Just read to refresh everything that happened in episode 1, I pasted the first paragraph below, from here https://breakingbad.fandom.com/wiki/Pilot
> In the New Mexico desert, a man wearing nothing but his underwear and a gas mask erratically drives an RV down a desolate dirt road. In the passenger seat, another man is passed out, also wearing a gas mask. In the back of the RV are two bodies. After crashing the RV in a ditch, the driver climbs out, dons a shirt hanging from the side view mirror, and retrieves a video camera and gun from the vehicle. Recording a message on the camera, the man identifies himself as Walter White and bids a cryptic farewell to his wife and son. Sirens are heard in the distance. Walt walks onto the road and awaits the apparent approach of police, gun in hand.
Also, this is a 1h show, so you have 2 hours, that is the length of a full movie. And people review movies all the time.
People also reviewed the first to episodes of House of the Dragon.
The series may turn out to be worthwhile, but the first 2 episodes are objectively not good. The writing is poor, the dialogue isn't good, the characters are not compelling and the episodes themselves aren't well put together. I don't see how anyone can watch the first 2 episodes of this series and then watch the first 2 episodes of breaking bad and see any comparison. The vibes I got while watching this show reminded me of the last season of Game of Thrones after it had gone off the rails. The difference here is we haven't spent years getting invested in the story line and the characters, which kept us watching even as the quality was poor. I won't be tuning in for episode 3 and certainly won't feel like I've missed anything.
Whether something is entertaining or not is purely subjective. However, speaking in my capacity as someone who has worked in the film industry for the last 30 years, the writing of the first two episodes was objectively "not good". I think Hesh Rabkin put it better than I can, on Season 1, Episode 10 of the Sopranos when he said, "There’s one constant in the music business...A hit is a hit...and this, my friend, is NOT a hit." The same holds for tv shows.
You keep using the word objectively but it doesn't mean what you think it means. You did not like the writing, that's fine. I don't think it's fair to call it "objectively" not good. There were some awkward parts and some awkward scenes, but I personally found a lot of the dialogues to feel quite natural and compelling. The elves are a bit of a stiffer but that's part of the characters. It is plagued by some of what I call the modern "marvel" adventure quirky speech (especially some exchanges with Galadriel) where a lot of exchanges turn into funny quips back and forth but that's par of the course in the current movie industry.
On the other hand the cinematography, environments, special effects, sound stage (sauron's whispers in a 3D home theater system were just SO GOOD), and a lot of other stuff is absolutely amazing.
I am not in the film industry, but I am a musician, so here are a few examples from classical music: A performer who tends to rush the slow sections of music will often give bad performances: the vision of the piece is for that section to be slow, and a weakness in the performer's skill compromises the vision. A composer who writes music that is impossible to play has bad craft. A conductor who gives unclear cues and doesn't keep an orchestra together has bad craft.
I can still enjoy a performance where the slow sections are a little rushed if I like the piece, but that doesn't make it a good performance.
As surprising as it may seem, the art of writing has rules. Setting up character arcs, payoffs, hero journey, etc. These have been around for literally thousands of years. These 2 episodes are objectively poorly written.
BTW, I'd also claim that original tolkin narratives are not very good if you strictly judge them by these rules. The generous use of Deus ex machina to solve the plot climactic moments is just cringy.