silverusagi

This is a very, very, very loose adaption, and I am not happy about it, lol.

I am going to be one of those annoying people who loves a book and then hates the TV series/movie because they changed too much. It’s not so much that little details matter, but that when you strip enough of them away (plot wise, theme wise, tone wise), you eventually end up with something else that doesn’t share much with the thing. This could have been such a cool adaptation, but it just ended up being a show about characters with the same names who go to magic school and have a vague connection to a magic land. It took something interesting and turned it into a teen drama. And you know what, when I saw that Sera Gamble was a creator/producer, I thought, “Well, that explains it.”

To be fair, I have only watched two episodes, but they so annoyed me that I can’t imagine the rest of the series improving or winning me over. Here’s what annoyed me. I don’t think there are any spoilers for the books in here, just me saying ‘this wasn’t like that!!’

I just read the books, but I do not remember anything about Quentin being in a mental institution at any time. Oh well. Minor thing.

I don’t care for Dean Fogg and Jane Chatwin’s ominous talk in the cold open. Dean Fogg was CLUELESS about Fillory, and there was no grand plan by multiple parties to get Quentin there. I kind of also don’t like Quentin seeing Jane in a dream? I mean, in the books it was always obvious that Fillory was real, but it was such a REVELATION for Quentin when he found that out, and that was well after he had graduated. I hate that the show is framing Quentin as being at the center of some great cosmic thing from day one, when the thing in the books was Quentin getting good enough to stumble across the adventure on his own.

They cut the number of Chatwins, but that’s understandable. What is not understandable is aging them up. The whole point of the Fillory books was childhood adventure, which made the contrasting reality all the more different. It’s a Narnia analog! Keep the Chatwins children! That makes it all the more contrasting when Quentin and Co. go there as adults.

Eliot and Alice are here, but I don’t remember some of these other underclassmen at all. And Quentin didn’t have a roommate, even if the roommate is Penny. I realize this is a small detail to get hung up on, but I feel like the show is trying to hard to feel like a teen show, which has more emphasis on the school setting, and more emphasis on partying and atmospheric shots of people just hanging around doing nothing. But back to the characters. Are Janet and Josh even a thing in the show? I suppose we’re limited by the (stupid) TV format of following a certain set of characters from beginning to end, whereas in the books Quentin doesn’t really fall into his ‘set’ until his third year or so. People in his class aren’t the ones he ends up with eventually. Besides Eliot, who of course he met on the first day. Also, the interior of Brakebills feels WAY too modern. And everyone wears modern cool clothes, instead of the school uniform.

I have no problem with Julia’s story unfolding as Quentin’s does, as it only makes sense, but I do dislike the fact that Quentin already knows in the first episode about her? Him seeing Julia again when he saw her in the books was a big freaking deal. Also, Julia’s journey to magic came really easily on the show, comparatively.

And The Beast shows up in the first episode?!? Really?? I can’t decide if we’re speeding up the timeline here for good or bad. It just doesn’t have the same impact.

Of course the Physical Kids’ cottage is open to just whoever.

And Quentin never got expelled or almost expelled, or sent to see a specialist at the school after a problem. This is just drama for drama’s sake.

Marina is also a totally new character. I like Kacey Rohl, but of course she’s playing a bitch, because a stereotypical character is just what this show needs.

I don’t know. Like I said, I know small details have to be changed for TV, but change so much and it just becomes a different thing. I am going to continue watching, but I don't have the energy (and I don't want) to continue writing what annoyed me episode by episode. And things will annoy me, because I'm not sure I can divorce the books from the show. Time will tell, but I also suspect that the show, if I had come into it on its own, would be something I would watch once and then forget about. It would probably be just another show for me, not something that I seriously get into. Because so far, there's nothing gripping about it. Also, I'm super glad I read the books first, because this would definitely be something I would have a hard time getting into if I had this image of TV Brakebills burned into my brain. I also wouldn't have watched the TV series and thought 'wow, I should check out the books!'