Series vs. Book: Lessons in Chemistry

For a while, Lessons in Chemistry was one of the biggest literary hits. Every woman I knew seemed to be reading it. So when I finally got around to it, it was just in time for the new adapted limited series version of the book to debut on Apple TV+, starring Brie Larson. I’ve found the book to be slightly controversial. The controversy being over how much people actually liked it. Half of my friends absolutely loved it, and the other had no care for it. Some couldn’t even get through it. Personally, I thought it lacked some subtlety, but I really enjoyed the book and enjoyed the streaming series equally, despite the many changes it made. Here’s a look at some of those changes.

**Warning: SPOILERS BELOW

1. The TV series added a “Ms. Hastings” pageant

In the first episode, the series includes a Ms. Hastings pageant within Elizabeth’s office. Elizabeth, the staunch feminist that she is, doesn’t want to participate, but is forced into it and ultimately walks out early, much to the dismay of the other women participating. This addition stands to further show what an outcast Elizabeth is and how feminist and beyond her time she is. But as viewers and readers, I felt we were beaten over the head with this theme so many times that the addition of a pageant wasn’t necessary.

2. Harriet’s home life and connection to Elizabeth and Calvin

The series GREATLY revamped the Harriet character. In the book, Harriet is one of Elizabeth’s neighbors who comes to help her after Elizabeth gives birth to Mad. Harriet essentially becomes a nanny-like figure in the Zott family, and later befriends Elizabeth. She never had a relationship with Calvin and spends more and more time with the Zott family in part because her husband is abusive. But in the series, she is in a loving relationship with her successful husband doctor. Harriet is a lawyer, herself, and is involved in advocacy efforts in town.

3. Six-Thirty is a goldendoodle

In the book, the dog, Six-Thirty, is a former military bomb-sniffing canine, which would typically be portrayed with a German Shepard. Designer dogs like goldendoodles didn’t even exist in the time frame in which the series is set. But I understand this change as an effort to parallel Elizabeth being ahead of her time. She would have a dog that would wind up becoming trendy 40-50 years later.

4. Calvin is less of a loner

In the book, Calvin is a loner. He’s described as kind of funny looking, and no woman at his office has any romantic interest in him. In the series, Lewis Pullman portrays a much better looking Calvin than I had in mind. He’s friends with Harriet and her husband, and several of his female coworkers have crushes on him (though, they do still think he’s a bit of an oddball).

5. Mad goes to private school

In the series, Elizabeth’s daughter, Mad, goes to private school. The choice was to showcase how smart she is and that she was well beyond the level of her public school classmates. It was also a means to explain why Elizabeth would be seeking out a higher-paying job. But in the book, Mad doesn’t go to private school, and Elizabeth needs the money simply because they’re cash-strapped after the death of Calvin.

6. The protest

Going along with Harriet’s altered role as an advocate, her focus throughout the series is on protesting a highway that’s planned to be built in her predominantly black neighborhood. Her advocacy work culminates in a protest on the highway that leads to police violence on black people and political ramifications for Elizabeth, who also attends the protest. None of this is in the book, but I imagine it was added because the showrunners/writers felt there needed to be a Civil Rights component to the story because of the time period in which it takes place. This also serves as a way to make Harriet a black mirror for Elizabeth as another strong woman who’s ahead of her time in the way she sees the world.

7. Elizabeth hires Fran Frask

In the book, Fran Frask – we later learn – is hired by Reverand Wakely as a typist/assistant. In the series, Elizabeth hires her to work as her assistant. This allows Fran to have a larger role in the story, and for Elizabeth and Fran to connect and create a stronger friendship. It also leads to…

8. Walter has a new love interest

In the series, Fran is a love interest for Walter, Elizabeth’s boss. In the novel, the love interest for Walter is Harriet, who has finally left her abusive husband. Obviously that would not have made sense for Harriet in the TV series because in this version, Harriet is happily married. But I did love the idea of an interracial romantic relationship in the novel and the fact that Harriet found the strength to leave her husband. All of that is lost in the series.

9. No encounter between Elizabeth and Phil

In the novel, Elizabeth has a second sexual assault encounter. The first is in flashback from when she was younger. The second happens when she’s hosting Supper at Six and her boss’s boss, Phil, attempts to sexually assault her. She pulls out a knife, he passes out, and ultimately never returns to the show. In the series, none of this happens. And I wished it did! Mostly because Phil is a monster. But more importantly, it touches on Elizabeth’s PTSD and shows her continued bravery and strength.

