Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library District
Welcome to Checked Out! Green Hills Public Library District’s first staff-led podcast. Checked Out is hosted by Sara Shahein, Adult Services Associate, and Tessa Werden, Youth Services Librarian. Join them monthly as they discuss film and television, video games, music, pop culture, and of course books! Listen along when guests join in on the vibrant conversation to discuss their favorite titles, upcoming programs, and how libraries inspire curiosity and strengthen community. Checked Out is available wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
Interested in hearing your favorite book, topic, or genre discussed?
Send a recommendation to: ghpl@greenhillslibrary.org
Checked Out with Green Hills Public Library District
Episode 3 - Lights, Camera, Action!
In Checked Out’s episode three, “Lights, Camera, Action!” Tessa, Sara, and Klaudia get in the director’s chair to debate the good and the bad of Film and TV adaptations of their favorite books and video games. Get out your popcorn to find out which adaptations make the director’s cut and which fall short.
Check out the media we talked about in this episode here:
https://ghs.swanlibraries.net/MyAccount/MyList/66484
Interested in hearing your favorite book, topic, or genre discussed?
Send a recommendation to ghpl@greenhillslibrary.org
Hi everyone, welcome to episode three of our podcast. I'm Claudia. I'm Sarah. I'm Tessa and this is Checked Out with Greenhouse Public Library. Today we're going to be talking about book and video games to TV and film adaptations. But before we get into that, I think we should recap what we were reading and see if we accomplished our goals.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so I can start us off. So last time I said that I was going to read The Extraordinary Disappointments of Leopold Berry by Ransom Riggs, and I did. I finished it. I wouldn't say that I enjoyed it, but I also didn't hate it. It was very much a meh book to me. Before I started to read it, I was a little bit apprehensive just because the summary of it sounded a lot like Liar, Dreamer, Thief by Maria Dong, which is a book that I DNF'd. The concepts are basically the same. So the main character has a trauma or a traumatic event that they've been through, which causes them to see into the world of their favorite piece of media. For Leopold, it was a really old TV show that he saw on VHS, and for the main character in Liar Dreamer Thief, it was a storybook. The reason why DNF Liar Dreamer Thief was because the plot just started to get completely off the rails. It delved into more of her just having psychological problems and the people around her abusing that. And it turned into a weird conspiracy theory slash corporate heist book, and I I could not keep up with the story anymore, so I DNF'd it. Leopold Berry went the other way and it did not go into the psychological. It led you to believe that in the beginning, but it then ended up skewing more into the magical. I the reason why I felt pretty bored with it was because I don't feel like they did anything different with the whole um chosen one concept. I I like a chosen one concept, I enjoy it, but to me it just felt like a book meant for teenagers, which it is, it's a YA book, and it's it was just one of those times where I felt like maybe I had outgrown the piece of media. So three out of five. Not bad.
SPEAKER_01:On the same vein of the book kind of going in a direction that was unexpected, I promised to read Hellbent, which is Libard Dugo's sequel to the Alex Stern um series. Uh the first one is Ninth House, which I really enjoyed. One of my favorite books. It gave it a five out of five. Um, but for Hellbent, I'm leaning more towards a 4.5 or 4, just because it did take a turn into a more fantasy realm that I wasn't expecting. I enjoyed it. Um, and I'm definitely looking forward to the third one coming out when it does, but it was really unexpected. Um, spoiler alert, there's demons that you know emerge from hell and vampires, and I really was not expecting that to be the turn that was gonna happen, but it was really enjoyable. I loved being in that world again, being back at Yale with Alex and Dawes, trying to, you know, save Darlington from where he's at. Uh, I think it was it was an interesting take. It's kind of giving Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I like, so I'm really excited for the third one, and I hope that it ends off on a good note because I have really high expectations for it.
SPEAKER_02:I promised to read An Academy for Liars by Alexis Henderson, and I did. So we're three for three on that one. We redeemed ourselves. I would give an Academy for Liars like a four out of five star. It is a dark academia fantasy horror, which there's a lot going on there. I would say it's pretty similar to Ninth House. If you enjoyed it, I think you would enjoy an Academy for Liars. It's a little bit less info-dumpy at the beginning. So if you thought you would like Ninth House and you didn't, I would say give that a try. It's about a girl who is kind of sick of her life. She finds out some information at her engagement party, and she just dips out, runs away, ends up in an abandoned mall parking lot where a payphone randomly starts ringing and she answers it, and it's her own voice telling her that she is accepted into a school that she has never heard of and that doesn't really exist outside of the people that are invited to attend it, and they are learning the art of persuasion, which is like magical manipulation. And there's a lot more that goes into that. But it was it was fun. I feel like it could have done a little bit more, it dragged in a few places, but overall I really enjoyed it, and I think that if you like a dark academia setting with a little bit more eerie, supernaturally things, you should definitely try it out.
SPEAKER_01:I will be adding that to my TBR. Sounds like something I'd enjoy. Yeah, we we have it, I think. Oh, fantastic. We'll see if we have it on shelf and I'll pick it up. Not making any promises that it'll be done next episode, but definitely gonna add it to my TBR. Alright, so I think then, wow, we're three for three. That's awesome. We made true on our promises. So it looks like we are three for three on our promises, which is fantastic. And I think it's time to dive into these adaptations.
