I had a unique experience I was reading the books for the first time while watching the first season as it aired. I had pretty low expectations because of the channel it was on has been know to take liberties with books that make them unrecognizable like The Lying Game where they kept the characters names and a tiny bit of one or two characters backstories and changed literally everything else.
The only real liberties they took with the plot was to make the characters a few years older so then a few plot points had to change because they no longer worked with the new ages. And the addition of Lydia as a character. Since I was reading them near simultaneously I was able to notice all the things they were keeping and they kept a ton and did a pretty good job compared to other books. That first season wanted me to have a Harry Potter series if it was done that way keeping so much intact from the books.
I'm kind of disappointed in the second season thus far to be honest the first season was so close to the books and it's seeming to drift farther and farther. It's still good but it was following the books fairly closely in the first season aside from a few age related changes.
The only real liberties they took with the plot was to make the characters a few years older so then a few plot points had to change because they no longer worked with the new ages. And the addition of Lydia as a character. Since I was reading them near simultaneously I was able to notice all the things they were keeping and they kept a ton and did a pretty good job compared to other books. That first season wanted me to have a Harry Potter series if it was done that way keeping so much intact from the books.
I'm kind of disappointed in the second season thus far to be honest the first season was so close to the books and it's seeming to drift farther and farther. It's still good but it was following the books fairly closely in the first season aside from a few age related changes.