10. Elizabeth’s ending

In the book, Elizabeth ultimately takes over Hastings Research, which allows her to complete her research and continue with even more. In the book, she leaves her show and becomes a chemistry teacher. It’s a nice – yet quite literal – homage to the title of novel, but it makes it so she never returns to her true passion of being a scientist.

Limited Series vs. Book: Fleishman Is In Trouble

When you first set out to read or watch Fleishman Is In Trouble, you think you know what you’re getting into: a story about a man and his divorce from his wife. That is mostly what the novel is about…until you learn the story really isn’t about that at all.

Toby Fleishman is a 40ish-year-old whose ex-wife, Rachel, drops their two children off at his Manhattan apartment and promptly disappears. Hours become days become weeks of Toby not being able to reach Rachel and floundering as he tries to juggle his career as a doctor and now full-time caring for his hormonal tween daughter, Hannah, and son, Solly. In modern-day post-divorce fashion, Toby is also on dating apps, where he’s trying — but not really — to date around. Mostly he’s just sleeping around. And masturbating around. And pornographing around. And again, trying to manage it all while also keeping up with the rich folks in his and Rachel’s elite social circle and not spontaneously combust. So yes. Toby Fleishman is, in fact, in trouble.

But so is Rachel Fleishman, which is what this story is really about. In fact, the story is a trojan horse, less about Toby and more about the women in his life: Rachel and Toby’s best friend from college, Libby. Libby is the narrator of the story. In the novel, this detail is slowly revealed over time. Initially, the reader learns the narrator isn’t Toby. Then we learn it’s a woman. Then we learn it’s his college friend. It’s not until more than 200 pages into the novel that the reader even learns this college friend’s name is Libby. All this goes to show how much Toby really thinks of Libby – or doesn’t, as the case may be – since he is so selfishly caught up in his own shit. As Toby deals with his own spiral, Rachel is having a nervous breakdown and Libby is struggling with a mid-life crisis, wondering what happened to her career as she grew a family in the suburbs. Libby writes about Toby, Rachel, herself and she and Toby’s other college friend, Seth as they navigate marriage, dating and divorce in their 40’s.

Both the book and series made me deeply fear divorce, since it’s portrayed as straight-up miserable for all parties involved. But the story is a more of a coming-of-age story set in mid-life as the four characters think about where they’ve been, what they want, and how they’re going to get where they want. The series follows the novel quite closely, as to be expected since the author of the novel also wrote the series. But the limited TV series (available on Hulu) makes some changes I don’t think quite work.

Compared to the overall length of the limited series, the show moves through Toby and Rachel’s story quite quickly, allowing the rest of the show to focus more on Libby and Seth. While they are main characters in the novel, there’s not quite that much of a focus on them so this turn feels sudden and forced Libby. In fact, the series really emphasizes Libby and her narration, whereas — as I mentioned before — the novel doesn’t and again, doesn’t even reveal her name until much later in the book. The overarching theme and statement the author is trying to make is that sadly, people are more likely to read stories about men than women. So she uses a woman to tell a man’s story that ultimately is secretly a woman’s story. The de-emphasis on Libby in the novel better evokes this statement. By centralizing her character at the end of the limited series, I found myself asking where did this come from? I wanted to see more of Rachel.

The series also lets Toby off the hook quite a bit and makes many of the characters more likable. In the novel, Toby is far more obsessed with his apps than in the series. He is disgustingly galavanting around New York City with random women. He is not focused on anything, which adds to his downfall. And his daughter is not quite the sweet girl they make her out to be in the series either. Author Taffy Brodesser-Akner wrote her Bat Mitzvah into the limited series. It does not happen in the book. But also, I was surprised to see the scenes in the series when Hannah asks to practice for her Bat Mitzvah because she is completely disinterested in the novel and has to be forced to study. She is a lot more annoying and has a lot more attitude in the novel than in the series, which makes sense as her parents’ marriage and lives crumble around her. She, Rachel and Toby are overall much more awful people in the novel than the show. That may make for a happier and more hopeful showcasing, but I also think the misery in the novel is pretty realistic considering what they’re all going through.

That’s not to say the book is miserable. For the record, the novel is fantastic. There’s a reason it was a bestseller when it came out; it resonates deeply with people of a similar age as these characters. There are moments sad and traumatic, and there are moments hopeful and uplifting. I recommend watching the series as the casting is great and the crux of the story is still well-told, but I recommend the book more.

