I feel like I could complain a lot more, but it can just be summed up by the guy shouting in Monty Python's "Holy Grail"...Get on with it!
I don't mind slow burns, it's a refreshing break from the "edge of your seat" GoT shows, or even the way PJ's movies get. Where you don't really have the slower moments to breathe and reflect. I believe Verlyn Fleiger talks about this point with Tolkien, that there's a roller coaster ride. You're on the edge of your seat, at the top of the coaster, intense fast action, but you need the downtime too. You need periods of rest in Rivendell, Lothlorien, Ithilien. But at the same time, even in the rest periods, the story is still progressing. I can enjoy a slow burn, but I feel like there are more questions than there are answers at the moment. And even worse, the series is dragging out the answers in hopes that finding out the answers is irresistible. And I have to admit, it's not irresistible, because decisions to fake us out with Isildur's death is utterly pointless.
I think
Form mentioned it should have been Anarion, and I completely agree. I'm normally not someone who thinks I know more than professionals in their own area of expertise. But it seems common sense if you want to create tension by making us wonder if a character is alive or dead, you had a perfect choice with Anarion. He doesn't appear in the movies. In the lore he dies during the Siege of Barad-dur. Heck even just kill him off Season 1 in the Mount Doom explosion, and Elendil can still be upset about a son dying. There we go, that's an interesting death I could buy. But no, let's force a pointless "oh no, Isildur's dead" plot, what's Elendil going to do?
If Season 1 doesn't end with Celebrimbor holding a hammer and forging some rings, then I will be in no hurry to watch Season 2.
WCH posted a review in another thread that's basically my same thoughts. Once the glitz and glamor wears off, I spent most of Episodes 5 and 7 thinking of Monty Python and "Get on with it!"