I can't help but agree with this. I admit I made the mistake of not approaching it like expensive fan-fiction; I actually expected that they'd stick roughly to

I can't help but agree with this. I admit I made the mistake of not approaching it like expensive fan-fiction; I actually expected that they'd stick roughly to the facts of the Appendix they supposedly based it on. So I'm already frustrated that they're making a mess of that. And clearly they love their plot more than their characters, dragging the characters by their hair to wherever the plot needs them to be, whether it makes sense or not. And even that could have been acceptable if at least that plot was something good, but I still don't see it. A lot of stuff feels like it should be going somewhere, but after 4 episodes, it's still not clear where it's supposed to be going, except towards those heavily foreshadowed disasters: Sauron's return, the fall of Numenor, and it looks like they're also going to throw Durin's Bane into the mix. 4000 years early. It all looks great. I love how the Harfoots and the Orcs, Numenor and their ships, as well as the dwarfs, look. And there are some great, lovely, inspired scenes. But it's starting to look like it's all superficial. Everything is haphazardly taped together by awkward plot twists. I really wanted to love this show. I still do. But they're making it very hard.