TV Tuesday: New Look

[yourlibrarian]

Have you seen comics or video game adaptations you found well done? What about them worked for you? Or if they didn't, how did the shows fall short?

Comments

[jo]

I have seen plenty of (mostly) films but also TV shows that were adaptations of either graphic novels or comics or video games. However, it is impossible for me to say if they were well done because I do not read graphic novels/comics or play the type of video games that get adapted to other media. So I always have, at best only a fleeting knowledge of the source material -- usually because it might be a video game that my husband has played and I've observed some of his game play -- but that's about it. Some I've enjoyed very much, others not so much, but for the same reasons I enjoy/don't enjoy any show, not because of anything relating to the source material.

[yourlibrarian]

This is one of the same issues I have in answering this question -- I've rarely read comics or graphic novels and my video game playing is very limited.

That said, I do find it interesting to read people's posts when they talk about what was and wasn't included in an adaptation. Sometimes it makes sense on a practical level (scope/cost issues), and other times it's interesting to speculate on what storytelling reasons compelled them to leave something out or add something in.

For example, I have to assume that video games and comics are different in terms of "how much story" there is to adapt. I've always thought that books are better adapted on TV than in a film because there is generally a lot of plot which may get compressed and there is less time for character development in a film. I suppose some video games though have a lot of characters and storylines.

[delphi]

I thought the Essex County adaptation a couple of years ago was fantastic. Adapting the graphic novel(s) as a miniseries definitely helped, since it gave them a flexibility with the shape of the story - not having to stretch it out into something more episodic or cut away parts of it to reduce it to a movie, going instead with five episodes. While it didn't shoot in Essex County itself, it did film in Ontario and really brought that sense of place to life.

And while it was cancelled before its time, I really enjoyed the first season of Stumptown! I think the mixed serialized and episodic nature of the comic, featuring a private investigator who's also dealing with issues on the home front, made it a natural fit for TV.

[yourlibrarian]

I don't think I realized either of those were comics first! Oh wait, I'm confusing that with Essex Serpent.

[rogueslayer452]

For me, "done well" varies as it depends on how well the work is made and how it keeps with the core spirit of the story. Many often deviate from the source material (most often due to limitations and medium differences), but still manage to respect the world the original story came from. Sometimes it can be difficult because some show potential but don't quite get there, which is more frustrating than adaptations that just aren't that great from the jump.

The Last Of Us is kind of an example of both, where the first season was quite a fantastic adaptation of the first game. They made changes and made additions to the story here and there, but for the most part those made sense to the narrative and direction the show was going in that still respected the source material. It was a near perfect example of a video game story adapted to television that I, and many other fans, were pleased with. The second season, however, lost that magic and, personally, made changes that didn't make much narrative sense and ruined the storytelling flow. It only told half the story of the second game, so perhaps things might make up for it later on when they complete the story in the second (and possibly third?) season. But it took a disappointing nosedive from the quality of the first season.

Essentially, it's all subjective. In general, I'd say that adaptations of video game or comic books don't have to be a direct copy, I expect deviations and changes, but the creators/writers have to have knowledge of and show respect to the source material and demonstrate this by carefully constructing the story the best they can without attempting to act like their version of the story is better.

[yourlibrarian]

That makes sense to me. I generally expect an adaptation to have changes but how and why those are made can be worlds apart in different projects.

[dirty_diana]

Hawkeye! A ton of visuals were directly borrowed from a specific comic run, so then you have to think about the fact the writer and artist weren't really paid for that. Marvel, ugh. But as a translation from comic to screen I thought it borrowed all the right parts and integrated them well into the MCU. I liked a lot of things about the adaptation of Runaways, that is a bit more of a vibes-based adaptation but I thought the vibes were good. It made a couple of big changes that ended up going back into the comics.

(There are other MCU TV shows where I enjoy them as TV shows, but I have to dock points as *adaptations* because they're not terribly faithful to the source.)

[yourlibrarian]

Hawkeye was probably my favorite MCU show! I wonder if that's because they were working off of established content.