Great Expectations
Baring A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations is probably Charles Dickens most adapted story. Pip growing up and becoming disillusioned with the world has played out time and time again. And I have never really liked a single one of them. Pip, whether played by actors I love like Ioan Gruffudd or those I respect like Michael York, has always struck me as a prissy prig. He's holier than thou and thinks he has some divine right to the life he's been given. In my opinion the world would have been a lot better off without Pip in it. So how did Steven Knight trick me into watching another adaptation other than being Steven Knight? Matt Berry. That's right folks, I watched this entire adaptation just to see Matt Berry's backside. I didn't know I'd get to see his backside, it was just an amusing bonus. Though even if I hadn't tuned in for Matt Berry I would have been sad to have missed this adaptation because it is the best "adaptation" of Great Expectations ever. The quotes are there because while much was made in the press about Matt Berry's backside being supported by the text, the truth of the matter is Steven Knight kind of threw the text out the window. Of the three "stages" of Pip's life the first one is the only one to actually remain true in this telling, after that it's a free for all. And I for one am here for it! Miss Havisham obviously holding a quartet captive in her house since her wedding day so she can have mood music wherever she wants? While I'm only positing that that is how they're there, I am so here for this that I can't tell you how much I loved it. The fact that Miss Havisham gets to live AND give Pip a parting shot worthy of any eighties action star? Oh yes, more of this, this is the Miss Havisham of Jasper Fforde! Lord Larys leaving the Red Keep to disgustingly sniff snuff? I didn't know Matthew Needham was so comically gifted! But above all what makes this entire adaptation work is that Steven Knight was obviously sick of waiting around on Tom Hardy to make season two of Taboo, AKA the best television series that has ever been created, and decided to make his version of Great Expectations into Taboo 2.0. This is literally Taboo minus Tim Hardy with a veneer of Dickens and Matt Berry. In fact, can someone check to see if Jaggers is wearing Tom Hardy's coat from Taboo? Because I have my suspicions. And specking of Jaggers, he really is the star of this adaptation, and that's saying something because David Suchet has also played this role. Jaggers brings to the fore all the issues that Steven Knight finds the 19th century plagued with that he obsessively explores; slavery, inequality, maritime law, and revenge. This might ostensibly be Pip's story, but Jaggers is the star. But the biggest question at the end of the day is how does Steven Knight make maritime law interesting? Because I assure you he does.
Any fan of Good Omens or it's two authors will know the turbulent history of trying to get an adaptation of it made. Years and years of trouble and strife all for it to finally come together only because of Terry's death. His death hit me hard, it was one of the only times I've cried for an author and not because of something they've written. And Neil promised Terry that Good Omens would happen. Almost two year's after Terry's death it was announced that Neil himself was adapting the book to be a six part miniseries for Amazon that would be released in 2019. Later that year Michael Sheen and David Tennant (listed alphabetically using David's stage name) joined as the two leads. The show is jammed with the cream of the crop of British guest stars, so much so some people didn't notice a few recognizable Americans snuck in there as well. The show, like the book, is uneven. And don't get me started on France McDormand's narration as God. Never has someone so talented phoned in their performance so epicly. The show would be almost 100% better if they just edited her out. A lesson they took to heart in season two. Yet for me, and for most fans, the heart of the show is the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley. Season one's best episode is "Hard Times" and all it is is their relationship through the ages. And it is priceless. Because the friendship and love isn't just between the two characters but between the two actors. Michael and David have become the best of friends, so much so that during lockdown they created and starred in the award winning Staged, which is a fictionalized look at their lives. Therefore the second season of Good Omens had high expectations, because now EVERYONE knew that not only where the leads best friends but they shipped their characters. This show is unapologetically gay and fan service to the max, but that's why there is a second season, because of the fans. Season two works better than season one because it's on a smaller, more intimate scale. The main cast is just a handful of characters and it's all about finding love. Which makes all the Jane Austen references so perfect, even if she was secretly a criminal and to Crowley's shock, an author. But the show still has pacing problems. We spent way too much time with Job, but thankfully Aziraphale having the meat sweats distracted me a bit there, and I could have used even more Jon Hamm. Seriously, I hated his character in season one, but an amnesiac angel let him lean into his comedic abilities which he should seriously do more often. Has everyone seen A Young Doctor's Notebook? Because if not you should get on that right away. And for some reason, no matter how much I do love her, Miranda Richardson just didn't work. But all my problems fell away with the final two episodes. The whole show is about how people in power don't want you to ask questions. They don't want you to think that something they are against is a possibility, so an angel and a demon falling in love? It's the greatest protest you could stage. And stage it they did. So damn beautifully. That HEA was well earned. Sadly it wasn't for Aziraphale and Crowley. Which means if we don't get a season three someone will be hurt. It will probably be me.
