s a show worth watching. Not as serious as the films, but no less magical. STREAM IT!

Meghan O’Keefe is Senior Critic at DECIDER.