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nerakrosedolorosa_12 does Friday Open Threads, which I always enjoy reading even if I don't always have anything to say myself, and that is where the inspiration for this post comes from. I don't usually do any open discussion posts (I am not a community builder, alas), but I want to open this one up widely, so do feel free to link to it elsewhere.I've recently watched two different miniseries based on books, one was a re-watch and the other was new to me. One of these miniseries is in my opinion superior to the book while the other was definitely good, but I preferred the book.
My question is: What story do you feel was served better by a TV or film adaptation than by its original form? What made it better, and why?
I'll go first: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
This was the kind of book that on the surface looked tailor made to my tastes - I love rock music and have spent a considerable amount of my time being super into specific bands, going to concerts and collecting merch and setlists and getting tickets signed, and obsessing over band members. So when I heard of this novel, I thought: here is a book for me!
Unfortunately, I didn't really like the book. The interview format was fine but I wasn't keen on the twist, and in written form Daisy Jones especially came across like the only thing that was going on for her was the substance abuse and being mad that she didn't get what she wanted. my biggest issue by far was that I couldn't listen to any of the music. On paper the songs sounded great, and being familiar with a lot of (but not all) rock music of the time period, I could sort of imagine what the songs were meant to sound like, or vibe like, but ultimately, they were just words on paper. This book was a bit of a let down for me.
Then the TV series (on Amazon Prime in the UK) came along and I gained a whole new appreciation for the story. There was a constant running soundtrack of music from real bands alongside the fictional one, with new music written for the TV series in the appropriates style. And each song is a banger! The interview format worked so much better with the series presented as a hybrid of video interviews, like a documentary, interspersed with flashback bits. it also made it less jarring when the interview bits suddenly stopped being a documentary and started being present-time scenes outside the filmed interview. (does that make sense?) The twist also felt a lot less annoying as the actors brought a lot of body language, expressions, and tone to the interview format that wasn't there in writing, that enriched their relationship with the past and the interviewer. And of course: the music. I re-watched this series recently and loved it just as much the second time.
Of course this specific series wouldn't have existed without the book, so it's not fair to say that it should've been made as a TV series from the start and that we don't need the book, but personally I would recommend the TV series over the book in this case.
What about you?
Please note this is not the place for absolutist the-book-is-always-better-no-matter-what opinions. Be kind and respectful to one another in the comments.
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Date: 2024-10-28 09:08 pm (UTC)I think the same could be said of His Dark Materials. The books are, in some ways, richer, but the changes made in casting and some subplots add depth and interest to the books.
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Date: 2024-10-30 09:17 pm (UTC)It’s been just long enough since I read those books that when I watched the tv series I was confused by things not happening that I was expecting to and confused by things happening I couldn’t remember from the book, but at the same time not very sure of my own memory. I do like Mrs coulter of the tv series, she was utterly fascinating , and I felt I could understand better how/why she and Lord asriel ever had an affair/produced Lyra than in the books. In the books I didn’t get it at all. The actors brought that chemistry to life for me.
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Date: 2024-10-29 07:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-10-30 09:21 pm (UTC)The hobbit on the other hand…that did not have to be three movies and I’m so annoyed by large parts of how that book was adapted I think I’ve only seen these movies twice. Once in the cinema and once as a rewatch with a friend who loves them.
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Date: 2024-11-01 05:50 pm (UTC)I really loved both the book and TV series of Daisy Jones, but I can see how the book would leave you cold. The style just mimicked those deep dive, self-important music journal interviews so well that it carried me along.
Other adaptations that I've enjoyed:
I love both the book and TV series of Interview with the Vampire — at first the jump forward in time annoyed me (since it seemed like a cynical decision: a lazy way for the writers to sidestep the issue of their characters being in New Orleans during the time of slavery), but as the series went on, I came to appreciate it as its own separate thing. I'm not sure I'd recommend one over the other, but I would certainly recommend the TV series without insisting that people read the book first.
By all accounts, the TV series of The Terror is a vast improvement on the book (which I haven't read).
And I've not read the books (it's a massive multibook mystery series), but my husband has, and based on what he's told me, the TV adaptation of Babylon Berlin is a massive step up from the source material. This is a crime series set in the dying years of the Weimar Republic, in Berlin, and the two main characters are police officers grappling with the conflict between their own individual ethics and sense of justice, and the murky political compromises that they're required to make for the sake of expediency. They're also struggling to deal with the inexorable rise of fascism without properly understanding the scale of the threat (since they are living in late 1920s Berlin as opposed to viewing things with our decades of hindsight). In the TV show, the female character is an aspiring police officer; in the books she has much more limited professional aspirations. In the books, the main male character is apolitical and somewhat apathetic, whereas in the show he has strong ethical lines he won't cross, and views the Nazis he encounters with increasing horror.
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Date: 2024-11-05 01:54 pm (UTC)I have been struggling to separate the the IWTV tv series from the books because it's so much in conversation with the source material that I feel having read the books really enriches the tv series, in a similar way to how you can read a fanfic without knowing the fandom, but if you do know the fandom, the text opens up for you more. I do think it can be watched independently and stand alone, and I'm very impressed with what they've done with the material - like you I was sceptical of the new time line - and how that changes the text. I'm not sure I'd recommend either over the other, either. They do different things and are such different experiences.
I've vaguely heard of Babylon Berlin but your description of the TV series is enticing me to watch it! It sounds very interesting, and your notes about the character changes are very appealing. (and remind me of the Afdeling Q books vs film differences - in the books, the main character is apathetic and lazy and doesn't care about the work, but in the films he's driven, almost desperately, to resolve the cold cases. One of the two is definitely more appealing than the other...)