SPEAKER_02:I think we should start off with what we think makes an adaptation either good or bad, either way, and kind of define our opinions on that before we go into some specifics. Claudia, you want to start us off?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. So I think what makes an adaptation good, um, it's is not whether I mean there's a lot of things that encompass that. I think, first of all, casting is huge. You need to have actors who embody the characters themselves. They don't necessarily have to look like them, but they do have to be able to at least pull it off and pull off um that personality that they have. I have watched many adaptations where I don't think that the casting was correct and that completely ruins it for me. Um and just it takes me out of the story. Um, I also think that in order to have a good adaptation, you need to be able to hit those big details, but also the little details that are crucial to the story. Um, I really hate it when they decide to just ignore a plot line that is crucial to you understanding characters better, or when they cut out or change uh a minor detail that changes everything. You need to be able to encompass the feeling that the original piece of media gave you.
SPEAKER_01:I totally agree with casting. I think that casting can really make or break a you know adaptation. Um, I also second that for me it doesn't really depend on the physical appearance of the actor. It's really just like you mentioned, embodying those characteristics, being so familiar with the work and the character themselves that the line is blurred between, you know, the film adaptation or the TV show adaptation and the book character. I want to really feel like, oh, this is this character, and I can tell very clearly. I think again, glazing over those points, I know it's really hard sometimes for adaptations to pull every detail from a book, because books can be very detailed and very dense, and it's hard to bring some of those things to the screen. Um, but I do think that it's important to get those details because those are the things that the readers want to see. They want to see those little nuanced pieces that the writer put so much effort in including, you know, in on screen. And um I think that yeah, it's important to include those for sure.
SPEAKER_02:I definitely agree with casting. I think so much of stories depend on the characters, narrators in general to move plot along. I think that I can safely say I think we're all kind of character readers versus like obviously plots are important and you need that to stay invested in it, but just from our general talks in and outside of the podcast, I feel like we're all pretty high up on our character priority. So I think it makes sense that we all feel that way about casting. And going back to the physical appearance thing, quite honestly, I don't always pay attention to how they are described in books. Like they just kind of exist in my head the way that I think they do. For example, in the Magnolia Park series by Jessa Hastings, I have no idea what those people are supposed to look like. They look a very specific way in my head. I don't know if it's accurate. Yeah. Because you read that in the beginning, and then by the time you get to the end, who's to say if they were brunette or blonde? I don't know. But an adaptation is fan service to a certain extent, but you also need to have those small details need to be there, but they also need to have explanations behind them for people who don't want to read the source material, don't aren't familiar with it, but they should still get the same thing out of it by watching the adaptation. And I feel like sometimes those small details that people who have consumed the source material have, they'll show them in adaptations with little to no explanation. If you haven't read the source material, you don't really know the significance of it, and I think that that's where people pull details from because they're like, Oh, I don't have enough time to explain this, it's just not gonna be there, or it's there and it has little to no importance in the the adaptation storyline because they don't have time to explain it. This happens to me a lot in my personal life with my partner. She doesn't read source material very often, and then I'm like, Oh, I want to watch this this adaptation, and she'll be like, Yeah, okay, cool, sounds good. And then I'll be like, Wait, did you see that? And she's like, I don't have any concept of why that matters.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So I think there is a fine line on those small details. Like, I want them to be there, but if you're not gonna be able to explain it in the same way that the source does, I agree.
SPEAKER_00:I think that can be really frustrating too, that sometimes they'll bring in small details that have little to no relevance to the story at all. But then the small details that are very crucial to the story, they just completely cut out if you change them.
SPEAKER_01:I do want to circle back to you mentioning physical appearance. I know we all mentioned it. The example that you gave with Magnolia Parks, I think of key physical elements that characters have that I would want to see on screen because it's so embedded in the story. So for example, Magnolia has green eyes, like she sure does. Jessa Hastings really, really makes that known. And like almost every chapter that we have Magnolia in, it's like, oh, her eyes, her eyes, her eyes. So I feel like when it, you know, is on screen, that's something that I want to see. Like, oh, okay, yeah, this actor does have these eyes that are so pertinent to the story.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I agree. They can't pull a Harry Potter on it and be like, you have your mother's eyes, and then they're just wrong. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:No, we don't want to see any of that. Right. That's like a pretty, pretty significant detail to the story that just overall creates the vibe. I also think that cinematography is what also makes a great adaptation. I mean, if you have like, let's say, for example, um, I think this is a great example, like Supernatural, right? If you've watched the show, the beginning of it has great color grading, it was shot on film, the music all encompasses the the vibe or the mood that they were going for, because it is an American gothic story, right? But if you look at the very end of Supernatural, yeah, where there's no style to it, there's no coloring, they use digital cameras, uh all the music, like the classic rock music that made Supernatural supernatural, is just no longer there. It it takes you out of the story, and it doesn't feel like you are connected to it anymore. At least personally, I did not feel connected to supernatural at the end of it anymore. It was mostly nostalgia factor, but I really enjoy the beginning seasons a lot. Or, for example, Twilight, right? Why is Twilight so so iconic? Everyone loves the blue tint, the color grading, the the music. It encompasses the vibe that Stephanie Meyer was trying to create. Yeah, Catherine Hardwick did her job. She did, and then they kicked her off. And they'll never forgive me for that.
