The first couple of episodes were a real slog. The dwarves are annoying but tbh i always found them irritating in the books. They aren't a particularly faithful interpretation though.
The hobbit are ok. Apart from Lenny who was super annoying. They have the innocent charm.
The elves do have that expressionless dead behind the eyes thing going on. Which is what the elves were - aloof and rather snooty.
Sauron being northern I don't have a problem with. Its the whole thing of being disarming and unthreatening. An accent which is 'lower class' almost is a good way to endeer yourself to many by seemingly being harmless. It plays to stereotypes of what someone with power should sound like and then turns them on their head. That's far more dangerous. It's part of the seduction. I note that in the moment with Galadriel, he lost this air. Its a clever trick.
Over all the pace of the series was too slow, and the series itself was too short. It ended the moment you felt it had got going and that was it. The tension and drama really only felt like it existed in the last episode.
I'm left frustrated and wanting more. I don't feel an end of series satisfaction. I feel a little like I've been led on and then dropped suddenly without explanation. It needed a shed load cutting out in earlier episodes and a couple more of high drama added at the end. And no not the endless battle screens from the LotRs movies. The series as it stood probably should have been 6 episodes or less. Cut the crap.
The scripts are my other bug. They are too stiff which deaden the characters. There is a lack of almost a sparkle and spontaneity with them. They aren't 'lifelike'. Few of the character endeer you to them. Gimili and Legolas worked as a pairing as there was a sense of humour between them for example. The elves whilst aloof have no real personality. They have pointy ears and aren't snooty but there a lack of any passion what so ever going on even with Galadriel.
I am hopeful that with characters now starting to build we will start to see that in the next series. This series is only a set up series. The problem with it being you have to sit through 7 hours before you start to feel like the whole thing is going anywhere.
There isn't a real sense of a distinct pressing threat. There's a vague 'war is coming and we don't have time' but it feels far off and not critical. The suspension of the hobbit and lotr is far superior.
I enjoyed it, in the end, but I can definitely see why others hated it and didn't make it past episode 1.