I don't care about the books, so after scrolling through A LOT of reviews that have gripes and complaints about the way the story has been translated to the screen, I thought I'd chime in as a person who was interested mostly by synopsis and, well, Iain de Caestecker--love him.
I thought the first few episodes were exceedingly boring. The writing does not seem to help; the dialogue is not particularly interesting. I also found the cinematography to be cheap-looking, at times, compared to other shows of the genre. Maybe I'll try again one day, but it's looking like I'll get my sword/sandal/sorcery fix elsewhere. At least on screen.