It's January, and I'm already getting good television. Good-ish, anyway. I finally caught up with old episodes of Homeland, although I'm still way behind in Agents of SHIELD and The Flash. Agent Carter starts up again any day now, and I'll have to watch. I've already decided to forego the new DC spinoff Legends of Tomorrow.
Here are the two new shows that I'm most interested in at the moment.
Probably about a year ago, I heard that SyFy was going to be making a new show based on a book called Leviathan Wakes, so I wishlisted the book and forgot about it. I got that book this past year for my birthday, and started reading in late 2015. I'm presently about two thirds done. When The Expanse started airing, I figured I'd download and try it out, and I didn't realize until partway into episode 1 that it was the book I was reading. It's a novel experience to be reading the book and watching the show simultaneously, no pun intended.
The two things I'm enjoying most about the show are how closely it sticks to the book, and the degree to which it remains hard science. There's no warp drive here, no laser guns, cyborgs, or aliens. At least not yet. The Indian politician woman on Earth isn't (yet) in the book, but I'm guessing the showwriters added her to clarify things down the road. I don't have an issue with it.
This book holds a special place in my heart. I picked up The Elfstones of Shannara at an eighth grade book fair and loved it. I loved that book hard. The twist at the end is the kind of thing nearly every reader sees coming, but it blew my 13-year-old mind. I think I put down the book and nearly wept.
The show is airing on MTV, and is pretty clearly marketed towards high schoolers, which I get. I read the book at roughly that age and it hadn't really occurred to me until now that it's largely a YA title. So fine, there are teenage boy sex fantasies in the show that I don't recall from the book, but it's been a loong time since I've read it, so I can't really say whether the show writers added that stuff in.
There are actually a great number of things that I don't remember, so I can't say with confidence whether many things were in the book. I remember the main characters, but not the gauntlet race, the seer boy Bandon, the early appearance of Furies, or Amberle's friend who gets stabbed by The Changeling.
I can tell you that I never pictured Allanon looking anything like how they cast him in the show. I'd basically visualized Gandalf. Not a thirty-something muscley tattooed dude. But I can deal with the change.
I am loving James Remar as Eretria's slaver/father Cephelo. He was great as Dexter's father. And John Rhys-Davies as King Eventine. Now he's played both an elf and a dwarf! He was best on Sliders, though.
Time will tell how these shows play out, but they're looking good.
I am interested to see how the show plays out since it is from the guys who created Smallville. Will it become a demon of the week type show which finds the adventure finally end after a few seasons. Or does this adventure end this season and the next season pick up with a new cast and focus on the next book, the Wishsong?