I'm not a Tolkien-head but loved the LOTR and Hobbit movies. So I was looking forward to this and was quite positive when the first two episodes dropped. However, things really started to drag in the middle episodes. I think perhaps the last two episodes were the only ones where I got somewhat interested and actually wanted to see what happens next. The cast did fine but honestly none of the characters were exceptionally remarkable or memorable. A single episode averaged about 70min so that was a total of 9h20m of screen time and the overall character and plot progression wasn't worthy of this amount. Perhaps the show would have benefitted from lesser episodes (6) and also lesser characters, which would have led to more concise storytelling.
