I liked the arc they built for Sauron. Him being that Adar bloke would have been stupid. I like the subtly of evil and prefer it when "evil" characters show through their action and speech that at least initially there isn't a million miles separating what we see as good from what we see as evil. Often they are aligned in their goals, their disagreement is the means to get there. I like that layered and nuanced approach.
Problem is, they built the arc and then closed it in the space of that single episode. I haven't read the books but saw somewhere that in Tolkien's world, Sauron remains hidden for many more centuries and manages to infiltrate and corrupt the entire kingdom of Numenor, turning them all to darkness. That would have been a solid thread for Season 2. Let Halbrand keep up his facade, forge an alliance with Numenor, bring the arrogant twats down and then, and only then, set off to Mordor to create a ring based ****storm.
The way they scripted it meant we had around 5 minutes to enjoy how devious and cunning Sauron actually is before our next glimpse is of him backpacking alone to Mount Doom. And this from a series that dedicated two and a half hours to people looking for apples.
My other major gripe is how they've used the Irish Hobbits. In LOTR what made the Shire so special and indeed so important was that it was the perfect introduction to the fantasy of middle earth. The Shire was a place of childish innocence and symbolically the further Frodo and Sam journey from there, the closer they get to power, corruption and evil. It is significant that in Jackson's adaptation, we don't see the Shire again until the very end of the trilogy. Because it is an introduction, something in the background that reminds us that good and innocence still exist somewhere out there. By reworking that to be a band of travellers, the story becomes jarring and the contrasts in time unworkable. That fight between the three demons and the Irish Hobbits before Gandalfs big reveal was comical. I get that they want to portray them as heroes but that isn't their function. They are meant to be untouched by the evils of middle earth, there for comedy and light-hearted moments, not for throwing rocks at Eminem lookalikes who can breath fire.
So yeah, they are trying to squeeze far too much out of far too many characters, many of whom aren't there to be squeezed.