SPEAKER_02:New moon looks like it's all shot by like candlelight. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Which is like still kind of, I feel, a little on vibe. Like on par with it. Like it being light, like warmer is yeah. Yeah, there was an attempt made. Yeah, it's very brown. Yeah, it is. But like going off of that, Claudia, I think someone else that does it very well, um, from like book to movie adaptation, is to all the boys I've loved before. I think that they really knocked it out of the park with soundtrack, lighting, just the way that it's filmed too, feels very much like the book and the story that's being told. And I think that they really did a good job with that one. I agree. Like, that is Lara Jean.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Like that is her.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:There's no like question that that's the the character. Sarah, you've watched The Summer I Turn Pretty, right? I have, yes. Do you think that because I know that Jenny Hahn, the author of those books, um, To All the Boys I've Loved Before and The Summer I Turn Pretty trilogy, is heavily involved and has been heavily involved in both of those. Do you think that The Summer I Turn Pretty is as accurate?
SPEAKER_01:I think that the first season is pretty accurate in terms of capturing the vibe of the story and the atmosphere of it. I think that the second one they took a little they took more liberties with the second one. Okay. In terms of trying to tell the story on screen, but I do think that it still captures the angst that was happening in the second. Cool.
SPEAKER_02:I've considered watching it and then I haven't. And I have meant to ask you that like five times.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's worth watching for sure. I mean, I don't feel that it is as well done as to all the boys I've loved before, but it is a a good adaptation. Did they ever make movies for the rest of the series? Do you know? Yeah, they did. Okay. What did you think of them? Um, I felt like the atmosphere was still it was still maintained. I didn't finish it. I only watched the second one. And I did enjoy the second one. Again, liberties were taken with the plot line just to make it more digestible.
SPEAKER_02:The second one has Jordan Fisher in it, right? Okay. Yeah, I did watch. I've I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:That casting felt wrong to me. So I didn't watch the third, but I did watch the second one, and that one I think they took more liberties with the plot line than they did with the first. So it kind of threw me off a little bit, and I wasn't as interested in watching the third one after that. Does that answer the question? I forgot the question. Okay, perfect. Thank you. No problem.
SPEAKER_00:I was just curious about your opinion of that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Speaking of Jenny Han and her involvement in adaptations, I want your guys' opinions on authors or creators of the source material being involved with adaptations. Do you think it makes it? Do you think it breaks it? I think it could go personally, I think it could go either way, depending on how the the creator is.
SPEAKER_00:I agree. Like, for example, I was super excited about the Percy Jackson series because the author was going to have his hands in it and he was super involved in it. Only to be completely disappointed by it. I was super disappointed by the movie. So I was really excited for the show to come out because it was going to be more content, he was going to be involved in it, and then I ended up feeling like the show focused more on telling rather than showing, which is a a big no-no in the film and TV world. But then also, like the Shadow and Bone series, I think Lee Bardugo had her hands in it too. I think so. Yeah. We cannot outrun Lee Bardugo. We really can't. Lee Bardugo is just everywhere. So, like, for example, Lee Bardugo had her hands in the Shadow and Bone series on Netflix, which they canceled. And as they should. Yeah. I thought the first season was really promising. I but to be honest, I really just enjoyed the crows storyline. And I know that a lot of people who so I personally never read the books. However, I know that the people that who did read the books did not like the adaptation. I thought the first season was fine, the second season needed work. So honestly, from what I said, maybe I don't like it when the authors are involved in it. Maybe I changed my mind.
SPEAKER_02:I'm the Shadow and Bone adaptation. I have strong opinions. I don't understand why we needed to do it all in one series. That makes no sense. If you've read the first trilogy, the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and you've read Six of Crows. Six of Crows exists way after Everything with Alina. That is her name. Yeah. Everything with Alina. And they like contrive it in a way that, like, thank God they cancelled it because there was no way they could actually do the Six of Crows Crooked Kingdom storyline with what they did as far as like crushing them all together. Like those characters should not know each other. And why are they meeting in like the third episode? That is incorrect. That is wrong. And I hate the casting for Kaz Brecker. And now I'm off my soapbox. Really?
SPEAKER_00:You know what? I never read the book, so maybe you're ready. Right. I just thought that that Six of Crows should have just been the main plot line. I could not have cared less about what was going on with Alina. It was so boring. I wanted to fast forward through this part.
SPEAKER_01:That's an interesting take that they combined to the two the two series. It was a mistake. Okay. It was not an interesting take. It was a mistake. I'm familiar with it, so.
