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We've all heard the complaints that TV adaptations of books have somehow "ruined the book". Balderdash!

A while back, two of the complaints I heard were about the shows "Silo" and "Foundation". Two shows that I have been enjoying immensely - and for which I have not read the source material. At least not yet.

I'm not saying that the people who are saying this are wrong. They are describing their feelings, and their feelings are completely valid.

There was another show that I had heard a similar complaint about. It's called "The Peripheral". In the show, multiple timelines play out, with subordinate timelines being referred to as "stubs".

However, in this case, I have read the source material. It's by one of my favourite authors, William Gibson. And I thoroughly enjoyed the novels.

When this complaint came up, that the show didn't live up to the novels, Mr. Gibson pointed out that adaptations of The Peripheral could be seen to take place in different stubs than those covered in the books.

In other words, the same characters and plot points and set pieces, but rearranged in subtly different ways.

And I think this observation applies to any adaptation.

In Foundation, it sounds to me like entire characters were conceived in order to adapt the story format to television. The genetic dynasty concept, for example, allows them to keep the same extremely talented actors between seasons. Someone who has internalized the source books would probably be able to level much more direct criticisms, but I think they would be better served to view it as just a different stub.

Another show I like, The Expanse, is also adapted from a book series. I have heard vanishingly few complaints about the adaptation, and in fact mostly just praise for how faithful it is to the books.

I didn't read the books until after I had watched series. Thus, in my imagination, the characters in the books are intertwined with the actors playing them in the TV show.

This mixture allows me to see some of the concessions made for television, changes from the character descriptions in the novels. For example, in the books, Amos Burton would have been much more frightening than the television version. And Belters in the book would have looked much different than the television depiction.

Events unfold differently. Certain characters, who are combined together for the TV show, exist as separate characters within the books.

But that does not ruin the books for me. Gives me perspective into a different stub of the story.

Or, in other words, more Expanse for me to enjoy!

I simply wish more people could share this perspective. It's not a bad thing ruining a good thing. It's a different thing that may be merely OK, that is a companion to a good thing.

And sometimes, the series ends up being better than the books. Dexter comes to mind. I've read several of the Dexter novels, and was a huge fan of the TV show for many seasons. I had to stop reading the novels because I simply couldn't stand the direction that author Jeff Lindsay was taking the story. It was too ... weird ... for me. Like a novelization of dream logic or something. So, in my opinion, that TV series — and its various spinoffs and continuations, which I haven't seen yet — was a vast improvement over the books.

I have to imagine that this issue cropped up even before we had books. Oral histories, I am certain, were subject to change over time. Certain things might be jazzed up to please the audience, while other parts of the story might be dropped or reinvented from whole cloth - changing the details, but preserving the overall spirit of the story.

Yes, sometimes adaptations fail miserably. However, given how eminently watchable the examples in this post are, at least to me, I think a case can be made that success (even if only partial success) is more frequent than abject failure. As long as people approach it with an open mind, there is new enjoyment to be had.

Thanks for reading!

(Oh, and as a reminder, another William Gibson story adaptation is arriving shortly on AppleTV: NEUROMANCER. I have high hopes for it.)