I've never read the books (and I'm not going to - I've got a big enough dose of "epic" fantasy reading "Songs..." by GRRM, tyvm), and I think the show was getting better with every season. The first season was nothing special at all, even cheesy at times, the 2nd started to pick up the slack (and the pace) and the last one ended up being a very good show, like the writers finally started to get hold of the material.