SPEAKER_02:In theory, I get why they did it, because with when you're making uh like mini-series or series of a show, you don't know if you're going to be able to continue with the stories. So I get it. In theory. But I don't think. This is what I am the the beyond all of this, apparently. I think that we could have made Shadow and Bone that trilogy. We could have made her a movie. Mm-hmm. Maybe like a three-part miniseries. And then we could have had a miniseries of Six of Crows. I don't think it was necessary to try to make it all happen at once. Ben Barnes was a saving grace of that storyline.
SPEAKER_01:Is he the darkling? Yeah. So I want to call back to having the authors be a part of the production of the show or film. I kind of like it. I think that it's nice because they really understand the story that's being told, and you know, adding them and their voice in the screenwriting room allows that to like kind of come to life a little bit more. I read How to End a Love Story by Yule and Kwan, and she's a screenwriter, and she's actually working with Emily Henry to bring some of her books to life. And in How to End a Love Story, she uses the setting of the screenwriting room, and she takes an author and puts the author in that room, and she has to kind of like work together with the screenwriters to bring her book to life on a TV show. So I think that seeing that behind the scenes was interesting, especially from the take of somebody that is in the writer's room. She is a screenwriter in her day-to-day. She's just stepping out of that to tell this story. And it is a fictional story, it's a romance book. Um, we do have it on shelf. So if you're interested, I definitely recommend. I think it was a pretty heartwarming story. And it's just interesting to see that world through the lens of somebody that is in it all the time. So I think that that kind of influenced how I view an author's role in the production of their book. Yeah. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That is a super cool like take to see it from someone who like that is their job, but then they're writing about it fictionalized.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So this was also my segue to mention Emily Henry and her books that are all being adapted into TV and film, which I'm super pumped for. I'm a huge Emily Henry fan. And they're currently working on people we meet on vacation. And I love getting the stills from or like the behind the scenes from their filming. I think it's so fun to see. It's also really fun to see her so involved in it. She posts about it a lot on her social medias. She, you know, obviously to get press for it, is talking about it in interviews. Um, but also just to see that she's with the actors helping, you know, tell this story and bring it to life. I think it's it's great to see. So I'm really pumped for the people we meet on vacation adaptation. Honestly, I'm pumped for all of Emily Henry's book to movie and TV show adaptations, although I do think they should all be movies. That's my hot take. I don't think that Hobby Place should be a show. Um, but I hope that they're good. And jumping into good adaptations, I really want to talk about Game of Thrones. I think that it is one of the best book to TV show adaptations that I've seen. Um, I feel like, you know, I read the first book and I watched the show, and I feel like they are very, very like they follow each other to a T. Like there are scenes in there that I'm like, oh my god, this is exactly as it was written, and I love that about it.
SPEAKER_02:Earlier this year, I read Game of Thrones for the first time and watched the first two seasons. Well, I read Game of Thrones and Clash of Kings. I think that's the title of the second one. And I watched the first two seasons, and I have to agree, it is like word for word. Bar for bar. Yeah. I know that farther in, and obviously, they had to wrap up a story that the author refused to finish. And I know that he's not happy about that, but finish your book if you wanted it to go a certain way. Should have finished the series. Yep. Um, we'll never see that. He will never finish it. He doesn't need to. Please, I'm so hopeful that we will. I know we won't, but I'm hopeful. Me too. Someday, maybe.
SPEAKER_01:Who knows? I did hear that he had written him himself into a corner, and that's why it's so hard for him to wrap up the series. Yeah. And so they just took liberties with it in terms of the adaptation, which I'm not mad about. No, don't come after me with your pitchforks, everyone. I actually am quite okay with how most of it ended. I'm not okay with who is the ruler of the kingdom. I'm not gonna like give out spoilers, but everything else, I was like, okay. Well, mostly everything else. I was like, okay, this is fine. I need to get back into my Game of Thrones era. I think you do. I do.
SPEAKER_00:I was really in it for a minute there. I am kind of jealous of people who've watched Game of Thrones just because it seems so culturally relevant, but I tried getting into it and I just could not. Um, it was a little bit much for me, very graphic and violent, which as we talked about in the last episode, it's just not my jam. So kudos to you guys. I will just live through both of you and I will agree with both of your opinions on it. Yeah, I have not heard great things about the ending of the show, but it had to end somehow, right? And if you didn't have a book out on it, oh well, that's just the way it ended. You sneeze you lose, you snooze you lose. I think one of the best adaptations that I have watched, um, obviously we've talked about it before, and I'll say it again. Pride and Prejudice 2005, love it, love it, love it. I really thought you were going for Dune there. Uh you know, Dune was also good, but I don't think it's a movie that or two movies that I would re-watch. I watched it once, I'm okay with it, I liked it, that's it. However, I'll talk about one that I haven't talked about before: the Little Women Um adaptation shot by Greta Gerwig 2019. It is a fantastic movie. The ending of it makes me cry every single time. It's a great story about sisterhood and about it's it's honestly really a feminist piece too. It's a product of its time for sure, but I think the reason why so many people, especially, you know, young women, love and relate to little women so much is just because the struggles that they were facing, you know, all the way back in the 1800s, they're those themes are still relevant now. You know, giving up your personality or, you know, your wants and desires in the pursuit of of a marriage is something that unfortunately a lot of girls had to lose themselves to. But also at the same time, you know, it's it's okay to want those things too, and it's okay for that to be your your goal in life. Everyone has different goals and different desires, and they should be respected. I I don't I don't know. I just I love how in the end they all in a way get what they want, so nothing is ever lost. I think it's a great, hopeful story. I absolutely love the casting, I love the music, the directing style, the the coloring, everything was amazing. Perfect movie. I will watch it a million times.
