It’s not usually cool to throw your weight behind TV and film adaptations rather than the book series they’re based on. And, yeah, sure, they wouldn’t have existed if the book(s) hadn’t existed first, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some TV adaptations that are indeed better than the books they were based on — not necessarily because the books were bad, either, but because literature is not an inherently superior storytelling form to television and we need to stop pretending that it is.
Just as film was initially treated as artistically inferior to theater, and TV was initially treated as artistically inferior to film, it is also unhelpful to make blanket statements about the superiority of an entire medium over another. There are (mostly) objectively good books and there are (mostly) objectively bad books. There are (mostly) objectively good TV shows and there are (mostly) objectively bad TV shows. And there are things that TV can do as a storytelling medium that film and/or novels cannot, and vice versa.
With that in mind, here are 11 television adaptations that were absolutely just as good (if not better than) the books they were originally based on.
Sure,The 100has taken some narrative stumbles in its third season, but it is still one of the most ambitious, topical shows on TV. The CW series about humans trying to survive 100 years after a nuclear war killed (almost) everyone on Earth is great, but the TV show is just so much better. It breaks free of the dystopia conventions so many young adult stories of the post-Hunger Gamesera have fallen into, and forges a path of its own. In addition to some major plot difference,The 100book series cares way more thematically about romance than the TV show does, which is primarily concerned with issues of survival and morality. In so many ways,The 100picked up the science fiction as political allegory torchBattlestar Galacticadropped a few years ago, and it hasn’t stopped running since.
This was a hard one to include on this list because theOutlanderbook series written by Diana Gabaldon issoaddicting, but that just proves how great the TV show it’s based on has done in its first season (its second season premieres this coming weekend). Helmed by Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) with music from Bear McCreary and filmed in Scotland,Outlanderis gorgeous to look at (seriously, the costuming and production department for this show deserves all the love), beautifully acted, and totally refreshing amidst the TV landscape.
And that last point is whereOutlanderthe TV series really pulls ahead because, while the female-centric, romance-driven nature of this time travel drama is something we can find many examples of (although not all ofOutlander’s quality) in publishing where the romance genre is one of the most lucrative, it is much harder to find female-centric, romance-driven TV —especiallywith a science fiction twist.Outlanderfeels like nothing else on TV, and it doesn’t make us choose between subjugating the female characters of the world to damsels in distress and some good, old-fashioned romance. More TV like this, please.
Game of Thrones
Game of Thronesmay be the TV show adaptation that the most people talk about in relation to the books. Fans of the book series are constantly comparing the TV adaptation to the books, usually in terms of plot details. Context: I read the first three books before the TV show started, then decided to stop reading the books because I didn’t want to be spoiled for the TV show. This may be a controversial move, but, for me, the shifting narrator structure of the story workssomuch better on TV. In book form, I found myself being constantly pulled out of the story by the transitioning perspective. In the TV form, I didn’t have that problem.
Again, this is entirely subjective (and, feel free to tell your friend with the pushiest, non-contextualized pop culture recommendations this, but:so is taste in general), but parallel editing — a.k.a. the editing technique of two or more scenes that often happen simultaneously, but in different locations — is a wonderful thing. It’s also one of the chief strengths of the film and TV forms, in my opinion, and the reason why TV and film shows deserve about one million percent more montages. (Has anyone else noticed that the montage has gone out of style?) It’s a lot harder to create this parallel editing effect without the visual element front and center, but it is great for creating thematic parallels across storylines, and one of the things that givesGame of Thronesthe TV show the narrative edge.
Shannara Chronicles
The Shannara Chronicles, a high-fantasy MTV series based on the Terry BrooksShannarabook series, is not the best show on television, but itisa fun, escapist, big budget fantasy TV show. ThoughGame of Throneshas been met with considerable success, there actually aren’t that many TV series that can match it when it comes to look and fantasy cred.The Shannara Chroniclesis not as good asGame of Thrones, but it is a hell of a lot less stressful to watch. It is also blessed with a pretty big budget for what is essentially a teen-geared, high-fantasy romp through New Zealand. That’s right, it’s filmed in Middle Earth and it stars Slade Wilson. Given that the 26-book-and-counting series that it’s based on is super tropey, obviously owes a lot to Tolkien, and hasn’t really stood the test of time, it’s these sorts of pros that make the TV series better than the book series within the modern context. Come at me, book purists.
Pretty Little Liars
Pretty Little Liarshas fallen in the ratings in its sixth season, but it is still one of the most-tweeted about shows on television and much-obsessed about amongst The Youngs. In its many seasons, it has shown just how hungry the American TV audience is for series with young, flawed, multidimensional women as its fully-formed main characters.Pretty Little Liarsexcels as a TV series, in spite of its ridiculous ongoing premise, because it has some of the best characterization on TV in its four witty, beautiful protagonists.
