Same. I was extremely pleased with the pacing - I wondered how much time they would put into the build-up to Lexington and Concord and the British retreat (or "World-building" as the kids say) but working through the early years (1750s/60s with Washington and Franklin) and up to those battles in the first episode was well-done. I hope the uneducated masses now know Washington and Franklin didn't spring into existence in the 1770s, and that Sam Adams is a great name for a beer, given how much shit he was constantly stirring up, and that it was truly a civil war.
I like the re-enactments as well - lots of showing stuff happening (things being made, hands carrying rifles, etc.) but not fixated on faces (the mobs were in shadows, etc.). I was kind of worried we'd see re-enactments that take us out of the series, but everything blended together well - paintings, illustrations, etc. I'm so used to really bad re-enactments from various History Channel shows, but Ken is not going to let us down.
I'm assuming a lot of the watercolors were done recently, since they depict some very specific things being mentioned in the narrative, and the look was very distinctive, making me think they wanted to differentiate those from the various historical paintings they used.
I knew of every historian they mentioned except for two, and had read books by several of them, which was cool.
They did a good job of building up the tension of the British soldiers being quartered amongst the population and the build-up in Boston and how it was perceived by the locals.
I watched it with my middle-schooler, and he's now fixated on the Revolution.
Also, Peter Coyote is a national treasure, and while he's still doing well apparently (being in his 80s) I would support future use of AI to recreate his voice for any future Ken Burns series.