SPEAKER_01:I definitely have to agree with you on both Pride and Prejudice and Little Women. Little Women is hands down one of my top five favorite movies. I can re-watch that any day. Um, and you really you covered it. It's it is it's it's wonderful. Amy March Girl for Life. I just recently came to terms with that, everyone. I do have to agree, it's a great film. That's all that I have to add to it. I think another great adaptation that I can re-watch any day is The Hunger Games Catching Fire, which is like a huge turnaround, but it is so good. And for it to be a sequel to is like huge for me. Cause usually that's kind of where they flop a little bit. Second books in the Yeah, exactly. And they killed it with the casting, with the way that it was shot, with just the entire film. It's it's my favorite of the franchise for sure.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, hands down. I think catching fire as a book is the pinnacle of that series. You need obviously you need the Hunger Games to get to Catching Fire. We don't need to get into Mocking Jay. I'm not sure that I claim Mocking Jay. But no, Catching Fire, the film, is like genuinely incredible. I don't know how they were able to do that arena the way that they were, and like to make it feel as real as it did because it's just like so bizarre. Like, I don't know, the things that occur in that arena is crazy.
SPEAKER_00:I think what I'm picking up on from everything that we've been talking about about what makes a adaptation good is that at the end of the day, um, you emotionally connect to the movie and the TV show in the same way that you did the original piece of media. There's a lot of things that go into generating emotions and and creating that connection with the audience. But at the end of the day, if you're not able to achieve that, I don't think you have a good or a solid adaptation. You have to really understand what makes it so emotional for readers or just viewers and what makes it so important. You have to understand the themes of it. For example, like you said, like catching fire is about a revolution. Little women is about young women's struggles. If you don't hit on those emotional points, I think a lot of what you're trying to go for gets lost in translation.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna bring up a controversial adaptation that I I think I can tie it into what you were saying, Claudia. The Shining, the film and the book are completely different things. Just to neither of you have read The Shining, correct? Have you seen it? No, I've seen clips of it. Okay, okay. I'll give up my little soapbox again. It is not a secret that the Shining film is not beloved by Stephen King. And I can see why. And I almost want to say that it directly contradicts what you for me. I think the book is great, I think the film is great. They genuinely sh have almost nothing to do with each other in the way that the themes are almost off with what the book is telling you versus what the film is telling you. The film, the popular sayings, clips, whatever in that movie, the twins, for example, that are standing in the hallway. The twins are like genuinely a throwaway line in The Shining. That is all that is said. That is one of the most famous pieces of that film. I think that you just sometimes you have to separate, which sounds crazy because it's an adaptation of it, but sometimes you do have to separate the the source from the adaptation because I think it's a great film. I think the book is great, and I see almost zero correlation between the two. Yeah. So great movie, but not like a great adaptation. No, terrible. And it's it's funny to me that that can exist, that like that can be true for me who loves the source material, loves the book. It's a terrible adaptation, but it's a great movie. Yeah. And I I personally can't think of any right now other than that that I feel like does that.
SPEAKER_01:That's an interesting thought. The separation between the source material and the adaptation, and enjoying both of them, but not enjoying them as one. I've watched things that I didn't know were adaptations before. So, for example, Fight Club. I watched Fight Club and then I came up and I was like searching for it in our catalog, and I was like, oh my god, this is a book. And I didn't know. Yeah. I haven't read it, so I can't compare the two materials.
SPEAKER_02:But in my opinion, if you've seen the movie, you've got all you need to get.
SPEAKER_01:That was what the consensus was with other people that I've spoken to. I was like, oh, maybe I'll read it now, but everyone's like, no, you're good. They're like the same, you're fine.
SPEAKER_02:They are, and you you got the surprising part of it. Yeah. Where we won't spoil it, but like you got what you need to needed to get from the story. I don't think it's worth it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. It's not on the TBR, so we're good. That's how I felt about American Psycho 2. I had no idea that it was a book. I didn't know that either. Look at that.
SPEAKER_01:I also didn't know that The Last of Us was based on a video game, which I think is really cool to take something that is already on screen and transform it into a TV show. I mean, I I really enjoyed The Last of Us. I've never played the video game, so I don't know how accurate it is in achieving the like vibe and the goal in the video game, but I enjoyed the TV show. I thought it was well done.
