10 TV Adaptations Hurt By 1 Huge Change To The Source Material
This article references fictional suicide within a TV series,
Summary
- TV adaptations offer more room for storytelling, but changes can hinder the adaptation’s success.
- Negative changes in tone or key elements of the source material can disappoint fans.
- Overhaul can deter from the original, altering the essence and sabotaging the series.
TV adaptations have the opportunity to create a more comprehensive and full retelling of other source material, due to their episodic storytelling and the total length of a series compared to a movie, but the wrong change can be disastrous. Any adaptation requires some degree of change to make sure that the story being told fits the new format. Whether that means condensing or getting rid of certain events, it’s a necessity of making an adapted story which often helps to adjust the story for a new medium.
However, not every change that is made to the source material ends up improving the adaptation, and some stories suffer a great deal because of careless or reckless changes to the source. Creatives involved in an adaptation need to respect and understand the source material enough to give it a faithful adaptation, even when that means it doesn’t strictly stick to the source material. When something foundational, or pivotal to the overall story is altered, it just ends up hurting the show and making it into something that disappoints fans of the original.
10 Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024 – Present)
The Overall Tone
Avatar: The Last Airbender (Live-Action)
Based on the acclaimed animated Nickelodeon television series, Avatar: The Last Airbender is an action-adventure fantasy series developed by Albert Kim. The series follows Aang, a young man training to harness the four elements to live up to the title of Avatar – the one who will restore balance to the world.
- Writers
- Albert Kim , michael dante dimartino , bryan konietzko
- Directors
- Michael Goi , Roseanne Liang , Jabbar Raisani , Jet Wilkinson
- Creator(s)
- Albert Kim
Live-action adaptations of anime shows have often failed due to a multitude of reasons. After Avatar: The Last Airbender had one terrible live-action movie adaptation condensing the overall story, the prospect of a live-action series gave hope to fans that Netflix would redeem itself. Indeed, the series is a much better offering, with several changes from the source material, but the biggest change which is a negative is the overall tone.
The story in ATLA is obviously dark and grim in some parts, with the genocide of a group of people, and a dangerous warlord attempting to enslave other kingdoms, but the show was also fun and whimsical at times. Netflix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender centers on Aang who has only lived for 12 years (and has been frozen for 100 more). Aang is a child, and he enjoys being playful, mischievous, and having fun. The balance between his childhood and his duty is central to the story, but the live-action series focuses too much on the darker sides of the story.
10 TV Adaptations That Completely Changed The Tone Of The Source Material
When a TV series is adapted from a beloved source changes are inevitable, but in some instances the entire tone of the original is radically altered.
9 Riverdale (2017 – 2023)
Changing The Genre To A Teen Mystery
Riverdale
A darker take on Archie, Betty, Veronica, and their friends from the Archie Comics series, Riverdale is a CW supernatural mystery series that sees the group trying to illuminate the truth surrounding various strange occurrences and murders in the titular town. When a teenage girl is found dead in the once-quiet town, the event starts a series of ever-growing mysteries that ultimately lead to darker secrets in the town’s history. Led by Archie, the Riverdale gang will attempt to navigate their new normal while dealing with all of the drama that comes with being high school teenagers.
The Archie Comics are fun-filled teen adventure stories, with a group of people centered around Archie Andrews who experience all the regular dramas of being a teenager in a small American town. The show, however, took the characters and dropped them into a town full of murder mysteries and twisted storylines. This was a huge tonal shift that worked for some audiences and earned the show its own dedicated fanbase, but there is no denying that it was a departure that fans of the source material struggled to get on board with.
8 Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina (2018 – 2020)
Changing The Genre To Horror
Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
Based on the Archie comic series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a Netflix supernatural horror series that follows Sabrina Spellman, a young half-witch, half-human that is coming into her powers in her teenage years. To protect her friends, family, and the world itself, Sabrina will have to harness her powers and ignore the calls from her darker side to embrace her evil potential fully and instead use her powers for good. Despite the series cancellation in 2020, the show’s story was continued in The Occult World of Sabrina, a comic book serial.
You can buy the seasons for just $9.99 for Prime Day.
- Writers
- Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa , Christianne Hedtke , Jenina Kibuka
- Directors
- Rob Seidenglanz , Alex Pillai , Kevin Rodney Sullivan
- Showrunner
- Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Once again, a comic series by the Archie publishing company was majorly altered to fit an edgier tone in a modern setting. However, the story was made even more popular when the 1996 series starring Melissa Joan Hart became a hit. As a result, many people compared the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina to the 1996 series and were understandably confused by the massive departure. Again, it found a fanbase, but the show was ultimately canceled after only two seasons on Netflix.
7 The Dresden Files (2007 – 2008)
Putting The Focus On Magic Over Noir Crime
While the books and the short-lived TV series contained both magic and a crime element, the way that each was approached drastically differed between the two. In the books, Harry Dresden is a private Investigator in a magical world, who is able to wield magic. The magic is normalized and not given special treatment. However, the TV series, probably trying to build on the popularity of the Harry Potter books, put a major emphasis on how special magic is, and Harry’s role as a PI feels like the thing that takes a backseat, which impacted the overall show.
6 Altered Carbon (2018 – 2020)
Season 1 And Season 2 Felt Like Different Shows
Altered Carbon
Altered Carbon is set in the far future, at a time when a human’s consciousness can be stored in a device called a Stack and transferred into different bodies, allowing people who have the means to become functionally immortal. Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman and Anthony Mackie), the former member of a rebellion against Stack technology, is awakened and released from prison so that he can be employed by a wealthy man to solve the man’s own murder. The Netflix original series is based on the 2002 novel of the same name by Richard K. Morgan.
