Books v TV Series

Which came first, the book or the tv show? And which is the better?

Buffy, Charmed, and all shows of that ilk spawn books for a long time after the series has gone. But they rarely match up to the success of the shows.

Then there are other tv shows that come along after the books, but how do they compare?

The Vampire Diaries were around long before it hit the small screen.

And True Blood is based on the Sookie Stackhouse mystery series - yes it is actually a mystery series in most stores and not in the romance/erotica section! Hard to believe from the show, but there it is...

How do you think the tv shows compare to the books?

I hate the book/movie or book/TV thing. I think you're always disappointed by whichever one you see second. I think the only way to deal with it is to think of them as separate entities altogether, but it's always upsetting when it's something you love.

I recently watched Inkheart and absolutely loved it. I was going to check out the other two parts of the book trilogy as I don't think they're going to make any movie sequels, but I figured it would probably disappoint as I have the movie in my end now.

Most of the time I would agree that it is what comes first that you enjoy the most, but occasionally I have found it to be different.

I read the book of Just Like Heaven before the film came out, but I enjoy the film better.

I also liked the book better of Gone with the Wind, though I had seen the film first and do enjoy it.

I think the only movie adaptation of a book that I'd read that I really liked was Bridget Jones' Diary. They changed some things but it worked because they gave the movie it's own vibe. They didn't try to put the book on screen.

I don't think that books adapt to movies and TV very well. There are some series that do fairly well on TV that started from books. But they don't really follow what the books do. The series Bones with David Boreanez is based on a series of books. And while the show is pretty good and doing well, I don't think it's all that much like the books (I've only read one of them), and they do some things to make the series that don't make sense to real life.

By the same token, I don't think TV and movies adapt to books all that great either. And that's a different story. Books based on shows tend to be what's called "shared universe" stories, which means that a lot of authors are tossing in their 2 cents and muddying the canon. Also, the authors who do that tend to be novice professionals, or not all that good professionals. So a lot of it is really only a step or 2 up from fan fiction. And if the creator of the series does not police the stories for both quality and content, they can get pretty far from canon, and even further from each other, very quickly.

Tyg wrote:

I think the only movie adaptation of a book that I'd read that I really liked was Bridget Jones' Diary. They changed some things but it worked because they gave the movie it's own vibe. They didn't try to put the book on screen.

Yeah, I forgot about that one. Both are a great laugh.


Adding another to my successful adaption list - The Time Traveller's Wife.