SPEAKER_00:I did not like the Last of Us adaptation. I had high hopes for it. The first episode was really promising. I thought that the first episode did a great job of capturing that vibe. I thought that maybe there could have been better casting choices. I did not like who they casted for Ellie, and I just saw who they casted for Abby for season two, and I thought that they could have just casted her for Ellie. She would have been a much better choice, and I don't understand why they casted her for Abby when um when Abby's characterization in the video game, I feel like makes up a lot of how fans feel about her. So maybe, maybe the casting I think might be intentional. I'm I don't know. It's it's really a a huge point of contention. A lot of people really like the show. I felt like they started to lose the budget later on in the in the show, and it started to feel less like the vibe that I got when I played The Last of Us. I loved The Last of Us. I thought that the first game was fantastic. There were some key moments in the video game that they changed in the TV show, which like um uh Joel when he ended up getting what like stabbed on the horse. Do you remember that? Yeah. Yeah, so that's not what happened in the video game. He ended up falling on a piece of of rebar, and then Ellie was taking care of him and you didn't know if he was gonna live or not. Those I think are moments that really just irk me because I I understand maybe in in books why you would take away certain pieces or not include or change different details because there's so much to it, but I feel like video games, the content is right there for you. A lot of video games have a lot of cinematography, have a lot of cinematic pieces and elements to it. So when you start to stray from that, that's I don't know, kind of grinds my gears. I wanted more from the Last of Us adaptation, and I don't think I will be watching season two.
SPEAKER_01:So, question about the video game. Do they you see the characters? Mm-hmm. Okay, so you see Ellie and Joel, and you have a very clear idea of who these people look like and their mannerisms. Yes. Okay, so do you that affected your opinion on their casting? Okay. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:I think Pedro Pascal was an okay choice. Yeah. I I'm not sure if I would have gone for Pedro Pascal, but I thought that he was a pretty decent choice. So it wasn't the best choice, but it was an okay choice.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting. Yeah, I think that definitely having that understanding of what these characters are supposed to look like and how they're supposed to act because they're on a video game and you see them on screen already definitely plays a role in it. Whereas like with books, it is it's up to the reader's imagination.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I I know that I'm in the minority of that. I know that previously I said that characters don't have to look like the who they're portraying. However, I just don't feel like the vibe was there or that the mood was there. I don't think they did a great job. And that might have also just been the writing. I think the writing might have just not been there. And I know that the writer for the game was also writing for the show, which I think is surprising. So maybe I was right. Maybe I just really hate it when authors are involved in whatever they're adapting into. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I disagree. And that's okay. End of statement. Did you play the game? Yes. Okay. I'm gonna let you be mad about Bella Ramsey. I'm gonna tell you you're wrong. That's okay. I'm gonna let you be mad about that. I'm not gonna let you slander the casting choice of Pedro Pascal.
SPEAKER_00:Slandering, I said it was okay. But I thought that they just picked him because he's, you know, popular right now. That he became popular. Yeah. From the show. Mm-mm. He was really big before that. Yeah. He played The Mandalorian. Everyone was obsessed with that. Not me.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I w I wasn't either, but I think that he he shot up after the last. Like that's when he became more the man of the season. Yeah. Okay. I understand the changing of things in the story. I think that I understand that you see it all happen. The I get your point about like it's there. But also, let me let me check what the the playtime is on The Last of Us Girl.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I know it's like hours and hours and hours and hours.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna say it's probably like 15.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Fifteen hours playtime? Uh yeah. Average playtime is 14 to 16 hours. But up to 25 hours to complete to 100%. Yeah. And I think that if we put that in the terms of books, we're looking at we're looking at uh Brandon Sanderson level length, we're looking at it level length, we're looking at the stand. You have to close Things off and narrow them in a little bit. And I think that that the horse situation is just slightly more exciting to do in a shorter amount of time. My question for you, since it deviates a little bit more from focusing on Joel and Ellie, what are our thoughts on episode three of The Last of Us with Bill and Frank?
SPEAKER_00:I thought it was great. I really enjoyed that they fleshed out their real relationship like that. It helped me establish an emotional connection to that. And I think for me that's huge. If you can make me feel something, I'm already there. So I thought it was great. I really enjoyed that story.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Um, Sarah, just so you know, since I know you said you didn't play it, Bill and Frank's story is very much like you're reading through different things that you find in Bill's house. You don't get like a cutscene of their story or anything in the game. Like you find, they go to Bill's, I won't spoil it, they go to Bill's, Bill's another. Um, and you find different things throughout while you're looking and picking things up in video games where you're reading and kind of connecting your own dots on what goes on. And I think the use of that episode was incredible. I think that if you have zero interest in The Last of Us and the Joel and Ellie's story, you can watch that episode and still get something out of it. And like that's such a weird thing to do, especially in episode three of a show. I'll give you that. That was a weird decision that we just like fully deviated in episode three. I think that that episode can stand alone personally.
SPEAKER_01:And I I liked it. I know you just said that you thought it was a weird uh direction to take, but I thought it was such a good direction to take. Like I thought that it was kind of needed to show more of this world. Yeah, for sure. Not so tunnel vision. Yeah, how are people dealing with the changes that are happening? For those of you that don't know, it is a post-apocalyptic world.
