My thoughts exactly. Season 5 almost felt like a different show. Everything built up in the previous seasons just seemed to be thrown out the window, and the reveal about the observers just seemed completely out of nowhere. A million important things seemed to happen off screen and had to be explained retroactively

Maybe they expect the characters to not have fake wives, or for essential elements of a character's story to unfold broadly the same as the source material. That's why movies and shows get adapted from books isn't it? To tell the story of the source material in a different medium. If you want to tell a completely different story you might as well just make an original show. The Lord of the Rings movies didn't retell the books line for line but they were able to capture the essence and core of the story in a way that's far more faithful than this show and with far less time to do it.

"The released film IS the directors cut." Lol tell that to David Ayer (Suicide Squad), Gareth Edwards (Rogue One), Zack Snyder (Justice League), Ridley Scott (Blade Runner), and literally every other movie that had a "Directors Cut"

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was excellent and just like the book was crying out for a sequel. Catch 22 was terrible though. Completely failed to do justice to the book and the makers seem to have failed to grasp one important thing. It's supposed to be funny and absurd. If you have a comedy satire that's not funny you have failed.