I do not consider the stapling of Maedhros to the cliff to be a gratuitous torture scene.
Maedhros-in-captivity can have
implied torments. He can show up much worse for wear in the scene where he talks to Morgoth. The audience will not have seen what happened to him in the dungeons of Angband, but I would imagine he would look like he's experienced a bit more pain then simply 'his clothes are dirty now.' We don't need to say what happened to him after his capture, but it's not like there's a Geneva convention in place, and we've seen how Boldog acts with the orcs and how Gothmog treated Eonwë back in Season 1. The audience will figure that out without much prompting from us.
We are going to have Sauron show tokens. While removing a lock of someone's hair is rather painless, there can be something else included in that package that is maybe less innocent. Something that was clearly removed from Maedhros' person. Whatever; again with the implication that being a prisoner in Angband is no fun without actually showing anything.
But...when Morgoth decides to hang him from the cliff, that's a final act meant to be a slow and painful death sentence. We at least need to hear from Morgoth as to why he's putting him up there (in a speech reminiscent of what he'll say to Húrin later). TV being a visual medium...it makes sense for Morgoth to say all that while it's happening.
We were already in agreement that we were going to see Maedhros hanging from the cliff. That's the torture part. The act of stapling him and dropping the body off the ledge is going to look painful and cause a visible wince in squeamish viewers, but is not actually any worse than the remainder of his 'static' torment.
I mean, I get it.
The Passion of the Christ is rated R for violence, and Jesus loses enough fake blood in that movie to have died several times over - there is some serious hard-core on screen torture with an unflinching camera. And despite coming after the full scourging scene, the part where
the nail is driven into his hand is still something where you expect the camera to cut away, and then it
doesn't, and you flinch anyway. It's...squirmy...rather than visceral to watch something like that. I can certainly understand not wanting to see it. But I also don't think what we are planning is a particularly violent scene or any more than anticipatory torture. It's not like we're going to do anything that makes the scene I linked so...visceral. We aren't going to puncture any part of Maedhros' body. We're not going to dislocate his shoulder. We're going to drop him, and it's going to hurt, but...not
torture hurt. A single scene of his body swinging down and hitting the rock wall as the audience figures out he's hanging from his wrist - yes, that's painful, but it's quick. I don't think we have to show a lot.
As for the end of the season...yes, I have some concerns. But I haven't heard the last hour of the session, either, so...I gotta wait to get caught up first.