I stayed away from the thread until I had a chance to watch it all. Dunno anything about the books or the other series.
Nice concept that takes quite a while to get fully revealed, and therefore keeps you interested as to exactly what is going on. The problem I find with all such programs is that they can't keep the mystery going on long enough, they run out of ways to keep you engaged and yet not fully uninformed, and once that happens it just becomes another inter-personal relationships series.