I disagree. I still enjoy the show to a point, but I think the books are much better in many ways.
As for the final judgement if the books have to many parallel plots that lead nowhere I will wait till (if ever
) all books are out. Maybe he will fuck it up, maybe he won't. And if he doesn't I like it very much to have much stories/characters/material which don't fit in 'neatly' in narrative and aren't narrowed down on pushing the main plot forward, but add much to the deeper understanding why things are happening as they do.
Also the many less important characters and their story-arcs add a rarely seen level of realism to the whole story. It doesn't feel like in many novels that the whole world is build around the main characters to serve their narrative. Each unimportant side-character has it's own right to exist with it's own motives. With all your talk about a tight, neat, not meandering and flawless plot in my eyes you forget that this is exactly what is so special about the books and made them so good in the first place.
As for the things I don't like about the show: It is too perfect, too beautiful. Even when there is brutality or something grim, it looks and has a feeling of persil-washed beauty to it. I could imagine a far more gritty version (I don't mean violence or brutality, just less beauty and more rough edges). Closely connected to this overall feeling I don't like the music score at all, trying too hard to be epic most of the time for my taste. Then there are those kitchy love stories they've build in, like most recently missandei and grey worm, or way before rob and his despicable exotic almond eyes nurse (yeah, she got nice ass, duh). gah, I could puke thinking of that.
What I do like are many good actors, many of them doing a great job of nailing the book characters and going beyond that. Brienne, The Hound, of course Tyrion, Tywin, Robert, Eddard, his sword training guy, Davos and Barristan come immediately into mind. Sadly Daenerys has become really horrible. First I thought she was a great choice but now her stern troubled looks she does in
every fucking scene give me run.
I also do like some of the blends/merges/cuttings they did and know they had to do most for a TV show. Still with a few exceptions the strong scenes are directly from the books or only in a different setting.