The premise of the Altered Carbon book and the TV show revolves around change. People transfer their consciousness to new bodies, changing and living far beyond normal human life spans. But the book emphasizes that a gap of like 30 years is almost nothing for these futuristic people with the ability to live for hundreds of years. Despite this, from season 1 to season 2 of Altered Carbon, the show changes massively. Kovacs is in a new body, with no real semblance of the person who appeared in season 1 left.
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While certain sci-fi tropes tend to be overused, that doesn’t stop certain shows from continuing to use them in creative and exciting ways.
5 Arrow (2012 – 2020)
A Second Batman
Arrow
After five years of being presumed dead, billionaire playboy Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) is discovered alive on a remote island in the Pacific. Upon returning to his hometown, Starling City, Oliver beings to make amends for the selfish man that he once was. With a renewed sense of life, Oliver plays the role of a self-indulgent socialite during the day while secretly taking on those who corrupt the city at night. After running for eight seasons on The CW, Arrow ended in 2020.
- Writers
- Greg Berlanti , Marc Guggenheim , Andrew Kreisberg
- Directors
- Andrew Kreisberg , Greg Berlanti
- Showrunner
- Andrew Kreisberg
In comics, Oliver Queen has some surface-level comparisons to Bruce Wayne, but the series Arrow leaned heavily into that connection. Queen is a wealthy, and successful businessman, who moonlights as a vigilante hero, after tragedy strikes when his girlfriend is killed by terrorists. However, when he returns to Star City as a changed man, he has developed more maturity and is ready to live as a responsible adult, both in and out of his mask. In Arrow, Oliver seeks revenge against perceived wrongdoers and repeatedly talks about cleaning up his city, which is altogether too similar to the Batman storyline.
4 13 Reasons Why (2017 – 2020)
The Suicide Scene
13 Reasons Why
After Hannah Baker takes her own life, her classmate Clay Jensen, who had a crush on her, receives a set of tapes narrated by Hannah, stating that they were sent to each person behind the 13 reasons that she committed suicide.
- Showrunner
- Dylan Minnette
13 Reasons Why originally began life as a novel by Jay Asher, which was incredibly close to the Netflix series in tone and story. The show did a great job at faithfully recreating many elements of the story and respectfully adjusting others. However, the fatal flaw that created tension around the show and ultimately hurt its reputation came from the long, drawn-out, and graphic suicide scene. In the novel, the character takes pills to commit suicide, but the show opted for something a lot darker, which received backlash for potentially glorifying suicide.
3 Game Of Thrones (2011 – 2019)
Moving Beyond The Source Material
Game Of Thrones
Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Game of Thrones is a TV series based on the book “A Song of Ice of Fire” by George R. R. Martin. It tells the story of the ongoing battle between the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros – as they fight for control of the coveted Iron Throne. Friction between the houses leads to full-scale war. All while a very ancient evil awakens in the far north. Amidst the war, a neglected military order of misfits, the Night’s Watch, led by House Stark’s Jon Snow, is the first to encounter icy horrors that threaten all realms of men. The series premiered on HBO in the United States on April 17, 2011, and quickly became one of the biggest event series in the “Golden Age” of TV. Winner of 38 Primetime Emmy Awards, Game of Thrones has attracted record viewership on HBO and has a broad, active, international fan base.
- Directors
- David Nutter , Alan Taylor , D.B. Weiss , David Benioff
- Showrunner
- David Benioff , D.B. Weiss
Game of Thrones took the world by storm when it was first released, and for the first few seasons, its popularity appeared to constantly be increasing. However, by the end of season 5, the show had caught up to the books by George R.R. Martin and the showrunners had to get creative. Unfortunately, the choices they made and the directions they followed saw fans of the series drifting away, before the incredibly controversial and upsetting finale in season 8. The show skipped entire sections of the novels and could have spent more time exploring those instead of rushing ahead.
2 The Witcher (2019 – Present)
Disregarding The Source Material
The Witcher
Based on the novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski and the video games, The Witcher follows the story of Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter who struggles to find his place in a world where people often prove more wicked than beasts. “Ciri” Cirilla is the Princess of Cintra, who has magical abilities and whose fate has been linked to Geralt’s. Yennefer of Vengerberg, a sorceress who trains to become a mage before deserting her duties and going solo, is also a main character in the Netflix series. The show’s storylines are intertwined but told throughout different timelines, all of which eventually catch up to Ciri’s, whose timeline of events is the most recent. Set on the Continent where men, monsters, and elves exist together, the characters all have separate journeys, though their destinies bring them into each others’ orbits.
- Writers
- Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
- Directors
- Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
- Showrunner
- Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
The Witcher faced a lot of backlash after behind-the-scenes stories of Henry Cavill, a fan of the books and games who played the lead, Geralt, had disagreements with the writers over the faithfulness of the adaptation (via Business Insider). While the first series drew plenty of inspiration from the books, it becomes clearer the further the show progresses that it’s attempting to move in a different direction. From characters to events, the series has slowly drifted away from the books and become something much more controversial for fans of the original works.
Henry Cavill’s The Witcher Exit Has Backfired Twice (But His Next Movies & Shows Will Prove Him Right)
Although two of Henry Cavill’s projects since leaving The Witcher haven’t quite worked out, his future movies and TV shows have a lot of potential.
1 Ferris Bueller (1990 – 1991)
Insulting The Source Material
Four years after the epic John Hughes movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a show was made to expand the story and character of Ferris Bueller. However, with none of the cast choosing to return, and John Hughes wanting nothing to do with the project, the series chose to rebel against its inspiration. As Ferris Bueller tends to break the fourth wall and speak to the audience, episode 1 sees Ferris (Charlie Schlatter), take a cardboard cutout of Matthew Broderick and chainsaw it in half. From there on, the show acts superior to the movie but instead comes off as desperate.
