And the Emmy Goes To...
This has been one strange year for fans of television. What with the strikes as I type this we don't even know if there will be an Emmy Awards Broadcast. Sure they say sometime in the new year, but I wouldn't trust studios, networks, or streaming services who won't even pay their employees a living wage. Seriously, just pay them already!* I mean, seriously, look at this past year, look at all the amazing shows, and get it into your heads that none of this would have been possible without the writers and actors. The losses you're taking are costing you more than if you were to just pay them. Now, to get off my soapbox, let's celebrate the wonderful shows that were adapted from books this year. I mean, we had the big fantasy epics from George R.R. Martin and J.R.R. Tolkien. We had the classics reinterpreted, from Tom Jones to Great Expectations to Dangerous Liaisons. We had the spooky and the kooky, from Lockwood and Co. to Wednesday to The Midnight Club. And these are just the shows I got around to watching! There were so many adaptations this year one has to wonder a little if there are any original ideas out there, but trust me, there are, just look to The Afterparty and Yellowjackets. Also, these adaptations showed what you could do with an open mind and a willingness to embrace the spirit of the source material but not be enslaved by it. There was rarely a show among these that I wouldn't be willing to watch again and again, like what I've done with the new season of Good Omens. So let's get this party started and join me in celebration of the wonders of adaptation.
*The WGA strike ended, successfully, on September 27th, 2023. The SAG-AFTRA strike is still ongoing.
Strike, because I refuse to call it by it's stupid and really pointless US title C.B. Strike, is based on the popular Cormoran Strike series by J.K. Rowling. I mean C.B. Strike!?! Really!?! Call it Cormoran Strike or even Cormoran Blue Strike or even just Cormoran, why his initials which he NEVER uses in the books or on the series!?! OK, rant over. I promise. Or at least I promise the "initial" rant is over. Strike is a show that has a lot going for it but all the elements have yet to fall into place to make it what it could become, one of the best mystery shows out there. The most important aspect is the casting, and they NAILED it with Tom Burke of The Musketeers and The Hour as Cormoran and Holliday Grainger of The Borgias and the recent adaptation of My Cousin Rachel as Robin. The casting is literally so perfect that when reading the books I now see them as the leads. The problem is in how they've been adapting the books, the first book, The Cuckoo's Calling, which is my least favorite in the series was the best adaptation. And I know what you're thinking, but it's not because it was my least liked book, it's because it was the only three part adaptation of the series, the further two books being adapted as two parters. These books are so dense that a three parter is necessary and thankfully Lethal White, out later this month, will be getting a three part adaptation. Now they just have to stop doing stupid things like changing Robin's motivation from selfless to selfish and I'll be content. 
