The show has a completely different tone and pacing from the books. The books are much closer to LotR (particularly the first one which is basically just alt. Fellowship) and spend a lot of time with the characters traveling and getting to know each other and the lore of the world. There's plenty of bickering, but the characters all like each other and get along decently. The show opted to cut most of the parts where you learn what's going on to instead focus on manufactured drama.

They also just changed things in really confusing ways like making Mat's parents deadbeats, among other things. Some of the plot restructuring makes sense given how much stuff there is to adapt. I don't think anyone reasonable can expect any book adaptation to keep 100% faithful unless it's getting crazy funding as a TV series. That said they just really took a knife to things.

Idk, as someone who loves the books despite their issues I wasn't particularly enamoured with the show. Some people liked it though.

If the world seemed interesting I'd recommend the audiobooks. Love Michael Kramer and Kate Reading.