They've got a solid script here. The acting is on point as well, although I'm not a fan of American diversity casting that requires a certain percentage of every race to be present even in a fictionalized medieval slavic Europe with no explanation whatsoever of how they got there. You want diversity, do it like GoT - this is just lazy.

This first season is quite episodic, which I found to be quite refreshing and welcome. I assume upcoming seasons will be more serialized as the material starts requiring it.

When it comes to the material, I didn't read the novels so I wouldn't know how much they are sticking to them. I came from the games and didn't expect everything to be the same, but enough was that I could take advantage of all the lore I've picked up and understand far more than I would assume the average viewer without that background would.

Overall, if it maintains this level of quality, we will end up with a pretty decent fantasy show. However, I'm not optimistic as the general trend dictates that it will likely see a gradual fall in quality across the following seasons.