I only read 3 of the novels, and I didn't read them in order, so for once I'm not a very good judge of how faithful the TV series is to the books.
From all the commentary I've read, KoolBak's commentary is similar to what a lot of people think:
KoolBak wrote:Oh man. To me, this is another one that started out great and completely went to shit. First....6? 8? books I liked, then by 10 I couldn't enjoy it. I'm pig headed so I read them all but hated the whole thing by the time I was done.
So I can't opine on it
There's a ton of series I've read that DONT do that I'd far rather discuss

Most people loved the first 6 books and then hated the next five (up to Knife of Dreams). Most fans felt that Jordan lost his way after the first six books and became a self-indulgent blowhard.
At that point Robert Jordan died and Brandon Sanderson took over the series. This is where the consensus disagrees with KB. Most people felt that books 12-14 (the Sanderson books) did a good job of recapturing the original spirit of the first six and were actually more true-to-Jordan than Jordan was to himself.
Too soon to tell where the TV series will go, but I'm hoping that it will follow a similar pattern, maybe drifting around for a while but ultimately coming to a satisfying climax. Very unlike Game of Thrones, where R.R. Martin, after getting lost in self-indulgence land, didn't have the common decency to drop dead and let someone else finish the series.
So far I'm on Episode 4 of Season 1, and I'm very happy with it.