The Great British Bump-Off by John Allison, Max Sarin, Sammy Borras, and Jim Campbell
Hop Scot by Catriona McPherson
The Mysterious Mr. Badman by W.F. Harvey
The Engagement Party by Darby Kane
The Night Side by M.M. DeLuca
Here in the Dark by Alexis Soloski
Murder in the Mist by Cora Harrison
The Curse of Penryth Hall by Jess Armstrong
Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon
The Gentleman's Gambit by Evie Dunmore
The Wonder of It All by Barbara Taylor Bradford
This Spells Love by Kate Robb
Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura
Like Thunder by Nnedi Okorafor
After World by Debbie Urbanski
You might be wondering, why is she including Wednesday on her list of adaptations, it's not like it was a book...or was it? I'm putting this in under a technicality, because while Charles Addams created the cartoons for The New Yorker for the most part, they were later published in several books from Addams and Evil to Dear Dead Days. In fact I have a whole bookshelf groaning under the weight of all my Charles Addams books. There's even a cookbook which isn't for the faint of heart. I am an Addams Family connoisseur, I don't just have books, I have licensed artwork, Funko Pops, I have the entire Department 56 Addams Family Village, minus Fester with his light bulb and Wednesday and Pugsley with the guillotine, I have all the action figures, minus Wednesday, to the cartoon series, the SNES Addams Family video game is my favorite video game of all time and I can't count the number of times I've beat it, I have an original movie poster from 1991, and I don't know how many copies of the film I've gone through on different media from VHS to the "More Mamushka" Blu-ray release. The Addams Family is the story of my life. I remember a writing assignment in seventh grade that was actually Addams Family fanfic. Therefore Wednesday, well, it had to be something special to actually become a part of my own special Addams Family canon. I mean, Tim Burton was definitely the right choice despite not making a movie I liked since 2005, as was Jenna Ortega who proved her acting chops to me with her turn as Ellie in season two of You and I swear if they don't bring her back for the final season I will revolt. And yet I was hesitant to watch. I did't want to be disappointed. All my friends were texting me how good it was and yet I delayed, I mean the show went viral, that couldn't be good could it? Me, the girl who in 1999 had a Tim Burton film fest and who ranks The Addams Family with Raul Julia as one of her favorite movies ever just couldn't get up the nerve to watch the series. Obviously I wouldn't be writing this if I hadn't watched the show. And I enjoyed it. It wasn't phenomenal, but it was interesting and created it's own lore while at the same time paying homage to all the previous adaptations. The fan service was top notch, especially everything to do with the pilgrims, and if Christine Baranski doesn't get a role in season two I will weep. But here's the thing, the fan service is fun asides, or clever plot points, it never takes away from the whole. And Bridgerton could learn a lesson or two from Wednesday's modern cello covers. But what does take away from the show is the petty backbiting and a love triangle that's just too high school coupled with, but aren't both guys creeps? This makes it feel painfully YA at times and it detracts from the show. Just look to the 1991 version, that was rated PG-13, very close to the TV-14 of the show, and yet you never felt that it was childish. Perhaps with a teenage lead character it was bound to come across as childish occasionally, I just know they can do better, and I think Jenna Ortega agrees with me because next season there is going to be no love interest and more horror. Now that's what I like to hear. That and the sound of a well snapped finger.
