Books come to life in the minds of their readers, but sometimes they can come to life in other ways too. Recently, big production companies have discovered the wealth of literary material in comic books and novels, and while movies make a fortune capitalising from them, television is holding its own.
When I was younger, Netflix was a DVD-to-door rental service, and I openly frowned on streaming things to my computer. I had to step away from the TV and my little mobile DVD player, sit on an uncomfortable chair, and watch something on a tiny screen on our shared family computer while constantly being interrupted? No, thank you.
Adapting a book for the screen doesn’t have to be a song and dance
But it’s so much better now, and television has every capability of giving stories the length of time they need to be told in, rather than being limited to 2.5 hours at a time. I fully support this new method, mostly because I adore long, well-structured tales that keep me wanting more. But I also love that all these books I fell in love with are given their chance to shine, with characters growing naturally, relationships developing slowly, and action sequences offered enough time to really WOW.
One of my favourite books when I was younger, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, was given the visual treatment twice, in movie and then TV, and in my opinion was destroyed both times. Sometimes, yes, they can screw up badly.
Death Note, the Japanese manga, would make an awesome TV show, but the movie was so terrible I could devote an entire dissertation to every disappointment in there. But they’re learning, and in particular, fantasy is a medium we’ve seen gain new legs with the success of GoT.
There are a plethora of new fantasy shows coming out that, hopefully, we’ll see expanded on in the same way as George R.R. Martin’s universe. Wheel of Time, the saga and bed post of epic fantasy, is coming to our screens, along with Lord of the Rings, which I hope will be as supreme as the movies. A few others announced: King Killer Chronicles, Earthsea, Narnia, and my personal favourite, Tamora Pierce’s Tortall world. We can’t get enough of strong female-driven fantasy, and I will certainly be waiting for the nostalgia trip when that finally comes to our screens.
All we want is to see our favourite characters brought to life with all the flaws, sadness, joy, and sarcasm they were written with
Recently premiering on BBC was His Dark Materials, which I am so excited for. I haven’t watched them yet, so I can’t comment on the series, but I think the books really lend themselves to a TV rather than film medium.
Another one coming up (please tell me you’ve seen the trailers) is The Witcher series. I’m currently reading all 9 books, having played The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and loved it. It’s full of darkness, monsters, sex, and political intrigue, and I just hope Netflix can do the Nordic horror justice. The thing about The Witcher is I think it’s hard to mess up. All the elements are there for a fantastic TV series, they just need to follow the dotted lines.
I understand a director, writer, or production company’s desire to leave their mark on the legendary series, to give us a ‘real show’, but this isn’t Dancing with the Stars, and adapting a book for the screen doesn’t have to be a song and dance. All we want is to see our favourite characters brought to life with all the flaws, sadness, joy, and sarcasm they were written with. We want to SEE them battle their demons in front of us, rather than in our own minds. And all that really takes is a talented cast, understanding writer, awesome production value, and a modest director.
Sure I know it’s not actually that easy, but I’m scraping back to the bare bones of the thing. We want to love them on screen as much as we do on the page, and that’s all it takes.
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