My reaction to the insane "who is the stranger who is obviously Gandalf" story, the obvious Halbrand is Sauron reveal, the Harfoots, the Mithril storyline, the Southlands bullcarp, the Eminem cultists, the magic sword dam-key-volcano-rue-goldberg device insanity, the south-park style "elves are taking our jobs" storyline and the butchering of Numenor
I appreciate you clearing up a lot of the established lore for myself and others here. I have a pretty good memory, but maybe not that good for the complexity of the Tolkien universe.
(You can correct me if I am wrong or mistake in the following, from a lore standpoint.)
In the pilot episode, there's a flashback with young Galadriel and her brother (Finrod?) There's some bizarre out of touch dialogue then the guy goes off the war ( against Morgoth), then he gets killed and is returned on a slab. This is supposed to be a driving force for Galadriel to search for Sauron. Right here, from a screen writing perspective, is the first and major failure point in this series.
If you take the time to establish a real relationship/dynamic with Finrod and Galadriel, then you can put context on the loss. Then you can help the audience rationalize Galadriel's pathology and behavior ( which is all over the place, she's showing more Borderline Personality Disorder than being some storied she boss warrior general-ette. ) You can also establish Sauron as a real threat by actual storytelling instead of just raw exposition. The reason Game Of Thrones was able to weave in and out so many characters, kingdoms, and complex interests was because there was one clear central goal for everyone - To determine who should sit next on the Iron Throne.
I can galvanize a writers room around a long term war/siege against Morgoth. That makes sense to the audience. It's the kind of conflict that isn't so detached from their own perception of the world around them. However the political machinations and manipulation to make some powerful jewelry, that's a much tougher sell. If Galadriel is part of a reinforcement unit to resupply elves and she has to see her brother get killed, then Sauron shifts his nature and beds her and she falls in love with him, not knowing he killed her brother, that's something you can build around.
However part of this struggle is this is very established and beloved canon and lore. Creative license to make an effective TV show means consolidating characters ( Dune had this problem, there were just too many characters, and Villeneuve, in any other circumstance, would have trimmed the cast, but how could he do it when that story was so loved and held dearly by so many for decades?) Also fudging the timelines some.
A big struggle for the current ROP is there is no natural conflict. Except that which is self generated by bad decision making, poor ethics and constantly shifting plot armor. This is a sign of a very inexperienced writers room. When I see productions that miss the layups, that's very troubling. Screen writing, to be fair, is incredibly difficult, and it's not because it's at true blank slate. It's because the guard rails are already there, and sometimes it's easy to not see them, but you have stay contained within them or your narrative will fall apart.
Last thought, if you are going to spend this much money on a show, you need your first three episodes ( basically comprising a very long pilot) to have tremendous spectacle. You need to show the audience something they haven't seen before. How do you do that with more talking, endless talking, just chirping and jabbering over and over again from an endless stream of characters. You do it by pure fan service. Show people how brutal this world can be. I added a link to a video above that sort of encapsulates what I'm talking about.
IMHO, this show took a major wrong turn from the beginning. I don't care about what "No Go Zones" were contractually agreed upon, Bezos should have known better than to stay in the room if there wasn't enough practical material to tell a real story within the Tolkien lore.
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