I can't wait to see anything really. This series has potential to the point I'd hate to see Amazon screw it up in some way.
It would seem that you're pretty much in my boat in an awful lot of ways. I'll bet you don't play that stupid game. LOL
In any case, here's where I think the writers have a big advantage over the work that Peter Jackson did (and I'm not talking about that abortion called The Hobbit); the events of the 2nd Age don't have nearly the detail of the LotR so they can fill in those details and still stay true to the narrative we have. The problems I had with the LotR movies were mostly, but not all, omissions of the story. Peter Jackson's comment that certain things didn't advance the overall story are complete and utter Bull****. And, don't even try to tell me it would have made the movies too long because his concern about this didn't seem to bother him when he stretched out The Hobbit so it was thinner than butter that has been scraped over too much bread (How'd you like that one?
).
Here are the things I thought Jackson butchered and then, sometimes, tried to throw in to make up for it (note.....it didn't work):
The basic exclusion of Farmer Maggot
No Old Man Willow, Bombadil, or Goldberry
Skipping Fog on the Barrow-Downs and the Barrow-Wights and having Aragorn just give the Hobbits a bunch of swords.
So, basically, he glosses over the narrative from when the Hobbits leave the Shire until they get to The Prancing Pony.
Then, the RIDICULOUS swapping out of Glorfindel with Arwen in the Flight to the Ford.
Next up, the utterly lame death of Saruman which totally messes up The Scouring of the Shire.
And, finally, The Passing of the Grey Company should have been included. We could have gotten a glimpse of Halbarad and the sons of Elrond; Elladan and Elrohir, but, that's okay because he screwed up The Paths of the Dead while he was at it. This was a place where he could have done something really cool. He could have done it as it happened or showed it as Aragorn later recounted it, but.......what "was" done was done poorly.
I know it's hard to tell from this post, but I rather liked the movies. It was probably because I was starved for them and wanted something better than those stupid cartoons. I'm sure I could come up with more that disappointed me, but, to be fair, there were some wonderful moments in Jackson's version.