METTEL RAY

Thursday Movie Picks Television Edition: Books I Want to be Adapted into a TV Series

A time ago reading was everything I thought about so I read quite a lot of books. Haven’t been reading a lot lately so this theme makes me a little sad. Maybe I’ll pick up a book after this, who knows?! Anyway here are three books that I’ve read in recent years that I think would make great TV series. If done right of course! So three books I want to be adapted into a TV series.

3. THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE 

This was the first book I read in 2021 and having read almost nothing else, it’s probably going to be my favourite of this year. This book written by V. E. Schwab is a historic fantasy book that revolves around an immortal Addie LaRue. Unfortunately her immortality has a price, nobody can remember her.

I liked the way the story unravelled. The fact that her story takes place through many decades would also mean the TV series could explore various arcs. The main story of the book happens in the present day but we get many flashbacks to Addie’s past as well as the male leads past. Oh and both leads are part of the LGBTQ+ community so that’s the kind of representation I want to see in my TV series too.

Unfortunately they are adapting this to be a movie which I think is a mistake. It is one of those books I want to be adapted into a TV series for sure! There’s just… a possibility for such a rich story, a full season worth of character development and it will feel rushed in a movie. Hopefully they wont’ erase the LGBTQ+ aspects of the story… that would be utterly disappointing.

2. CAPTIVE PRINCE

Okay, this one is a bit of a rough one because it has A LOT of red flags. Like it deals with r*pe and s*xual a*use which isn’t for everyone. The author C. S. Pacat explores a relationship between a master and his slave basically and things get… rough and steamy. Oh and it’s very gay.

It’s a trilogy where the first book did not get a lot of love but the follow ups were a little better. The story isn’t completely perfect but I think for a TV series adaptation that’s actually a good thing. While the books focus heavily on the relationship there are themes of political intrigue woven in and war as well.

So I mean there’s room for interpretation but like the toxic main couple story would be fascinating to explore. At least I think so. Oh and this would fit into HBO in my opinion, that sort of Game of Thrones type way. I wish they’d ditch the prequels and what nots and tried their luck with this one instead.

1. CEMETERY BOYS

Have you figured out the theme within the theme yet? Well if it’s not obvious I’ve picked three books with a queer element to be adapted into TV series. Cemetery Boys is the most special in this list because the main character is a trans man. As is the author of the book Aiden Thomas.

Cemetery Boys itself takes place in a Mexican community. And basically the lead character has summoned a ghost and is now stuck with it. It’s a very well crafted standalone book that has many great elements deserving of a TV series. I wouldn’t think it will work as a multiple season series but a solid mini-series would be wonderful! Or maybe each season focuses on a different character of the same universe, that would be cool too.

As for diverse stories – we need more of them not just in books but also on TV and in movies. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, it doesn’t have to be flashy and GOT level grand but like.. done well and done with passion. It’s these kind of books I want to be adapted into a TV series all day every day. Anyway, these are my picks. Have you read any of these books or would you want to?

THIS SERIES IS CREATED BY WANDERING THROUGH THE SHELVES

 

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Thursday Movie Picks 2020

3 responses to “Thursday Movie Picks Television Edition: Books I Want to be Adapted into a TV Series”

  1. Brittani Avatar
    Brittani

    This is the second time i’ve seen Addie Larue picked, I need to check this out! Cemetery Boys sounds interesting too.

    Reply
  2. Sara Avatar
    Sara

    I read Addie LaRue for my book club two months ago and enjoyed it a lot. I thought I heard it may become a movie but I think a series would work so much better.

    Reply
  3. Joel Avatar
    Joel

    Interesting choices, all new to me. I’m most intrigued by the first and have already added it to my (very long) Goodreads to read list. The second doesn’t sound like my thing but I’ll have to research the last and read a couple of reviews.

    Film can be an effective medium for some books and others if only a segment is focused on such as it was in East of Eden but if the whole sprawling story is to be told it needs the expanded vision of a miniseries, again as it was when the entirety of East of Eden was told that way in the 80’s very successfully. I think the three I came up with would benefit from that more detailed adaptation.

    The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley: In Illinois of the mid-1850’s clever, fiercely independent Lidie (Lydia), only 20 but already considered a spinster by her sisters, marries abolitionist Thomas Newton after a very brief courtship and departs for the wild and wooly Kansas Territory. Upon arrival they find a place on the verge of statehood but with hostilities erupting between the “free-state” abolitionists and Missouri’s pro-slavery factions. As a rough and tumble frontier confronts the pair in “Bleeding Kansas” Lidie becomes immersed in the societal, political, psychological, ethical, and economic conditions that led to the violent conflicts while both trying to find her place in the world and survive the tumult.

    The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley: Time: summer of 1950. Place: the once grand English mansion Buckshaw. 11-year-old Flavia de Luce, lover of everything to do with chemistry and a passion for poison but zero patience for older sisters Ophelia and Daphne who she sees as twits, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird found on the doorstep, a postage stamp pinned to its beak, followed shortly afterward by finding a dying man lying in the cucumber patch. Flavia, both appalled and delighted, turns instant sleuth. Atop her trusty if ramshackle bicycle “Gladys” she starts searching for clues but starts to worry when the trail seems to point in an unwanted direction. First in a series of adventures featuring Flavia, followed by The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag and 8 others, this could be a great comic mystery miniseries.

    Mrs. Adams in Winter by Michael O’Brien: In 1797 English born Louisa Johnson married rising politician and future sixth president, the brilliant but difficult, John Quincy Adams and took up life as a diplomat’s wife in far flung locales. In the winter of 1815, Louisa left the Russian city of St. Petersburg with her 7-year-old son Charles to travel via coach to Paris, nearly 2000 miles away across a Europe dangerously torn from the aftermath of Napoleon’s defeat and exile. In the 40 days it took her to reach Paris she learns to arrange her own affairs, loses babies to illness and miscarriage and graces the highest courts in Europe as the wife of the American ambassador meeting Russian Czars, Prussian Kings, British Princes and Rhineland Electors. Based on her personal diaries, letters and essays.

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