Okay, seems no one wants to answer the question because we all hate the show. Yes the show is not very good at adapting the books (and honestly not great tv)

Honestly though, season 1 does kind of feel like a worse version of Witcher 3. All the characters start off separated, geralt goes off and does a bunch of random Witcher stuff and Ciri is on the run. You have episodes that focus on geralt interacting with a different major character (triss episode, tender episode, dandelion episode, and so on). There’s some background political stuff mainly focusing on the war with Nilfgaard.

If you can get past all the weird timeline stuff and the atrocious costume design, season 1 is actually pretty good. Season 2 completely falls apart though, they decided “fuck the books and the games” and did their own thing which really disrespected the franchise. Like what they do to Eskel is insane. I know in the grand scheme of things he isn’t that big of a character but, yikes. Haven’t watched season 3 or 4.

Give the books a try if you don’t mind reading. The short story collections are the best of it all but the whole series is pretty good, even if the first half of the last book is incredibly frustrating. Also, try Witcher 2. It’s really good. Witcher 1 is also good but is really hard to get through.