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List of Best Rated TV Series as voted by the Fediverse
The Expanse
OK, the books are pretty good in themselves but the first few seasons of the show are amazing in storytelling, accuracy wrt their source and adding color through visuals, casting, voices/accents/dialogs... And Thomas Jane is perfect in his role of noir fanboy but also real detective.
edit: just want to make clear that I'm not saying that the books are bad or even worse than the show! I enjoyed both immensely. But rarely is a good book paired with a good show.
The show can see the future, which helps the early seasons a lot. Knowing what happens in the later books allows them to bring stuff forward. A great example of this is in the pilot when Avasarala is torturing a Belter and questioning him about stolen stealth tech. This is a character that doesn't even appear in the first book and it is setting things up that don't become important until book/season 4/5.
The authors being active writers on the show and senior producers on the later seasons also helps. They aren't in charge, which means people with TV experience make the show work, but they keep the voice consistent. Regardless of who is credited as writer on an episode, nearly all Amos stuff in the first two seasons is written by one of the authors so that his mentality would be consistent. Throughout the whole run of the show, pretty much all the formal speeches are written by the other author.
The last thing that really helps them is the drive to be faithful to the story of the source without being slave to it. This leads to many small changes that slot actors they already have into story beats, giving the viewer more connection to what they see. Drummer, for example, is a tiny character in the books but the actress was great so they kept slotting her in instead of having a different Belter for everything. She even erased the existence of a main POV character and took on that role, outlived his role and just kept going. That then leaves his character design available, so he ends up being a major character in season 5, a completely different book.
We can thank Game of Thrones for a lot of that. One of the authors worked for GRRM for a while and was involved in his side of the early seasons of GOT. Even early on when it was well received, GRRM was getting frustrated by the changes the show was making without regard to knock-on effects. When selling the TV rights for Expanse, they fought to be in the room for both writing and production so that they could have a say when decisions were being made as opposed to just being asked for feedback after the fact.
The authors being active writers on the show and senior producers on the later seasons also helps.
Oh, I did not know that. Every movie/show I know where that is the case is a better adaptation and usually quite good.
Also the supreme elevation of Camina Drummer. TV Drummer is the good shit and Cara Gee is fantastic.
But the show is also worse because of the pressure cancellation. They crammed in as much Laconia as they could and it's not bad, but it does feel rushed and incomplete.
Dissenting view, I absolutely loved the books. Couldn't stand the show.
I thought the first season was just OK, but after that it just went off the rails for me. The combining of different narratives from different books, the combining of characters and some of the casting choices just irked me.
Some of the casting was great (Avasarala being the best casting choice IMHO) but others were awful, such as Naomi (again, IMHO).
I'm glad others liked it, and I know I'm in the very small minority, but that's OK.
I still have the books to go back to and re-read for a 4th and 5th time of I want!
MASH
The boys. I found the TV show pretty decent, not great but decent, and the ending was great in comparison to the comics.
I have personally only seen people complaining about the ending. But regardless, I would generally agree.
Yeah same, I laughed with despair at the comics ending though so the TV ending being just ok was excellent by comparison.
Most of the MCU offerings are way better than the comics they're based off. I remember checking out Marvel comics after infinity war came out and my biggest impression is that most of them really aren't worth reading.
Same for their TV shows. Loki and X-Men '97 are pretty good.
This one feels a little unfair since you’re comparing decades of history across dozens of characters, with so many peaks and valleys.
I considered bringing up Batman The Animated Series myself, since I agree with many fans that it’s possibly the best encapsulation of that character overall. But I still feel like the very best Batman comics, like Dark Knight Returns, beat it out as self-contained stories. Also there are side characters like Catwoman who definitely have better representations in the comics, because there they’ve had entire series devoted to fleshing them out.
On the Marvel side, I’d take Brian Micheal Bendis’ run on Ultimate Spider-Man over any film, but that benefits from being a full decade worth of monthly tales with a single extremely strong creative voice. Hard for a two hour movie to beat that.
Dexter.
Yeah, gotta agree. At least until the ending/final season.
And I like the books! They're trippy and engaging. But in terms of the story being told and how well it's executed, the show was just better done
I only read the first book about 15 years ago but I thought his brother being his identical twin was so stupid lol
Westworld
What book (series) is that? Or is it a comic? My web searching is failing me.
Oh hell very good point. It is based on the Crichton movie.
Aw, shucks. Was kinda hoping there was as a book series to dive into 😄
Jaws. The characters in the book are very unlikeable, and the movie's tone is much different helped in large part by John Williams' amazing soundtrack.
Men in Black
Very good films for sure, but what books are they based on? The 1990/91 comic? Or do you mean the conspiracy theory of the same name?
Yes, the films are based on the 1990 comics. Not to say the comics are bad, but they’re definitely outshined.
I like the jurassic park movie more than the book.
For me it's gotta be Goncharov, the way they adapted the movie into a series was uncanny, it really is Scorsese's best work.
Assuming anime/manga counts: Frieren
The manga is really good, don't get me wrong but the anime turned single page combats into all out super well animated fights with good music and great direction.
Anime definitely counts
Friday Night Lights
Inuyasha.
The show is basically just taking the manga scene for scene and animating it, while adding more adventures.
The new Dune. Especially the first movie was such a good experience. The first book was a cool read, but the movie made a few changes that felt just right, e.g. the way darker Harkonnen theme.
The following books are just disappointing really.
This must be some kind of ragebait.
Why?
Which community do you think this is? Did you read the thread title?
I have seen dune on TV. So... What's your point?
That's not what a TV adaptation is...
This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit your TV screen.
How many Dune books have you read? I don’t want to spoil something.
Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. After that, I lost interest, so go on and spoiler me.
V for Vendetta
Nope nope nope, gotta say no to that one.
You're entitled to your opinion, even if it's wrong. But no.
Are the references in the book dated? Yes. It is a product of its time, before there was a full realization of what full on global nuclear/biochemical warfare would do to the planet. The movie is good, I enjoyed it. I wouldn't put it on par with the book. Even the Gaffigan theory doesn't work, because when I read the book it took me two hours, and then I took a nap
Thank you for listening to my TED talk
Thank you for almost respecting my opinion 😂
I read the comics after seeing the movie, and couldn't get over how bitter and negative they are. The tone of the movie was much more my thing.
A reasonable choice in taste. Yeah, Alan Moore is… an intense individual
What's the Gaffigan theory? My web searching isn't giving me anything that makes sense to me.
I was riffing off of one of his old stand up routines.
Yeah the book was much better than the movie.
Oh really? You know what I liked about the movie? No reading. It only took two hours, and then I could take a nap
Ah, I see! Haha. Much obliged.
Call me crazy for this, but as much as I liked the book, I really like the original animated Animal Farm, a little more than the book. Definitely takes some good parts, like taking the sheep aside to force them to practice their "2 legs good" thing and a few other things. Like the whole thing of them using a gun ( possibly a shotgun IIRC ) as part of a memorial tradition where they fire it for those who died in part of the revolution fights. But still pretty good.
Though, speaking of George Orwell, I have a minor gripe with the original black and white 1984 adaptation. It's a very minor thing, but I don't like how for the journal the main character writes in cursive when the book states his writing is kinda blocky and childish, IIRC. Cannot say much more since I didn't finish that book.
Why are half the replies in this thread about film adaptations? Are you guys illiterate or bots?
Why not both?
If you count prequels, Black Sails is an excellent example.
I have heard people say that about The Boys, but I haven't read the comics or watched the final season so IDK.