Book vs. Limited Series: From Scratch

The Netflix limited TV series “From Scratch” blew up and was all over my social media feed when it debuted last fall. Women seemed to be head-over-heels for the dramatic love story about a black American and white Italian man who meet, fall in love, start a life together and face cancer. But because I was watching other streaming shows at the time, I made the decision to hold off on watching the series until after I read the book first – and what a good decision that was.

Don’t get me wrong. The series is good! There’s a reason it was so successful. Zoe Saldana is amazing as the lead character, Amy, who studies abroad in Italy and falls for Lino, the handsome chef. Saro eventually follows Amy back the United States, where they marry as she builds her life as an artist and gallerist and he, as a chef. Midway through the series, Lino becomes ill. Despite being so young, he and Amy discover he has a rare form of cancer. The first half of the series focuses on their budding romance. The second half dives into their joint fight against cancer. But throughout all of it, there is love, Italy, the joining of two families from literally opposite sides of the worlds and also opposite sides of the emotional spectrum. While Amy’s family embraces Lino, though not necessarily his food in the beginning, Lino’s family is hesitant to welcome a black American woman to the family, resulting in years of residual family drama and disconnection that it ultimately rectified after Lino’s cancer diagnosis.

The story is based on author Tembi Locke’s real-life story and married to a man named Saro. So let’s start there. Right off the bat, the names of all the real-life people are changed for the TV series. According to a podcast interview I listened to with Tembi Locke and her sister, Attica Locke, who co-wrote the TV series, they decided to change the names to offer some separation because telling their story on-screen felt particularly raw, personal and traumatic. I can understand that. But it did feel kind of confusing having just read the book. These are real people after all. It’s not a fictional story.

And while the TV series detailed most of the same parts of the story, I preferred the format of the book. The book begins by telling the reader the Saro (spoiler alert!) dies. The memoir is told with a back-and-forth format allowing the reader to understand where Tembi is now emotionally and then explains what led up to that and how she got there. Telling the story this way eliminated the “plot twist” of Saro getting cancer, but also emotionally prepared the reader for what’s to come. Knowing what’s going to happen helps shift the focus from the tragedy of Saro’s death to a broader story about love and families coming together. The memoir spends more time elaborating on the family’s several trips to Sicily and the way Tembi and her daughter ultimately connected with Sicily and Saro’s mother so beautifully. Because the series doesn’t mention Saro’s cancer until halfway through, we don’t get a glimpse into that worldly and familial connection until the final episode, which is a little too late to allow for the same depth and poignancy the memoir offers.

The series also dives a little more into the relationship between Amy/Tembi and her sister, changes Amy/Tembi’s job from actress to artist/gallerist and focuses on financial struggles the couple was having. Financial problems had little mention in the memoir, so I’m not sure how much of that was true and dramatized for TV or simply not included in the memoir because there were so many other topics and themes to explore. Either way, I found some of these subplots distracting from the focus point of the story. Zoe Saldana’s performance was amazing and the show was gorgeously shot, but From Scratch was sadly turned from a beautifully-crafted memoir into a TV series that seemed hell-bent on making women cry rather than helping viewers better understand the meaning of finding life before and after death.

Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington Adapting Bestseller for Limited Series

Could this be the next Big Little Lies?

According to Variety, Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington are teaming up to adapt Celeste Ng’s 2017 bestseller Little Fires Everywhere for the small screen.

Both Witherspoon and Washington will executive produce and star in the series, which tells the story of a suburban single mother and the custody battle over a Chinese-American baby. No word yet when or where it will air, but the news is hot; apparently the project is sparking a bidding war between players in premium cable and streaming.

Reese Witherspoon, man. She just slays.

Limited Series vs. Book: Big Little Lies, “Once Bitten”

The latest installment of the Big Little Lies limited series picks up with Amabella now being bitten by one of her classmates. Once again, Renata blames the bullying on Jane’s son Ziggy, adding more stress to Jane’s life. She’s already tangled up in visiting the man who assaulted her years ago after Madeline and Celeste find him online and learn that he lives and works nearby. In this episode, we see a different side of Jane starting to come out as she takes her gun to target practice and smokes weed while she drives to her assailant. It was a trip she had planned to make with Madeline and Celeste but instead she goes it alone. We only get a glimpse into her meeting with him but never learn how it ends or if she confronts him. Instead, we just get an image of her screaming and banging the horn in her car, speeding home and getting pulled over by the cops.

