“The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” is set thousands of years before the events depicted in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” telling a story set during what Tolkien called the Second Age – an era of prosperity and peace that is soon threatened by the re-emergence of an evil sorcerer named Sauron.The TV series features all the various races found in Tolkien’s books and Peter Jackson’s film adaptations – humans, dwarves, elves, orcs and hobbit-like Harfoots – but there is a major difference between this series and how the world of Middle-earth has been depicted before.