Unlikeable leads and plot holes The elves of Tolkien were the firstborn, wisest, otherworldly and fundamentally different to humans. And yet within seconds of this show beginning, they are redrawn as petty, unpleasant bullies and Galadrial as violent and vengeful. She is unpopular everywhere, even humans sigh and tell her to be quiet by episode three, when the lead is made so unpopular it is difficult to invest much interest in whatever the crazy script has her doing next. The various strands of story are all over the place. While Elrond and Celebrimbor are introduced, along with a human female and her mysterious child we then see nothing of them for the entirety of episode 3 and most of episode 2. The dwarves pop up to show off a visually impressive Khazad-Dum and we don't see them again either. There is no attempt to draw threads between these storylines - it's all a bit chaotic.
The script is quite dreadful. At one point Isildur sulkily shouts of a fight he was in "THEY started it!" like any snarky teen, the harfoots have a cod-irish accent and I'm sure I heard an "Okay" from one of them. The better parts are cliche ridden generic fantasy stuff.
There are better moments. And I'm aware my extreme disappointment colours my current opinion but I'm hoping it'll improve: I want it to improve. The people putting this together are inexperienced and while currently that shows, lets all hope they gain skills and future series are more credible.