The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power premieres this week, and we’ve seen it! We’re here to give you an early review, so you can decide whether to give in to the temptations of Sauron:

Welcome back to another episode of Take the Black, where your venerable genre news sleuths from Winter Is Coming discuss all the latest in fantasy and science fiction shows, movies and books! This week, your usual host Dan Selcke is off on an adventure; instead, we were joined by Fansided Entertainment head and horror movie buff Natalie Zamora for a fun discussion about a ton of different topics.

The main event of course was The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, which premieres its first three episodes tomorrow. We’ve seen some of the season and have overall thoughts to share about it. Watch the podcast below, and join in the conversation in the comments:

The Rings of Power may be on the brink of premiering, but there’s plenty else on the way, too. We went over all the shows and movies coming out in the next few months that we’re excited for — horror fans in particular are going to want to watch this one, because Natalie has recommendations. We also talked about what we’re watching, including Alien: Romulus, the 2016 sci-fi movie Passengers which is currently charting on Prime Video, and Max’s high finance drama Industry, which stars Game of Thrones alum Kit Harington. Plus, Daniel’s about to crack into the new novel from fantasy author Andrea Stewart, The Gods Below.

And of course, no episode of Take the Black would be complete without checking in on Westeros. Last weekend, A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin made an appearance at Bubonicon in New Mexico, and he said some interesting things which have made their way to the internet. Obviously, we had to talk about it!

The Take the Black Podcast is on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube Music! Please subscribe and download from there if you can. Also, you can help us out by giving us a five-star rating and leaving a friendly comment! We’re also now on Spreaker, so try us there, as well.

We stream new episodes of Take the Black every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 p.m. CST on the Winter Is Coming YouTube and Facebook pages. Join us live for the discussions, which should be especially lively as we move into season 2 of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.