In the golden age of television, adapting books into shows or miniseries has become highly common, though many don’t end up as good as their source material. “Book vs Movie” arguments have always been prevalent for stories like Harry Potter. In cases like Fight Club or The Godfather, the film adaptations are often considered to be better, having added something to their original stories. With developments in the television medium, the longer format has become preferable for many novel adaptations, particularly for fantasy or sci-fi that require more detail, resulting in the same debates ensuing.
Adaptation is tricky, as many novels don’t translate seamlessly onto the screen. Show creators are left with challenging decisions about what changes must be made to fit the TV medium better. Any number of things can throw off the adaptation in production, from casting to directing to not having the budget to adapt the text faithfully. It’s important to note that just because the book is better doesn’t necessarily mean the show is bad. Whether one prefers the Harry Potter books or films, both are beloved, and the same can be said for shows like The Handmaid’s Tale.
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10 Game Of Thrones (2011-2019)
Based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels.
HBO’s version of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series is the most famous novel to television adaptation. In large part due to the show’s careless and ineffective ending, the novels still reign supreme. While a case could be made that the show at least has an ending, the depth and scale of Martin’s books have always been better. Season 1 is as close an adaptation as possible, but by season 5, the series began to decline in quality by leaving out or mishandling vital book narratives.
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9 The Witcher (2019-)
Based on Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher novels.
Another large-scale fantasy TV show based on a book series is Netflix’s The Witcher. Andrzej Sapkowski’s novels were beloved even before their video game adaptations, which vastly expanded their notoriety. The Witcher was a TV show that seemed too big to fail, yet straying too far from the source material has led the series downhill. The books are easily accessible and not too dense or expansive for fantasy, making them far more worthwhile than the TV series.
8 The Rings Of Power (2022-)
Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings novels.
Based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, The Rings of Power is a loose adaptation of the events of the Second Age of Middle Earth. While there’s no direct book adaptation for the series, which takes many creative liberties, The Silmarillion and edited Tolkien collections like The Fall of Númenor are primarily the source material for the show. Prime Video’s The Rings of Power attempts to capture the poetic language of Tolkien, but the character work is far short of anything in The Lord of the Rings novels.
7 The Handmaid’s Tale (2017-)
Based on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.
Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale is excellent, with five seasons based on the book by Margaret Atwood. Given that the novel is relatively short, the TV series expands it with detail and world-building, which has worked well for its longevity and commercial appeal. However, one of the most alluring aspects of Atwood’s novel is the element of mystery and obscurity. The infrequent details and element of confusion expertly plant the reader in Ofred’s shoes, allowing the reader to understand the character better.
6 The Wheel Of Time (2021-)
Based on Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time novels.
Fantasy TV shows are really hard to adapt, and The Wheel of Time is another attempt at bringing beloved books to life that hasn’t panned out as well as readers hoped. Robert Jordan’s novels are widely considered among the most incredible fantasy series ever written, with a wealth of unrivaled detail and world-building. Compared to such a masterful work, the TV series’ stunted pacing, disregard for certain storylines, and mediocre visuals have been a disappointment.
5 Foundation (2021-)
Based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels.
The Apple TV+ adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s classic Foundation novels made vast improvements in season 2 and is worth watching for fans of the sci-fi genre. Given how extensive Asimov’s stories are, it’s an ambitious show that does a respectable job with a challenging adaptation. In terms of a character-driven narrative, David S. Goyer’s Foundation series is an improvement over the books, with characters like Cleon, Gaal, and Demerzel being more developed than their brief novel counterparts. The series only falls short in its tonal consistency and grand thematic scope, which is a large part of Asimov’s artistic accomplishment.
4 All The Light We Cannot See (2023)
Based on Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See.
A more recent TV show that struggled to compare to a popular book is Netflix’s war miniseries All the Light We Cannot See. Based on Anthony Doerr’s novel, the series was one of the best 2023 Netflix shows despite a negative Rotten Tomatoes score. Compared to the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, the series makes narrative departures in hopes of a more hopeful ending to appeal to more mainstream audiences. The powerful, bleak ending is a massive part of what made the novel so effective, and many other changes weakened the TV show in comparison.
3 Great Expectations (2023)
Based on Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations.
There have been dozens of Charles Dickens adaptations in film and television, with the 2023 BBC series being the most recent. Despite being developed by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Great Expectations was a poorly received miniseries. The novel is a classic tale, and the 2023 TV version was considered far too dark. Despite excellent performances from Olivia Colman and Fiona Whitehead, Great Expectations is a recent example of the 1861 book still being the best option.
2 The Stand (2020)
Based on Stephen King’s The Stand.
Like with Charles Dickens, Stephen King adaptations have been hit or miss. CBS developed an adaptation of The Stand in 2020 with an unbelievable cast that should’ve guaranteed a hit, given the expert source material. The pacing and story structure struggled in the TV medium, partially due to unnecessary added subplots. Many Stephen King adaptations, like The Dark Tower and It, have trimmed down details from his expansive stories, but The Stand is by far one of the worst, changing the source material to be almost unrecognizable.
1 The Fall Of The House Of Usher (2023)
Based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe.
Mike Flanagan has been an enormous asset to Netflix, delivering horror miniseries for the Halloween season every year. His 2023 series, The Fall of the House of Usher, is based on Edgar Allan Poe’s short story of the same name but also incorporates several of the author’s other works. Flanagan does a fine job incorporating the gothic feel of Poe’s fiction into a modern story, making for a faithful dramatic reimagining. Despite the success of the amalgam adaptation, Poe’s stories simply work better as individual tales rather than as an all-encompassing piece.