Meanwhile, Madeline is having her own car troubles when she gets into a crash with her co-worker and director at the theater, Joseph. He picks up her and takes her “for a drive” to discuss their relationship. The discussion erupts when they crash in the parking lot. Joseph injuries seem serious, but he winds up coming out of it okay, and it becomes clear that the crash more or less shocked the relationship right out of them as they recede by their families for the love and support they need.

Love and support are two things Celeste certainly isn’t getting at home as she continues to navigate her murky and abusive relationship with her husband Perry. Here, again, we see her going to therapy without him. It’s probably for the best, since she finally comes clean –after some serious pushing from her therapist — just how physically abusive and harmful Perry can be.

Again, I loved this episode and how they’re slowly building the tension to the explosion that I expect the final episode will be. However, NOTHING that happens in this episode — with the exception of Celeste’s trip to the therapist — happens in the book! Because this tawdry relationship between Madeline and Joseph doesn’t exist in the book, there’s never a car crash in the novel either. And because Madeline and Celeste never tell Jane they found her assailant in the book, Jane never goes to visit him. If the show was going to add so much story to fill the time of seven episodes, why didn’t it just stick to the book and shorten the series to six episodes instead of seven? But again, the story is still well done, the acting great, and the editing –especially the audio editing int his episode– is incredible.

Limited Series vs. Book: Big Little Lies, “When Push Comes to Shove”

The murder is still a mystery but the motivations between characters continue to build in the latest installment of Big Little Lies. Once again, the children’s teacher notices some tension between Ziggy and Amabella, encouraging Jane to take her son to a child psychologist. The psychologist determines he doesn’t have the characteristics of a bully and in fact may be getting bullied at school.

Meanwhile  Jane is starting to feel a release and a new interest in men after revealing (in the last episode) that she was raped by a man named Saxton Banks. Madeline looks up Saxton Banks online and shows a photo of him to both Jane and Celeste — a big shift from the book. In the book, Madeline and Celeste keep their knowledge of Saxton Banks to themselves without bringing it up to Jane.

Meanwhile both Celeste and Madeline and working to conquer and succumb to their troubled marriages. Celeste visits her therapist again — this time, alone — and Madeline cheats on her husband with her co-worker at the theater! Soon after, we learn that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened between them.

I have to say, having Madeline cheat on Ed is a HUGE change from the book and one of which I am NOT a fan. Madeline’s character in the book is nutty and intense, but still likable and having her make a decision like this is the very opposite from likable, especially when Ed is …pretty good. Now it makes sense why the show has put such an emphasis on this whole “Avenue Q” storyline; it was all to build to the tryst and relationship between Madeline and the director of the show. Madeline’s work is mentioned many times in the novel but is not a focal point by any means, and we certainly never learn the names of her co-workers through it. That said, I have to admit I love the following scene in which Madeline very openly tells Celeste what happened and Celeste just laughs and laughs (probably because Celeste doesn’t have the ability to be as open with Madeline, and her secrets are so much darker that Madeline’s little makeout session seems trivial to Celeste).

I’ve noticed that in these past entries, I’ve pointed out a lot of changes the show has made from the book. While I’m not a fan of shows and movies changing adaptations from the story we already know and love, I still love this limited series version of Big Little Lies. Reese Witherspoon’s acting in it is some of the best we’ve seen from her. The show has also done an excellent job at making Celeste and Jane as complicated as they are in the book, which can sometimes be hard to do onscreen when we don’t get to read their thoughts like we can in the book. The editing on the show and all of its random flashbacks and quick shots are incredible and add little pops of knowledge and feeling in a way a book simply can’t.

 

Limited Series vs. Book: Big Little Lies, “Living the Dream”

The backlash against Renata’s daughter not inviting Ziggy to her birthday party continues in this third episode of the Big Little Lies limited series. Finally, an episode where things really get moving. We see and hear less from the other parents in the school as part of the investigation and instead delve deeper into the lives of our main characters: Madeline, Celeste, Jane …and Renata? (Renata is an important character in the novel, but certainly is not central to the story; however it appears the creators of the series are trying to make her more of a central character here. Maybe that’s just what happens when you have someone as good as Laura Dern playing the role.)

This episode takes us through Renata’s daughter, Amabella’s, birthday party. Because everyone in class was invited except Ziggy, Madeline arranges for Ziggy and several other kids and moms to instead go to “Disney On Ice” in lieu of the birthday party, stirring up all kinds of mom drama.

