You people make me sad.

The books are solid. Goodkind is not the best writer, but he presents very enjoyable and well-developed characters, an interesting plot, and even some nice political allegory midway through the series. The last four books, however, are such an abomination of writing that they are only worth reading for avid fans. The plot overall is fairly engrossing, though the series eventually turns into a bunch of deus-ex-machina where Richard solves everything by instinct and epiphany in between speeches which replaced the dialogue. Though the 6th book, Faith of the Fallen, by itself is so well done that it justifies the series as far as I'm concerned.

The TV show, on the other hand, is really poorly executed and simplified to such a ridiculous degree. The quality of the writing is almost painful. I mean, the Boxes of Orden needing to be "put together" like a simple puzzle piece and then having everyone obey you? I cringed in pain. The Mord-Sith were done surprisingly well, though, and are the one highlight of the series.