In the midst of secret twin plots and a creepy doll collection your nightmares probably covet,Pretty Little Liarsis grounded by female friendship rather than romance. It is also incredibly aware of the horror genre, making constant references to Hitchcock films. Furthermore, because of its incredible success, it has been able to take weird artistic risks — like an entire film-noir-inspired black-and-white episode.Pretty Little Liarsis definitely not for everyone, but it has surpassed the (also good, incredibly successful) Sara Shepard book series on which it is based to become a pop culture phenomenon.
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
If you’ve never watched this Australian drama period about a lady detective (currently available to stream on Netflix), then you are seriously missing out.Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysterieshas the style ofDownton Abbey, the unapologetic feminism ofAgent Carter, and the found family elements of your favorite Joss Whedon drama. Though the Kerry Greenwood book series on which the TV show is based is also a lot of fun, the TV show ages the central character up 15 years or so — from her 20s to her late 30s/early 40s — giving us a slightly older female archetype than we are used to seeing on TV, and it is gloriously liberating. Miss Fisher is an independently wealthy woman who has no desire to marry or settle down, but instead spends her time bedding handsome men, helping those without the means to do so themselves, and solving murders. Miss Fisher’s life is full of joy, love, and meaning — an alternative to the cultural narrative that says women who don’t settle down and have kids are worth inherently less than women who do. Miss Fisher is James Bond or Sherlock Holmes, but well-adjusted, empathetic, and socially-conscious, which is to say so much better. She is a much-needed kind of pop culture archetype.
In the hands of master storytellers (and futureStar Trekshowrunner) Bryan Fuller, the story of Hannibal Lecter becomes a visually-stunning treatise into the psychologically-dizzying question of what makes people tick. Fans of the Thomas Harris books or the Anthony Hopkins movies might balk at calling theHannibalTV series the best of the bunch, but they shouldn’t. It is truly a masterpiece. Fuller’s decision to (no doubt partially necessitated by rights issues) by and large set the series before the events ofRed DragongaveHannibalthe narrative freedom to focus on the endlessly fascinating relationship between FBI profiler Will Graham and his psychologist/friend Hannibal Lecter. Their increasingly-intense relationship is weird, all-consuming, and oh-so-passionate, and it makes for one of the best, most dysfunctional loves stories in the history of TV.
Gossip Girl
Like so many soap operas, the plot-churning melodrama ofGossip Girlwas narratively unsustainable, but, in its first few seasons, it was one of the best shows on television — proof that well-written adaptations of fluffy source material can yield wonderful results. Taking as its focus the ridiculously wealthy yet endlessly damaged residents of the Upper East Side just as the global recession was taking hold,Gossip Girlwalked that fine line between loving and challenging its characters. Blair, Dan, and Serena were terrible much of the time, but they were still worth saving — at least for the first few seasons. Past its character-driven loveliness,Gossip Girlalso happened to be one of the only shows on TV (in addition toPretty Little Liars) that dared to incorporate smart phone culture in any real way, with an anonymous antagonist spying on and making public the central characters’ secrets. Even after the show’s drama started to get redundant and absurd,Gossip Girlremained one of the wittiest, most self-aware shows on the airwaves.
Many naysayers may dismissRoswellthe TV show as a silly teen romance, but the alien drama had some of the best TV storytellers of the modern era behind the scenes — Jason Katims (Friday Night Lights) and Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) — imbuing both its romance and science fiction elements with depth, nuance, and (at the show’s peak) an incredible sense of stakes. Based on theRoswell Highbook series by Melinda Metz, the showtook the basic premise of the novels — survivors of the Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash try to keep their alien nature secret while navigating high school and adolescence — and added some stellar characterization (TV’s specialty, when done right). From the show’s perfectly-realized claustrophobic, yet cozy small town ambience (at least in the first two seasons) to the lovingly-realized characters to the cast filled with burgeoning and more seasoned stars (from Katherine Heigl and Shiri Appleby to William Sadler),Roswellwas something special.
The Vampire Diaries
Though many people thinkThe Vampire DiariesTV show started off merely as aTwilightknockoff, it is actually based on a book series by L.J. Smith launched in the 90s and — though the book series is a fun supernatural story — it comes nowhere near reaching the narrative heights of the TV series. ThoughThe Vampire DiariesTV show is decidedly past its prime, at its height, this show was so much more than a supernatural love triangle between a human and two vampire bros (though, it was that, too), but a treatise on how death and mortality shape us — both our own death, and the deaths of people we love. At its center, it has a thinking, feeling, often failing female protagonist, surrounded by the people she loves and who love her. In the way thatThe 100is very much a successor toBattlestar Galactica,The Vampire Diariesis very much a successor toBuffy the Vampire Slayer. Sure, that means it recycles a lot of the same tropes and situations, but they are still female-centric, found family horror stories that aren’t nearly common enough on TV. As writer Kelly Link put it ina wonderful interview with Giganticabout vampire drama: “I’m no longer watching television in which middle-aged men figure out how to be men. I’d rather watch shows about teenaged girls figuring out what it means to be a monster.”
