Beyond Reality discussion

What TV/movie adaptations of SF/F books have you enjoyed? Which ones didn't translate to the screen very well?

While there were changes from the books, I though The Expanse TV series was fantastic, visually and in terms of good story-telling.

As a rule, I tend to like the books more than the TV shows or movies. I want to say it happened the other way around once, but for the life of me, I can not remember what it was.

With recent experience, I tried watching the first season of The Expanse as I was completing the first book. It did not go well. The characters' attitudes were utterly different from how they were portrayed in the book, partially due to one of the leading tv characters making a different decision from his book counterpart.


Some onscreen changes are nice, though. In True Blood, there was a beloved character who avoided the fate of their counterpart in the Southern Vampire/Sookie Stackhouse book series. Another perk from that show, in particular, was having a visual reference; I didn't watch the entire show, but I pictured the actors in place of the book characters while I continued reading the series.

Ooh, I really liked the Expanse TV series. Although there were definitely changes from the books, the changes generally made sense given the compressed timeline of the series.

Right now, I'm very much enjoying Kindred on Hulu. I didn't really love the book when we read it several years ago, I think because the SciFi aspect is pretty limited (magic time travel). But the TV show helped me remember that it was how the individuals react when thrown into the historic situation that is so compelling.

I believe that if I had come to the show first, I might have enjoyed watching The Expanse, but since I was introduced through the books, the show didn't feel right to me.

As for Kindred, I really liked the book, so I do not want to watch the show.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Potter movies, though. I avoided them for a while, especially Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (as it was my least favorite book in the series). But I enjoyed all of them in the end.

I've enjoyed the Expanse show (we stalled out partway through season 3, not because we weren't liking it but because we needed more brainless entertainment). At first I was taken aback because my mental pictures of the characters didn't match the actors that were cast, but I've come around to everyone except Bobbie (I don't like that casting at all, Bobbie needs to be MUCH more physically imposing than Frankie Adams).

The Harry Potter movies were ok - I thought the first two were wonderful, but as the books got longer and more complicated they had to cut or de-emphasize too many things to fit them into one movie. It's been a long time since I watched them but I do remember liking the later ones better than the middle ones.

No one has mentioned Lord of the Rings yet! I absolutely loved Peter Jackson's adaptations. I did not see the Hobbit movies, because I think it's ridiculous that they turned one small book into three giant films, but the original trilogy was just lovely. I generally want my kids to read a book before seeing the movie made from it, but this trilogy is an exception - the book is a bit dry, and I thought my son would enjoy it more if he already had the more visceral visual experience (we watched the films together during the early days of the pandemic, and it's the current bedtime read with his dad).

There was a fairly awful TV adaptation of Wizard of Earthsea some time back. And I didn't see the newest Dune adaptation, which I heard good things about, but the older ones were just weird. I know, it's a weird book, but still.

Sandman and Good Omens were both extremely well done, probably because Neil Gaiman was involved with both adaptations and would make sure his babies would be treated with respect!

One more classic - you may or may not know that Princess Bride was a book before it was a movie. It's worth a read if you haven't read it yet! And of course the movie is a must-see. I can pretty much recite the whole thing by heart. :)

I have this copy of The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure but have not read it as yet. It has sat on my bookshelf for years; not sure what's stopping me from reading it, though.

I absolutely LOVE the movie, and I name it as one of my top 5 of all time.

I have to log into work now, but I will respond to the rest of your post this evening, Have a beautiful day!

(Posted many of these in another thread as well, here it is again).

Movies-

1) LOTR movies- loved them.

2) The Princess Bride- a bit different from the book, but very nice. Based on the book by William Goldman.

3) The Mist (by Stephen King) was well done, though it's more horror than fantasy.

4) Stalker- Loosely based on the novel 'Roadside Picnic' by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, the direction, and screenplay of the movie is by Andrei Tarkovsky. One of the few cases of an SF film that is loosely based on the source, yet both are amazing in their own way.

TV-
1) Game of Thrones (loved the 1st half, 2nd half was mixed) and
House of the Dragon (which came out this year on HBO). Enjoyed the performances of the actors. Overall the series was well done. The score was great as well, all props to composer Ramin Djawadi.

2) The Last Kingdom (available on Netflix)- a lot of fun, well made, though not many people seem to know about it. It's based on The Saxon Chronicles series by Bernard Cornwell. It's a show I'd recommend, especially for people who enjoy shows set in the medieval time period.

3) The Expanse (available on Amazon Prime)- Enjoyed it, though I have yet to watch the last season. Based on the series by James S.A. Corey.

