Ramble ramble ramble.

[tellshannon815]

So I keep trying to do ramble posts re fannish stuff and keep failing miserably. Maybe this year will be the year I'm more successful in that.

Supposing you see a show, or a film, that's adapted from a book. Do you find it jarring if it goes in a completely different direction from the original, or actually enjoy the change? It's something I was thinking about after having seen the first episode of 56 Days (I read the book when it had not long since been released). For anyone not familiar with either but considering checking out, I've cut anything specific to that canon.



The original book is set in Dublin during lockdown, and lockdown is the whole reason why the couple Ciara - not See-ya-ra as the American character pronounces it in the show - and Oliver move in together as quickly as they do. The show is set in the US without lockdown being part of it at all.



Okay, so at the time the book came out (summer 2021) some did feel that it was a bit too soon for that particular thing featuring much in books and shows (a few years on with a bit of distance from it, maybe it's easier. But that's a whole separate discussion anyway).



The ending is totally different; the identity of the body in the apartment is someone else altogether; Oliver survives.



When the eventual outcome is wildly different to the original, does that jar with you or do you just go with it? I can remember wondering why exactly an old Miss Marple once years ago changed the identity of one killer in The Body in the Library, and also how exactly there could be an adaptation of Sara Shepard's The Perfectionists books without the character Julie and Parker considering how pivotal they were to the plot (considering that was canned after one season, I may not have been the only one!) If it's just something like an actor not being how I'd pictured someone in the books, I don't really think anything of that (although I've heard Mum plenty of times saying things like "He is not So and so!" in that situation.)

Comments

[mxcatmoon]

I'm pretty consistent: whatever type of media I first experience, that's what I prefer. So, if I read the book first, I usually don't like the movie/TV version; if I see the TV/Movie version first, I like it better.

I really love it when I've read the book first, and the film version is a winner (IMO). Doesn't happen a lot, so I really appreciate it when it does.

[cornerofmadness]

honestly it depends. I've seen it go so badly so many times. On other occasions I've found it to be much better than the book (How To Train Your Dragons for example) and sometimes I like them both equally (Howl's Moving Castle)

[fabiadrake]

For me it really just depends on whether I like the results, and I can generally accept when two versions of the same material are (to me) good in their own right. I think Blade Runner is excellent despite being quite different from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. I think The Talented Mr Ripley (1999) is a very good film although since first seeing it I’ve read and much preferred the book. I thought the BBC adaptation of Gormenghast was so-so up until the last episode, which I passionately hated and which made me realise how character-driven the novels are; I have no idea if I would have liked it if I hadn’t read the novels first (but I suspect not). I think The Haunting of Hill House is an elegant little horror novella and disliked the Netflix adaptation, not so much because it rearranged so many elements but because I think horror requires some loose ends and ambiguities and the serial had none. In reasonably faithful adaptations, usually I’m quite tolerant about certain scenes/subplots being cut but dislike new scenes being added in; the LotR films are a case in point.

If it's just something like an actor not being how I'd pictured someone in the books, I don't really think anything of that
Yeah, that’s a hazard baked in to any adaptation.

[smallhobbit]

I like the basics of the plot to remain unchanged, otherwise just admit you're writing fanfiction and an AU. Sir Matthew Bourne's dance productions very clearly state they're taking the basic story and putting his own twist on them and work really well.