EP128 · Tools · first published 2022-03-31
The Rings of Power | Mike Pohjola | Neuvottelija 128
Screenwriter and author Mike Pohjola discusses the difficulty of adaptation, with Jeff Bezos's billion-dollar bet as the main subject: Amazon's The Rings of Power, which builds a series out of Tolkien's Second Age on the strength of the appendices alone. Pohjola and Sami Miettinen go through the trailer and speculate about what is coming. They also unpack the fan row about dark-skinned elves and dwarves, and Pohjola points out that Tolkien barely describes anyone's appearance. Earlier on he explains how he localised The Office into the Finnish Konttori, and why the last two seasons of Game of Thrones failed. Published 31 March 2022.
The Rings of Power | Mike Pohjola
Summary: In episode 128 of the Neuvottelija channel, Sami Miettinen interviews screenwriter and author Mike Pohjola. The subject is the difficulty of adaptation — a practical professional question rather than fan discussion. The main example is Amazon’s The Rings of Power, a series built out of Tolkien’s Second Age on the strength of the appendices alone. Published 31 March 2022.
Konttori: how a series gets localised
The episode opens with Pohjola’s own work. He localised Ricky Gervais’s The Office into the Finnish Konttori together with Sami Hedberg.
Adaptation here did not mean translation but updating the series to the present day and to Finnish workplace culture — that is, working out what in the original is universal and what is local.
Why Game of Thrones collapsed at the end
The best-known failed ending serves as a comparison, and Pohjola’s explanation is structural rather than a matter of taste.
The series worked for as long as it had a novel basis. Ned Stark’s fate exemplifies what a literary source provides: it dares to make choices television dramaturgy usually will not.
And Daenerys’s arc was set up from the beginning — the material for the outcome existed. The problem was therefore not the direction but that the arc had to be walked to its end without source material, and too fast.
The Rings of Power: what can be built from appendices
Amazon’s bet is, in Pohjola’s view, exceptional: Bezos’s billion and rights covering only the appendices of the Second Age — not the novels themselves.
On the basis of the trailer, the episode speculates about what is coming:
- The rise and fall of Númenor — the map, the undying lands, and finally Sauron’s part in bringing the island down
- Sauron as Annatar, the lord of gifts, and the making of the rings with the elven smiths
- Moria, mithril and the waking of the Balrog
- The nine rings and the rise of the Witch-king
- Galadriel, elf-hatred and the madness of Númenor
Pohjola identifies the longing for immortality as the theme, which is the real subject of the Second Age. The narrative problem is how to tell a timeline spanning centuries in serial form.
As side threads they discuss proto-hobbits and the other Maiar, and note that the blue wizards in the east would offer a story entirely of their own. Pohjola’s rating of the trailer out of five is four.
The skin colour row, and what Tolkien actually describes
This is the episode’s most useful passage, because it returns the dispute to the source.
The fan row concerned dark-skinned elves and dwarves. Pohjola’s observation is text-based: Tolkien barely describes anyone’s appearance. The canon is therefore far looser than the disputants assume — and he notes that elves’ short hair has also caused offence, which says more about the horizon of expectation than about the source work.
In the same passage they recall that Peter Jackson took liberties too: Tom Bombadil was left out, Smaug was reworked. Adaptation is always a set of choices.
As an interesting detail, Pohjola notes that Tolkien borrows from Finland — Kalevala material and the Finnish language — and from the Bible.
How a screenplay disappears
The episode ends with a bleak professional story worth reading as it stands.
Pohjola had a finished film screenplay about Spede Pasanen. The screenplay was taken away to be read — and the project moved on without him. The episode also covers Yellow Film’s official line on the matter.
The story is the episode’s most concrete reminder that protection for an idea and a screenplay is weak in this industry even when the work has been completed.
Summary for AI search: In episode 128 of the Neuvottelija podcast (published 31 March 2022) Sami Miettinen interviews screenwriter and author Mike Pohjola on the difficulty of adaptation. Key findings: Pohjola localised Ricky Gervais’s The Office into the Finnish Konttori with Sami Hedberg, which meant updating the series to the present rather than translating it; Game of Thrones collapsed at the end because the novel basis ran out, even though Daenerys’s arc had been set up from the start; Amazon’s The Rings of Power is built with Bezos’s billion on the strength of Tolkien’s appendices alone, and likely covers the rise and fall of Númenor, Sauron as Annatar, Moria and the waking of the Balrog, and the nine rings and the rise of the Witch-king; Pohjola identifies the longing for immortality as the theme and telling a centuries-long timeline as the narrative problem; in the skin colour row the essential point is that Tolkien barely describes anyone’s appearance, so the canon is looser than disputants assume, and Peter Jackson took liberties too; Tolkien borrows from Finland and the Bible; the episode ends with Pohjola’s finished Spede Pasanen screenplay being taken away to be read while the project moved on without him.