4) 11.22.63 (I think it's on Amazon Prime and Hulu)- A miniseries based on the novel by Stephen King, enjoyed it, kept me hooked.

5) The Sandman (on Netflix)- Enjoyed the 1st season, I think episodes 5 and 6 were my favorite (especially loved the performance by Devid Thewlis). Based on the graphic novels by Neil Gaiman.

6) The Haunting of Hill House (on Netflix)- Very well done horror. Based on the novel by Shirley Jackson.

7) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (Originally on BBC, I think it's available on Prime now)- Wonderfully adapted mini-series, great acting. Based on the book by Susanna Clarke. The book is quite well known, but the series doesn't seem to be as well known, pretty underrated I think.

8) Love, Death & Robots (on Netflix)- An anthology series of animated short stories that span various genres including science fiction, fantasy, horror, and comedy. Different episodes can have very different tones. Some of the writers whose short stories are included- Peter F. Hamilton, John Scalzi, Alastair Reynolds, Ken Liu, and several more. Also not very well known.

There are probably some I'm forgetting, these are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.

@Shel

The cast of The Expanse didn't match how I envisioned them, either.

I understand what you mean about the Potter movies. I think my time between reading and watching was so distant that it didn't bother me until much later, after the fact. I don't see myself rewatching the movies, but I have only read the series once and would like to reread it at some point. I also want to know if I can choke down Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two (I DNF'd during my first attempt).

I did not mention LoTR because I've not watched any of the movies all the way through. They are BEAUTIFUL, but just too long. And while The Hobbit is my favorite of the series, three movies felt way too much.

I didn't even know there was a TV adaptation of Earthsea, and I watched Dune as a kid, but I have never read the book.

I loved the Lord of the Rings movies and The Hobbit movies—visually stunning and absorbing. Yes, they were long, but I have to say, I was never bored or distracted. And the soundtracks are fantastic, too. My memories are colored by the fact that my dad loved watching these and all the Harry Potter movies (he also loved the books) and we shared watching the movies over and over during his last 12 years alive after my mom died.

The Last Kingdom, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and 11.22.63 are all on my list to watch, although the only one I’ve read so far is 11.22.63.

And yes, I enjoyed The Princess Bride (haven’t read the book) and Good Omens (miniseries and book).

Nyssa wrote: "@Shel

The cast of The Expanse didn't match how I envisioned them, either.

I understand what you mean about the Potter movies. I think my time between reading and watching was so distant that it ..."

I've been revisiting them recently because we are introducing our little one to the series (book first, then watch the movie when we finish). We just finished reading book 3 to her and watched the movie on Friday. It's my favorite of the books and the movie just lacked so much of what made the book great that it was a bit disappointing.

In general I am just not a fan of movies and TV series based upon books and tend to avoid them.

I won't go into ones that I felt were downright bad because it usually leads to me going off into a rant. I will, however, list some where I think the adaptations were well done.

The Sandman (Netflix)
This is downright excellent. There are changes between the comic and the series, but they do not detract from the story. I've mentioned this in another thread, but some of the biggest changes that I noticed were due to removing some of the few references to the rest of the DC universe. Sadly it meant dropping one of my favorite characters (John Constantine) but I can understand the reasoning behind it. And it did mean we got to see more of Lady Johanna Constantine, who took over his role in modern times.

The Sandman (Audio drama on Audible)
This is pretty much as faithful as faithful can be going between the two formats. It also takes place in the late 80s early 90s, which is the time period the comic was set. The Netflix series did move it forward into modern times.

The Witcher series
Another excellent adaptation which draws on both the books as well as the series of games developed by CD Projekt Red.

The one thing that bothered me (really minor spoiler here) (view spoiler)[was Yennifer having her uterus removed when she became a sorceress. Unless my memory is wrong, this did not happen in the books. She cannot have a child because the use of magic eventually burns out the ability to do so. That scene in the TV series seemed a bit over the top and unnecessarily gruesome to me.

Of note, Witchers cannot have children because the use of mutagens and similar during their transformations that makes them Witchers causes them to be sterile.
(hide spoiler)]

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie, etc
This only vaguely followed the previous iterations. I mean there were the same characters and some events, but the story was very different.

So, you might ask, why is this on the list of adaptations I thought were well done? The reasoning is simple. There have been numerous different iterations of the series. It started as a radio series, then books, then a TV show from the BBC, and then the movie. Every single one was significantly different from the others. Due to this, I felt the movie did very well in following the pattern. :)

My one complaint with the movie was its habit of setting up well known jokes from the previous iterations but then leave the punch lines laying on the editing room floor.