Top Ten Tuesday – TV Shows

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by The Broke and The Bookish. This week’s theme is TV Shows, so I’m going to try and list TV adaptations of books. I thought this would be quite easy, but I’ve actually only come up with three. I watch quite a lot of TV, but I’m more of a documentary person than a TV series person. I also watch  lot of BBC original dramas, so that doesn’t help.

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Birdsong 

I read the book for A Level English Lit, when we were doing war literature, and while I really enjoyed the battle scenes, the rest fell a bit flat. I found it too long winded and confusing. I did however, absolutely love the TV adaptation starring Eddie Redmayne and Clemence Posey. With it only being across three episodes, it really quickened the slow pace of the book, and managed to keep me interested!

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The Night Manager 

I haven’t actually read the book, but I’ve not heard great things. I can imagine it being really complicated and heavy going. The recent BBC Tv adaptation, however, was great. Brilliantly acted by Tom Hiddleston, Olivia Colman and Hugh Laurie, among many others, it was the perfect exciting Sunday night viewing. It goes without saying, that I also enjoyed Tom Hiddleston in general.

 

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Sherlock

I can’t do a category like this and not mention Sherlock. I’ve got to admit that I’ve not read any of the Sherlock Holmes books, or seen any other TV/film adaptation as far as I can remember. The old fashioned detective thing never really appealed to me, but I think that’s what makes Sherlock so good. It’s modern, but it hasn’t been done in a tacky way. I just love how brilliantly clever it is and eagerly await the next series.

 

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The Casual Vacancy

I’ve included this because it’s the only other TV adaptation that I can think of. I managed to get as far through this adaptation as I did the book itself. Not very far at all. The story is just so complicated, and so lacking in any form of excitement, that I gave up on both. I thought it might be a bit easier to follow on TV, but it really wasn’t. I feel as if J. K. Rowling was just trying to go as far away from Harry Potter as humanly possible with this book and fell flat. It’s a shame because her Cormoran Strike series is great.

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A Series of Unfortunate Events

Finally, I’ve got to mention how excited I am for the Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events. I loved the film, and was so disappointed that they didn’t make any more, so this TV series will hopefully go through the whole thirteen books. It’s been a good ten years since I last read the books, so I’m really looking forward to reliving them. Also, Neil Patrick Harris is going to be amazing. (P.S. I couldn’t find a picture of the new series!)

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So that was only five, rather than ten, but it’s the best I could do! I’m looking forward to seeing everyone else’s lists so I can broaden my TV adaptation repertoire.