Fannish Friday

[lirazel]

I know I've made a post about this before, but I always get such fun answers that I'm revisiting it.

1. Tell me which book/book series you'd like to see made into a television show. Assume that the showrunners understand exactly what you love about the original, the casting is perfect, it's not too long or too short. Everything goes as perfectly as an adaptation could. What would you most like to see as a show?

I'm asking specifically about shows as opposed to movies. I'm interested in what you think could make either a limited series (let's say at least 3 episodes) or an open-ended one, something that needs more space to breathe than a film can provide.

2. Alternatively, tell me about a book/book series that has been adapted to TV, but that didn't do it very well and you wish someone who really got the heart of the text could take another shot at it. (TV, please! I'll ask about bad film adaptations in another post!)

3. And/or tell me about a book/series that you think should not be adapted to TV or film because you just can't imagine it actually working! The stuff you love most about it just wouldn't translate to a visual media!



For question one, my answers always include the Benjamin January series, which could easily do a short season (say, 6 or 8 episodes) for each book. Mara: Daughter of the Nile would make a great limited series of 6ish episodes, imo, and so would Robin McKinley's Sunshine. When the Radiant Emperor duology is finished, it should get the full C-drama treatment! (It will not.)

I would love to see a really good Queen's Thief adaptation, but I do not think the one currently in development for Disney has a snowball's chance in hell of satisfying me.

For question two, the obvious answer for me is the sequels to Ken Sullivan's Anne of Green Gables. The original 1987 one based on the first book is so close to perfect! I love it so! And then the second two just abandon the canon! (Well, they steal some stuff from Anne of Windy Poplars, which is one of the weakest of all the books! I find it inexplicable!) I would give anything for a really good adaptation of, say, Anne of the Island--Anne and her girlfriends at college!!!!! I want it!!!!

I am also tempted to put the Dublin Murder Squad series on here. The first book was adapted, and I really liked who they cast as Cassie, but...I got bored with it? And didn't finish it? And yet I would looooove to see The Likeness as a mini-series! But only made by the right team!

For question three, the most obvious answer is most of Faulkner. People keep trying to adapt his most stream-of-consciousness novels, and...it doesn't work! Sorry! You can't make The Sound and the Fury or Absalom! Absalom! work! You miiiiight get away with something like Sanctuary, but even that would be a stretch.

Till We Have Faces also wouldn't work! I just don't think Orual's thoughts, which are the whole book, would translate to voice-over. It would feel heavy-handed and clunky.

I think mostly Code Name Verity would make a fantastic short series, but the central "twist" would be almost impossible to pull off in a visual format, so I'm not sure it would actually work, though I'm interested in whether y'all think it would.

Comments

[evewithanapple]

1. The Lions of al-Rassan. I think the sheer scope of the book would get lost in a movie - they'd have to cut too much - but a limited series would give the plot more space to breathe. For a long time I wanted Emanuelle Chriqui as Jehane, but she's aged out now. I still really want Marwan Kenzari as Ammar.

2. I breathe absolute fire whenever I remember the mess they made of Women of the Otherworld. I don't think they ever really cared to adapt the books so much as they wanted an existing name to slap on what was functionally an original series, but they strip mined just enough from the books to make me furious about what they changed. Whitewashing one of the leads was the thing that pissed me off the most, but they also screwed the author over - they optioned just the werewolf books, they added characters from other books and when she said "um, excuse me?" the excuse they gave was that these characters had appeared in crossover books, so they technically were within the terms of their agreement. COINCIDENTALLY, not only did this involve casting a skinny woman as a character who's consistently described as chubby in the books, it also meant that her canon love interest (not white) was excluded, and they hooked her up with a white character instead. FUNNY HOW THAT HAPPENS.

3. You know, I'm not sure - recently it was announced that KJ Charles's The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal had been optioned for TV, and the reason that specific title was selected out of all her books is because it lends itself best to a serialized format. Definitely some of her books are too No Plot, Just Vibes for TV - I love Band Sinister, but it would not be able to sustain multiple episodes - and even my personal favourite, Think of England, is probably too static to spread across a whole show. It could make a great movie, though.

[duskpeterson]

"The Lions of al-Rassan."

Yes! And Tigana!

"recently it was announced that KJ Charles's The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal had been optioned for TV"

Oh, my. I've lived to see the day when m/m romance gets optioned.

[lirazel]

Lions would be so fun! I still think Chriqui could take the part--if 27 years old can play high schoolers, why shouldn't she? And Kenzari is a great idea--I'd always wanted Riz Ahmed, but that's contributing to the problem of Desi actors playing Arab roles instead of letting actual Arabs play Arab roles, so your idea is much better.

I don't think they ever really cared to adapt the books so much as they wanted an existing name to slap on what was functionally an original series, but they strip mined just enough from the books to make me furious about what they changed.

I hate this so much!!!!

Sometimes people don't seem able to tell the difference between what should be adapted to film and what should be adapted to TV.

[likeadeuce]

Oof I watched the first season of 'Bitten' and liked it well enough for what it was but I saw what a messthey made bringing Paige in and did not care to stick with it!