SPEAKER_00:I just wanted to say like one thing to go back to what you said about like the length of it. I don't think that doing a mini-series was the right choice. If they wanted to capture everything, I think they should have done a full-length TV show. That way you can get all the details that you could ever possibly want in it because a season can be as long as you want it to be. Um, but I feel like that's a separate problem in media today. Everyone is doing a mini-series when it's not necessary. It could either be a TV show that is long form or a movie that is short form. But everyone is doing mini-series nowadays, and I highly suspect it has something to do with just uh milking it and making more money out of it for like streaming services.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I also think that it can also have to do with budgets of things. Like to have gone like classic TV show season length. Yeah. Like to have gone 22 episodes, like they don't they don't have the budget to do that. Especially with like The Last of Us in a post-apocalyptic world where there are many different things going on.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like that's also just because everyone is trying to do so many things at the same time, so the budget is just running low for everything.
SPEAKER_01:One thing I like about mini-series is that once it's over, it's over. Like it it's easy to wrap up and stay true to the story. There's a mini-series that I like, it's Little Fires Everywhere. Love. And I think that it was a really good book. I think it was a really good adaptation, and that was a mini-series. It has um Carrie Washington in it and Reese Witherspoon in it, and I think that they both killed the roles. I agree. And I feel like that was it was done really well. Sometimes I worry with making it a full-length TV show that that's when a lot of the liberties are taken in deviating away from the source material.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think when choosing to make an adaptation, you just have to understand what the original is. I mean, if you have like a novella, maybe making a movie or a miniseries out of that would make the most sense. But if you have something long form, like for example, Game of Thrones, would a mini-series have worked for Game of Thrones? I don't know. I'm not sure about that. Probably not.
SPEAKER_01:But it does work for some things. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna use this opportunity, and I think that we can all kind of give our input on things that I would like to see adapted and would hopefully be done well with the vein of video games. I'm gonna say Life is Strange. I would like to see that adapted, but specifically, specifically, Life is Strange, True Colors, the third one. Uh Claudia, have you played it? I have not. Have you played any of them?
SPEAKER_00:I've like watched people play them online. Okay, cool. I think I might have only watched the first one.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Um, Life is Strange is a video game series. It's an anthology, so they're not like you can play them out of order, but they're decision-based games, and the main character always has some sort of supernatural ability built into it. I think that it would be really cool to see it adapted. However, it is a decision-based game, so I'd be really interested to see how they make that happen. I know that Netflix has done like almost like choose your own adventure pieces of media. I can't think there's one where it's like a rom-com. But then they did one for Black Mirror. Yeah. Uh Banders. That's the one I remember. I think so. I think that's what it was. I think it's called Bandersnatch, where you are choosing your own adventure and making your own choices within the movie itself. And I think that that would be a really interesting take on doing decision-based games. Like I know we've talked about the Dark Pictures anthology too in our last episode. And I think it would be cool to see that, but also that would be really hard to do for as long as video games are. So if they wanted to make it and they wanted to make it a more streamlined, because honestly, in a lot of those games, you can make your decisions, but like it doesn't matter. Let's be serious, it's not that deep. Unless you're gonna like kill off the character, then that's like kind of but uh Life is Strange isn't really like that, the way that like Until Dawn or um the Dark Pictures anthology is. It's a little bit more linear. So I I would like to see Life is Strange True Colors adapted.
SPEAKER_01:So as someone that is primarily a romance reader, I feel pretty satisfied with the films that come out in the genre without them being tied to an already existing piece of work. So I don't want to pick a romance book because A, there's too many. And B, again, I'm satisfied with it. A lot of them already are going to screen. So I'm gonna go with something that is a little more horror vibe, and that's the Southern Book Club's guide to slaying vampires. That would be so good. Yeah, I think it'd be fun. I think the atmosphere is really interesting. I think that it has a nice level of humor in it that would be fun to see on screen. It's also kind of, you know, gory, which is appealing to people too that are, you know, interested in horror films. So I feel like it's a nice balance and I would like to see it on screen for sure. That's a good pick.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I can't really think of one that I'd like to see adapted, but I did think of a certain author whose works that I'm surprised haven't been adapted yet. Brandon Sanderson has written 10 billion sci-fi fantasy books. And I'm honestly surprised that we haven't seen any adaptations yet. I did research a little bit and see that in 2023 they were starting to work on a Mistborn project, but that has been put on indefinite pause for now.
SPEAKER_02:So I agree, but also I am terrified if they ever did do that. Yeah. His magic systems are very precise, and I would be so scared. Mistborn is the magic system is all built on like metals and like ingesting different metals for different things. And I I would be scared that that specifically would just look like they're like drinking little potions. I don't know. I I would be interested to see it, but also I'm scared of it. And if they did that, then they would have to like do literally everything because it's all connected. Yeah. But I I I could see them doing like tress of the Emerald Sea, where it's a standalone or honestly war breaker. That would be crazy. I agree with you. It's shocking and surprising, but also I would be scared to see it try to happen. But I would like someone's gotta do it. Someone does have to do it. We'll see. As my last my last thing that I would like to see adapted, I would like to see the Wayward Children series by Sean and Maguire adapted. It is a series of novellas. I personally think that it could easily be done as a miniseries, and each episode could be one of the novellas. They read honestly very cinematic. They're all between like 150 to like 200 something pages, like they're very short, and it's about kids who open doors into different worlds because they don't belong in ours. And it's very heartwarming, but also the worlds are really interesting. Every other book takes place at the school where these these kids go when they end up back in the real world and they don't quite fit anymore, and they're waiting for their doors to open again. So that's every other book, and then the books in between are the kids in their worlds. The worlds are so interesting. One of them is literally a world made of candy. One of them is like completely underwater. All of the worlds connect to the characters in some way, and you can understand why they end up there. And I think it would be a hard thing to take on, but I think it would be really, really cool to see it on screen because of how unique the worlds are.
