Firstly I've not read the books that this is based upon and feel anyone is on to a loser if they expect a tv series to remain 100% faithful to its source material. I found the series to be compelling and very watchable, not necessarily a masterpiece but undoubtedly there's more good here than bad. Sacha Dewan and Iwan Rheon are fantastic as a double act, they're funny, hammy, morbid, insecure and a whole lot of other things and that was inspired casting. However I would say that Owen Teale and Juliet Stevenson are completely wasted in this and their roles are fairly one dimensional which was a great shame. However the interlinked storylines worked well and managed to maintain a decent level of suspense until the end.
