Here's my original review of the first season, and of the second. They're both on Netflix if you have that, so you can watch them in their entirety there.

re: books, when I originally watched the first season, I had read only one of the later ones (not yet covered by the tv show), but by now I have read the first three. Cornwell isn't boring, and great with research, but I really think the show improves on the books for reasons mentioned in my post.