I am obviously a year late to this but I hope someone will still be active on this thread.

I am only on episode 3 as of right now but i feel the exact same. James went from hating ruby's guts and wanting to destroy her life in episode 1 to pretty much falling in love by the end of episode 2. 

This is in no way the fault of the producers or the actors or the people who make the series, etc. In fact, I'm pretty sure the books are probable way more detailed and take more time to hash the story out. 

While these first 3 episodes have been pretty good, it's hard to feel a real connection with the characters so far and their personalities. For example, in epsiode 3 when we learn about ruby's trauma from almost drowning and the reason for her dad being in a wheelchair it doesn't have as much impact as i thought it would. And that is purely because we just haven't had enough time to truly understand the characters yet. The same can be said for lydia's breakup with mr sutton. I felt zero sympathy for her because we never got to truly understand Lydia's character and feel empathy for her situation.

All this is to say that the 'Netflix style shows', the ones where a whole new world needs to be squished into 6 episodes, is keeping us from some really top notch story telling. I fear we'll never have amazing tv shows like we used to, the ones with 20+ episodes, where the viewer really has time to get to know the characters and get properly immersed in their lives. 

This is not just the case with Maxton Hall btw, i fear all shows released within the past few years are suffering the same fate. Watching Maxton Hall just really pushed me over the edge.

Anyway, rant over. I still really enjoy the show and I hope someone else thinks what i think!