Nah, he's not a billion times better. In the books, there are kinda these two different Stannises. The rigid, boring & uncharismatic one, as percieved by the common folk and people who don't know him very well or at all; and the much more complex Stannis, the one you get to know mostly through Davos & his dialogs and interactions with Stannis. That's not so say that Stannis isn't in fact rigid, boring and one-dimensional. He certainly can be. But he's also so much more, which the books do a fine job of portraying. The show doesn't. At all. The books' Stannis is someone you kind of could get behind. With a lot of reservations, admittedly, but still. The show's Stannis you generally don't give a shit about.
I keep watching it and while it's not a bad show by any means, it just doesn't seem to click with me. Maybe it's the ridiculous premise, which in my opinion hasn't gotten any less ridiculous over the seasons, maybe it's the writing, which I find servicable at best, maybe it's the characters. I like Finch and that's about it. Reese seemed like an interesting character, but his schtick got old very quickly.
