I agree with you on all points and I'm going to watch the next episode to see how it goes.

At the moment it seems like a mixture of an old fashioned mystery (eg the headless horseman) and explaining everything immediately because the audience aren't going to sit around for the end (eg said horseman is actually Death - couldn't they have at least waited until the last episode to reveal that)? I haven't explained it very well, but that's how it seems to me.

It's supposed to be a pilot, so maybe they're throwing everything into it to see what works?