The last couple of years have seen a number of books and games that I am fond of converted into movies and television shows. Some have been really good, and some have been somewhat lacking in their results.
Let’s start with one that didn’t do well, and it’s a bit older but a good example of when things don’t sit well. The Dresden files is a series of books about a wizard in Chicago who goes around fighting supernatural forces trying to keep the world from going to hell. It’s not like what you get when reading something like the Wheel of Time or the Lord of the Rings, but it’s fun. The show that came out in 2007 didn’t really have the same type of fun to it and honestly the folks writing the show took a lot of liberties with the materials that I didn’t particularly like.
One of the things about Harry that is interesting is that any time he gets near something high-tech, computers, phones, even electrical lights, he winds up shorting them out. It’s written into the books as just something inherent in his use of magic not playing nice with technology. It’s used as a plot point in a number of places since he can’t use cellphones or computers, and electric lighting isn’t reliable around him. Even in his own home he generally has candles laying around instead of electric lights because of those issues. This point is just missing from the TV series entirely.
As well in the TV series instead of a staff like he carries in the books he’s shown walking around with a hockey stick instead.
All in, I just didn’t enjoy the TV show like I do the books.
However, looking at the Wheel of Time, that’s almost the exact opposite. I’m a huge fan of the books, and when the TV show was announced it was something that I was somewhat worried about since there’s a huge pool of material there over a large number of books.
So when I started watching it I was a bit concerned about how things would be portrayed during the course of the show. And while there are some things that they tinkered with from the base material that didn’t follow the books it was stuff that either I could understand due to the need to compress the timeline and move the story on or were things that where honestly just buried in other aspects that were done really well. Overall I really enjoyed the series and I’m kind of disappointed that they won’t be doing more seasons of it.
Back into side of things that I didn’t like was the adaptation of Halo. It was really well done, the visuals were good, but I didn’t really enjoy it. I think the problem there is that in the game John 117, the Master Chief, is played as a silent protagonist that pretty much walks in and causes havoc for the Convent in many case saving the situation single handedly. Given that we are used to seeing the Chief as a walking god of destruction they would have to have changed things to make for a interesting TV show, but in doing that the people writing things can’t leave the main character as a walking force of nature.
However when you look at what was done with the latest interpretation of Lee Child’s Reacher novels that showed a way better way to handle situations where your main character is basically a walking force of nature.
And the Fallout tv show, I mean that’s about as good as you get for something that’s taking a video game and making it a TV show. It’s good enough that the folks at Bethesda have stated that it’s considered cannon within the Fallout universe.
Realistically with any fandom that has a dedicated following you will find people who will pick apart any adaptation of their beloved material and find fault with it. Personally as long as whatever is being done is being done well and stays inline with the spirit of the original material I’m going to be willing to give it a chance.
Doesn’t mean I’ll like it, but I’ll give it a chance.