The "poor translation" idea did occur to me and I nearly included it in my comment as potential, but I found it so bad it seemed unlikely as I thought the problems were more fundamental than that.

Netflix has some fine series, I'm sure it's perfectly capable of doing a good job with good source material; and hopefully capable of being transformative when the source quality is more mixed.

I will admit that I thought the books' story-telling quite clear. So clear -- in fact -- that my impression of the author's flow was, in one word: ,,simple''. (I shrugged this opinion off since I knew the work to be translated and the plot was intricate enough to have me continue reading.) I agree Netflix has some fine series, but, for me, the amount of these is in the single digits. (Recommendations appreciated. lmao)