If you are looking for an author who is a BIG NAME in crime fiction you couldn't do better than Val McDermid. What's more, unlike other similar authors whose work has been adapted to the small screen she has either phenomenal good luck or is extremely involved in the process or maybe she's just incredibly picky because of the two series and one standalone that have been adapted they are all stellar. Wire in the Blood with Robson Green is a classic up there with Inspector Morse. As for Place of Execution? Stunning. It's one of those mysteries that stays with you forever. Every once in awhile I'll think on it and be amazed all over again. That miniseries also did a lot for changing the trajectory of Greg Wise's career to the deliciously dark. So I had expectations for Karen Pirie. But I also was totally blindsided by it because I got the wrong end of the stick. You see when they said that the show starred a "blonde from Outlander" I thought for some reason it was Nell Hudson who played Laoghaire, the bane of Jamie and Claire, instead it was Lauren Lyle who plays Marsali, Jamie and Claire's beloved daughter-in-law. Not that I'm complaining, because Lauren proved how perfect she was for this role, I'm just also really a fan of Nell Hudson because she was amazing on Victoria, though I'm still mad they killed her off. And in fairness I really didn't know how Lauren Lyle would have the time what with also filming Outlander, but thankfully that didn't seem to be a problem. What this adaptation showed more than anything is how to perfectly update you source material for the present day. In the original novel, The Distant Echo, the cold case that Karen Pirie is investigating happened in 1978 and is being investigated in 2003. Therefore to have that twenty-five year gap now this is heavy on the nineties nostalgia, but more than that it incorporates the citizen detective and true crime podcast culture that has just boomed in recent years. As for Karen herself, she's funny, she bounces around like a Whac-A-Mole. She has a sense of humor and lame style, she knows a good joke, knows she's good at her job, and knows it's a bad time to be a Karen. There's a sense of humor too which anyone who knows Val McDermid will know she possess, I remember she was doing a book signing in the US, sadly nowhere near me, but near my favorite bookstore, Murder by the Book, so I got a copy of her newest book for my mom's birthday, and I asked if she'd inscribe it "To Marian who's glad she doesn't live in Bradfield," Bradfield being where her Wire in the Blood books are set. She dutifully signed that and added "As am I." Which just cracked me up and made the present that much more special. So while there was a part of me who felt that the mtstery was a little pedestrian, it was riviting and fun and I am just so glad there's going to be more because I need more Karen Pirie in my life.
Winter's Gifts by Ben Aaronovitch
The Witchwood Knot by Olivia Atwater
Cocktails and Chloroform by Kelley Armstrong
The Pantomime Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith
Death on the Scotland Express by Fliss Chester
The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
The Fiction Writer by Jillian Cantor
Salt and Broom by Sharon Lynn Fisher
Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon
Didn't See That Coming by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Gwen and Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher
The Kingdom of Sweets by Erika Johansen
The Butterfly Collector by Tea Cooper
Ruined by Sarah Vaughn, Sarah Winifred Searle, and Niki Smith
Most people aren't familiar with the actual text of 
Growing up in my house there were a few authors whose books would always be found on our shelves, Tony Hillerman was one of them. Both my parents loved the Leaphorn and Chee series and it was a big event in our house when Mystery! adapted three of the books as Skinwalkers: The Navajo Mysteries with the brilliant Wes Studi as Joe Leaphorn. I remember one day my mom and I were trying to thin out our bookshelves and she decided it was time to finally let Tony Hillerman go. We got rid of the books and about a week later she bought a new copy of The Blessing Way. Because, as I've stated before, Tony Hillerman is always on our shelves, even if we attempt to change this. After the paperback repurchase I offered to get all the books for her for her Kindle, so that is now where our Tony Hillerman collection resides. Though I'm still kind of pissed we ever culled them in the first place. Never make decisions you may regret for expedience because there's nothing more comforting than an old familiar paperback, especially one that has strategically placed evidence as to who read it last. Hint, it was usually my grandmother because she'd use Halls wrappers as bookmarks, she was chaotic good. Therefore much excitement was felt in my household by the announcement of a new series based on Hillerman's books. And not just because I love Zahn McClarnon so much, though this ubiquitous actor was a major bonus. I was excited because the book series started in the 1970s and it was revealed that this adaptation would be a period piece. This was a seventies cop drama! My grandmother, she of the Halls wrappers, instilled in me that the pinnacle of televisual experiences is the seventies cop drama. The Rockford Files is ALWAYS at the top of the list, everything else follows, with Stephen J. Cannell shows ranked higher than others. But also in a far more important development, and I'm not talking about the big producer names, Redford having produced the earlier Mystery! series as well, I'm talking about the writers's room being all Native American. I mean, about fucking time! This is their story and they should be the ones to tell it. I mean, props to Hillerman for writing the books, but while he might have known Native Americans and gone to school with them and everything else, he isn't one of them. I feel with Dark Winds and Reservation Dogs Native Americans are finally getting to tell their stories for themselves and this is so long overdue. The first season was actually based on the third and forth books, Listening Woman and People of Darkness but they conveniently have Leaphorn and Chee pair up way earlier than in the books series. It wasn't groundbreaking for it's mystery, dealing with missing money from a bank heist, it was groundbreaking for how it was told and who told it. The second season continues the storyline from People of Darkness, delving into the cult that takes Native rituals and dumbs them down for mass consumption by white people, and is of course now run by corrupt white people. But it also continues a storyline thought resolved, the death of Joe and Emma Leaphorn's son which ends up making these six episodes feel like the second half of the first season. But a very satisfying second half. We get big emotions, danger, and, in the end, resolution and acceptance. If the show ends up not getting a third season, this was a beautiful ending. Of course I actually need this show to run for years and years for my sanity. 
