A running list comparing TV shows and movies to the book(s) they're based on

I've always enjoyed reading books that I knew had a movie or TV show adaptation. It's fun to see how others choose to present and tell a story that you have your own mental image of. I've kept reading, and studios have kept producing and I thought it would be fun to keep track. So this is my running list of thoughts on how well the source material was adapted. I will update whenever I've seen anything I've read or vice versa.

If there are books out there with good adaptations you think I should read and watch? Let me know!

Dark Matter

Pretty good! It's been a while since I read the book, long enough to have been surprised by the plot twists I had forgotten about. It's a good show, good set of actors too, and it sticks to the main points of the book. No complaints. Show and book recommended. Begin with either.

Foundation

It has been said that it's impossible to film these books. It's a complicated set of books. But impossible, I think not. But this adaptation, even though it's visually grand, is hell bent on keeping a set of "main characters" around, when the source material basically only have one single character that keeps returning. That demands some real shuffling around and serious creative manipulation of the source material. And that is exactly what they have done. And it's a mess, I think. You're constantly struggling to match what you see with what you know from the books, and fail. At times I think this show is better suited to people who've never read the book. That will at least lessen the distraction. Because even though surely 80 % of everything in the show is based on the book, it's simply reusing elements to tell a largely different story, which creates a disconnect. I don't know a whole lot of others who've read the book, would love to hear others take on this.

Silo

Wool is the original title of this first book in the series. But they all revolve around a silo, so I don't mind the more clear cut name. It's largely a good representation of the book. It has all the main components, and somehow an extra bonus that it visually appears about the same as I imagined it. That's never a given. Where I do however think it's lacking, is that it's playing the grand mystery of the silo and the people in it much like a cat-and-mouse challenge-slash-crime-of-the-week. It makes it all feel... smaller, somehow. Like the straight-to-DVD version of a blockbuster, if I make any sense. Also, I get all itchy when supposedly smart people do dumb things, and this show is full of it, to increase drama. It's off-putting!

That said, it's a fairly good thriller tv show. The books are much better, and I'm looking forward to how they'll address the next two books. Looking forward to see it play out! Great book, decent show. Definitely read book first if you can.

The Power

When teenage girls around the world suddenly develop the ability to emit electric shocks, the global balance of power between genders is violently upended (aka primarily: men lose their shit).

This show was excellent! It's a fair adaptation, it sticks very close to the book in terms of story and style. The only problem is that they didn't get to finish the whole story, only like two thirds of it. And the show is supposedly cancelled so you're left to the book to learn how it all goes down. Still worth a watch though.

Three Body Problem

This book, or rather the trilogy, is my favorite sci fi book series of all time. So a TV show will likely not be able to meet or exceed my expectations both on that ground, but also due to the scale of this story: It traverses universe, dimensions and time. Not spoiler free, but not at all spoiling it. Call it a teaser: When a signal from Earth reaches an alien world, humanity learns it’s been marked for invasion. But the attackers won’t arrive for centuries, leaving science, faith, and civilization to slowly unravel under the weight of knowing what’s coming.

There are two TV shows in existence. One made in China, called Three-Body, covering only the first book. And one Western one called 3 Body Problem,

Three-Body is a Chinese TV production focused on the first book. I've only seen about 10 episodes of it and while it sticks very true to the first book (which is the book possibly easiest to film), it's rather slow. They spread that story over 30 episodes and that's too much runtime. My plan is to see them all, but it's simply not very inspiring when I expect the rest to be similarly paced.

3 Body Problem however, a Netflix product, has higher pacing, and takes a whole lot of freedom with the source material. Most of it I'm fine with, the combine a few people, shift things and places around, pick things from the second and third book into the first season elegantly to make the story coherent. You get the sense the showrunners are really loving the source material, but they seem to have missed the mark of making intellectual TV visually appealing. I believe these people has a background in Game of Thrones, so they should be familiar with striking visuals. While the show fires on all cylinders to cover the story, the settings feel very uninspired, and doesn't properly align with the content. Mostly this annoys me because the way to secure your job with more seasons, is to make your first season memorable. And while the story is very unique and memorable, the visual style of this series doesn't match it at all. Now, it seems the show was renewed for another season, which is good news. Because if they're moving into book 2 or 3 next, there's no way the shows visual can't be one of their highest priorities. So, my expectations are high for what's coming. As most times, I recommend reading all the books before seeing anything.

Divergent

If memory serves me well, this series of TA books came out around the time Hunger Games were peaking. They are almost written to be filmed, and filmed they were. The first film is very very closely adapted to the book. However, I found the book quite average, and as a result, the movie is just as average. But if you did like the book, you should ideally enjoy this movie. Sources tell me that the movie adaptations of the rest of the books are not following the source material as closely, but I don't know if that has made them better or worse movies. I'll have to get back to you on that.

The Martian

Fun book, lovely tone of voice, inspired writing. And it translated almost perfectly to movie. Great work by everyone involved. I'd read the book first, but you'd do fine either way.

Ready Player One

A book aimed squarely at my age bracket (born in the 80'ies). A fun read in and about virtual reality, that is a bit more of a mystery than the movie counterpart. I feel Spielberg took a few too many unnecessary liberties with the source material. What was on the pages seems pretty easy to make into a movie, and the bits that was removed or sometimes completely replaced with fabricated content, didn't actually improve on the source material. That seems like a waste of time and an easy way to annoy fans.

Wayward Pines

This book is excellent, Blake is a great writer. About a man that wakes up in a town without knowing how he got there. And everything and everyone feels wrong, and it seems difficult to leave this town. It's an awesome read, and it has translated perfectly into a TV show. But here comes the warning. Well, two warnings. See only season 1, avoid season 2 at all costs. Season 1 is based on the book. Season 2 is based on... I don't know, it's a mess and a travesty. Season 1 is so strong and nails the story and vibe of the book perfectly. I don't know what happened. And the second warning; no googling. Don't spoil this book or show. Just get started with either.

Seen, read but not written about yet

• Hunger Games
• The Lovely Bones
• Time Traveller's Wife (The Movie)
• Time Traveller's Wife (The TV show)
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