It’s Thursday and I’m back with a new Thursday Movie Picks feature post. This series is hosted by Wandering through the Shelves and offers you a weekly prompt to post some movie recommendations/talking points according to the theme. Usually, you are supposed to post about 3-5 examples, which I find a very manageable amount.

As it so happens, we change it up once per month and talk about TV shows instead of movies and today is all about one of my favorite subjects – book adaptations. I’ve talked about movies and shows that were done well (or badly) before, but I’m really happy to do so again. Let’s jump right in!

Shadow and Bone

I’ve talked about this one at length here, but in short, it was a really neat adaptation! I think people who have never read the books might have been a bit lost at times, but in general, I was super happy with some of the developments. The cast is pretty much perfection and their chemistry is what makes this work.

The Rook

I will be forever salty that they cancelled this after just one season. I feel like we had one of the most compelling characters ever with Gestalt and now all of that was just wasted on a story that won’t get continued. I know that people who loved the book were disappointed, but I wasn’t a fan of the book and ADORED the show. You can read more of my thoughts here.

The Magicians

Honestly, I stopped watching after a while, but the show was still a lot better in a lot of ways than the books. I didn’t really love the books, but once again, the cast really made it work and the changes implemented on the show made sense for the most part. If you ever want to read the books, my firm opinion is that they get better over time. The first one really wasn’t it.

The Witcher

You can find my review of the first Witcher book here, but I haven’t read any of the others yet. Silly old me wanted to wait for Netflix covers for the books, but I’m not even sure they will make them. Either way, while I think the show has lost a bit of the innate humor of the book, it really tied in those anthology events nicely.

Dash & Lily

Veering a bit off course to talk about something non-magic related, I can really only recommend the Dash and Lily show on Netflix. It’s so cute. So fluffy. So Christmas-y. I watched it several times and just had a good time and while I don’t remember the books in detail, I think they did a great job in adapting them so far.

Normal People

I had my struggles with the book, but wow, was it memorable! I still think about it every so often, I now also own a copy of the TV scripts and am in awe of the leads of the show. While I think you get some great insights into the minds with the book, the show just furthered that intimate feeling and you really get invested in these characters and their mess. You can also read more in depth thoughts here.

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There’s SO much more, but I’m gonna leave it at that for now. What are some of your favorite book to small screen adaptations? What are some you are excited for in the future?