SPEAKER_00:Now we're gonna delve into our hot or not. I think it would be interesting for us to talk about what we think about TV slash movie poster tie-in covers on books. Like, for example, the first ones that come to mind are the Twilight movie poster covers. I'll start off. I'm gonna go with not. I think a lot of care goes into book covers. You pay an artist a lot of money to make a great, fantastic cover that will entice readers into reading it and also encapsulates the vibes of the book. And I'm not saying that people don't work hard on movie posters, but judging by the posters that we see now that all look the same, they are kind of soulless compared to the covers, so it's a no from me. So I have to agree.
SPEAKER_01:I'm not completely sold on the like mass production movie adaptation book covers. I feel like it's a little gimmicky to me, but I have to disagree with the Twilight one. I for some reason just love the Twilight movie adaptation cover. I don't know. It's really just that first one that is just it's so good to the poster's iconic. Yeah, like I I do like that one. So I'm I agree with you with the rest of the covers, but that one, you can't take it away from me. That's okay. I love it.
SPEAKER_02:I grew up owning the Twilight movie cover tie-in edition, specifically the first one. So there's some nostalgia around that for me too. It's that it's a not for me overall. I think Claudia, you kind of nailed it. No movie cover tie-in edition is going to make me want to read the book more than an actual, like the actual original cover of a book. Also, side hot or not, and it's a knot, and I know you all agree with me, when it's like now on Netflix and it's on the cover, it's not even a sticker. Why are we doing that? Just leave it alone. If we're gonna do that, make it a sticker I can take off. Yeah. Specifically, I just purchased Dark Matter and it says now streaming on Apple Plus.
SPEAKER_01:I don't want that. Yeah, I I don't like that either. It makes me want to buy the book less.
SPEAKER_02:Agreed. I think I would rather have a movie tie-in edition cover than have that on it.
SPEAKER_00:I agree. Right, because if I wanted to watch it, I would I would watch it, I'd not be reading it. Obviously, I know that it's on it. Right.
SPEAKER_02:And like I get wanting to like advertise that it's coming out, but we can really just make it a sticker. Make it a sticker that just comes right off. You could also make it a page at the end of the book. Plenty of people do that. Yeah. So basically leave covers alone. That's our public service announcement for this episode.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, do you guys want to dive into what we are gonna be reading? Yeah. Yeah, let's do it. Fantastic. Um, so I'll kick us off. I have a few things on rotation right now, as usual, but I am hoping to have Intermezzo by Sally Rooney done the next time that we meet. I really love Sally Rooney's work, so I'm pumped for this newest release that she has, and it's essentially about two brothers that you know are kind of pretty different from each other. One is a lawyer and the other is a competitive chess player, and they're grieving about a recent loss that they have faced. So I'm interested to see how that plays out, and I I really love her writing style. I feel that her writing is very filled with emotion. The way that she portrays emotion is very well done. So I'm excited for it.
SPEAKER_00:So in the first episode, I mentioned an author who self-pubs web serials online. His name is Wildbow. He has a brand new series that's coming out called Seek, and I wanted to go back to being excited for things as they come out every week, have something to look forward to. I'm a little inspired by the Great British Baking Show. I just haven't felt that in a long time. And so I wanted to keep up with it because it's gonna be coming out every Thursday. He releases a new chapter. It is something very different for me. It is a space opera horror, which is I know, I know, something that I wouldn't really delve into, but I like his writing style, and so far I really enjoy it, so I can't wait to keep up with each chapter as it comes out each week. I'm gonna say something crazy.
SPEAKER_02:I'm probably going to lie when I say this. But I my reading plans are going to be finishing my reread of Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson and then finally reading Words of Radiance, which is the second book in the Stormlight Archive, because the fifth book, Wind and Truth, comes out in December. And I'm definitely not gonna be caught up by then. That's not gonna happen. But I would at least like to be done with Words of Radiance. And I'm probably not telling the truth, but I'm gonna try my best. I feel like this keeps us motivated to finish. It holds me accountable. Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna at least finish Way of Kings and I'll be reading Words of Radiance.
SPEAKER_00:I like it. There we go. I will not be finished with anything by the time. But you can give us an update on how it's going. I'll give you guys updates.
SPEAKER_01:I that concludes today's episode. If you all have any topics you want us to cover, any media you want us to check out, please let us know by sending us an email at ghpl at greenhillslibrary.org.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you guys so much for listening. This has been episode three, Lights Camera Action. I'm Tessa. I'm Sarah. I'm Claudia, and we're checked out.