I caught up with the anime. All thanks to English tests and the inability to study for them, giving me a week of nothing to do. And thanks to you guys for that Gogo site.
I was watching since a bit after the start of Thriller Bark.
The pacing started to piss me off in around the last 10 episodes I watched. Before that, I thought it was fine. A flashback once in a while was great to remember things or just to give time to think. The long stares weren't much of a problem, either, until I finally started to hate them around 440. Just as a note, I always skipped to the episode title.
So, really, pacing was fine, at least until the escape from Impel Down. I don't understand all the criticism. Especially if you view the thing once a week, it doesn't hurt to have 5-7 second flashbacks of the last episode.
Maybe I'm biased because I'm not anticipating the progress, having read the manga.