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Several years after Amazon bought the television rights to "The Lord of the Rings" from J.R.R. Tolkien estate, the gargantuan effort to boost Prime Video's profile with the same kind of phenomenon HBO found in "Game of Thrones" is upon us, and it's as grand, if not downright surreal, as the occasion requires. Sure, "Game of Thrones" could have solidified a television format for fantasy epics. But the novels of George R.R. Martin simply wouldn't exist without Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings," and bringing these stories to episodic life requires not only all the considerable money that Amazon can provide, but a certain amount of guts on the part of the TV writers who put it to work. of it. now, some 85 years after "The Hobbit" changed the game. From first-time showrunners Patrick McKay and John D. Payne, "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," which opens on September 2 with two episodes, fits perfectly int...