The first episode wasn't bad, I'll watch the second one tomorrow.
As for disparaging remarks about The Hobbit trilogy, that'll probably go on for a while. After all, the grave offense of expanding a single book into a trilogy (Oh, the horror) and adding elements not in the book like Legolas's appearance, and Legolas fighting a main villain at the end, is an effrontery that cannot be taken lightly. Such elements automatically make a movie series into garbage which shouldn't be watched.
Personally, I preferred The Hobbit trilogy over the original LOTR trilogy. I found LOTR to be a bit boring, filled with awkward, long stares, and attempted humor which didn't quite hit my funny bone.....Ah, to each their own.