I've only read the first book of this series with my daughter and we both loved it. It's an excellent story, well told with wonderful characters, and a placed in a charming world.
The first episode of the TV show attempts to bring us into the world Peterson so wonderfully wrote, and it ends up (by the end of the first episode) feeling rushed and uneven.
It deviates pretty strongly from the book in some key areas-notably the character introductions-and makes me worry a bit for how it will handle the narrative going forward. Already, the discovery of the dangers of Glipwood Forest has been subverted by an intro that was far different in the book and better done in the short film.
There are also audio mixing issues where the voices don't always clear the mix and come out muddled and incomprehensible. The music is also mixed poorly and feels too rote in places and ill fitting in others.
Perhaps I expected too much from the animation after the short film, but I felt a little let down initially. Thankfully, it's done well enough that I was drawn in and enjoyed it after readjusting my expectations. The character designs are excellent and the voice actors do a great job with their characters.
Criticisms aside, there is so much potential in this show already and I am looking forward to seeing the rest of this season and reading the other books with my daughter soon.
