Lord of the Rings Series -- Amazon
They are alluding to Gandalf pretty heavy. I don't think that's a plot hole. This wizard hasn't, and may never see the one ring.
Agreed - the follow your nose is a dead give away (or a stupid misdirection). And this is obviously not what was in Tolkien's writing where Gandalf didn't come until the 3rd age.. however, I don't think this means he's going to be involved in the rings. So, it won't necessarily contradict the LotR. We'll have to see.
Non-cannon complaints I have - I thought the pacing of the first 7 episodes was off. There was also this weird feeling that the world was both big and small -- obviously you have all of middle earth, but why the focus on one small village in the southlands? That didn't feel like a nation, but a small village. I thought they could have a done a better job with elven politics -- they are supposed to have a superiority complex, and they could have done a good job of exploring that -- but I felt it was kind of glossed over. Mainly a problem with only 8 episodes and 4 storylines. The elves also didn't seem ethereal enough -- they looked like humans with pointy ears.
Things I liked. I really liked the actors. I found them really compelling. Charlie Vickers was such a great mix of charming and then sinister. Morfydd Clark was really good as the Galadriel they wrote (not my understanding of Galadriel - I would have preferred this character be Galadriel's daughter Celebrian, I think it would have worked better). I also really liked the idea of Galadriel teetering on the edge of darkness, and the friendship with Sauron. It's an interesting idea that I think could have been played out longer if they had the time.
Stuff like this makes me want to be a show runner for adaptations of properties I care about. I'm sure it's more complicated than I realize, but I do find it interesting that you'd spend so much money on an IP like this, and then make choices that you know super nerds are not going to like, which then means you need to make a perfect show for it to succeed.