they only have themselves to blame.... if they would have stuck to plot's closer to the book instead of going of on left tangents, i think they woulda done a lot better.
I doubt if many viewers actually care if the series stuck to the story in the books or not.
As someone who hadn't heard of the book until I watched the series, I certainly didn't. And if the show was/is going to be successful, it would have to appeal to the non-book-seeker viewers, who would vastly outnumber the people who read the books.
I'm one of the people that doesn't care about the books. I hadn't even heard of them before the show, even though they were sitting on my girlfriend's bookshelf before the show had aired. I remember walking past the books at the book store hundreds of times now that I know what the cover art looks like.
I just enjoy the show. I get a little medieval action adventure and there is plenty of eye candy(Hot blonde in red leather! Hell yes!). I keep hoping that the Mighty Bruce Campbell will appear in at least one episode.