Meanwhile, Ziggy accidentally leaves the class hippo behind at “Disney On Ice,” sending his mother, Jane, into a spiral over what the moms will say about her. Jane then reveals to Madeline her big secret: that Ziggy’s father is a man she met in a bar who assaulted her. Madeline’s older daughter decides to move out of the house and in with her father because of the stress she feels in her mother’s home. Celeste and her abusive husband see a counselor together.

This episode takes big steps in moving the story forward. The veil is starting to lift on the darkness of Jane and Ziggy, as well as Celeste and her husband. The episode also somewhat redeems Madeline, making her more likable than in the second episode by showcasing how much she genuinely cares for others.

But there are a couple of striking changes between this episode and what happens in the book. Jane’s assault is described much more vividly in the novel. Jane explains to Madeline that the man who assaulted her also verbally assaulted her, calling her fat and ugly. The fact that he called her that is vital to understand Jane as a person. Her lack of confidence in her body and herself all stem from that singular moment. With those verbal details left out of the series, we’re led to believe the assault was strictly physical when, in fact, it was also emotional, and emotional scars also last a lifetime.

The episode also takes a big jump when we see Celeste and her husband go to couples therapy. Though initially timid, they eventually open up a lot about their abusive relationship in a way that’s so dissimilar from the book, I was shocked. It seems as though the series to trying to humanize her husband? But why? He’s horrible. Celeste’s storyline in the book is so great because we get to watch her become stronger and stronger. By going to therapy with her husband and initially lying about the details of their marriage, she comes across more weak than strong. It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of this plot is played out in the series knowing that it added this twist.

Limited Series vs. Book: Big Little Lies, “Serious Mothering”

 

The tension between mommies and daddies builds in this second episode of the limited serious version of Big Little Lies, as we get deeper insight into Madeline’s marriage and Celeste’s. We see fewer flashes of police activity alluding to the horrible incident that eventually happens and instead more flashes of graphic and violent sex, as well as the now-recurring images of Jane running down the beach in a blue dress.

Another incident in school happens in this second episode, with the girls daring Jane’s son, Ziggy, and Regina’s daughter, Amabella, to kiss. Though it’s hard to say since we never actually see it. Instead, we only witness the buildup to and aftermath of the “kiss,” much in the same way the show refers to the murder that makes up the main plot of this story.

The kiss that the children are “pushed” to do in class is not part of the book, Big Little Lies. It seems the writers have added this incident as a device to further build tension between all the parents of the children involved. The writers divide the couples even further when, in the episode, Celeste and Madeline attend the same yoga class as Madeline’s ex-husband Nathan and his new wife, Bonnie. Then we learn that Bonnie has helped Madeline and Nathan’s teenage daughter to get birth control pills, pushing Madeline to hate Bonnie even more — and rightfully so! As a stepmom, she absolutely does not have the right to help the teen get birth control when her birth mother is still an active part of her life. This is yet another plot point added to the series that is not part of the book. Yet another thing the series adds in this episode is Madeline’s ex-husband and current husband meeting up for a little “chat,” which quickly turns into a heated exchange.

All of this is an attempt to show the motivations each adult has for one another and adds to the suspense of who’s been murdered and who’s the murderer. All that’s well and good, but it also strays from the book and, in my opinion, just further drags out the story that’s already full of suspense and intrigue. These added scenes and scenarios also make Madeline far less likeable from the way she comes across in the book. Yes, she’s a little nutty in the book, but we still like her.

The show does a good job, however, of foreshadowing some of the big moments to come, including the introduction of Harry Hippo — yes, he actually matters in this story! — and finally we see how abusive Celeste and her husband’s relationship really is. However, her openness about it with Madeline at the bar is a complete 180 from the book.

So far, the show continues to keep in line with basic plot points, and while I see why it’s adding what it’s adding, I don’t know how necessary it really is.

Limited Series vs. Book: Big Little Lies, “Somebody’s Dead”

A blur of flashing red and blue lights, flashes of women in pearls, and images of Elvis and detectives spin in a dizzying display of a dress-up event gone wrong in the opening minutes of the premiere episode of Big Little Lies. The HBO limited series is set to adapt the bestselling Liane Moriarty novel of the same name over the course of seven hour-long episodes.

The density and complexity of the novel certainly lends itself to being a limited series and not a movie that would inevitably leave out plot points for time. That said, the premiere episode starts off a little slow. It focuses on exposition, bringing both the drama of the “Blonde Bobs” — or crazy mothers — around which the murder mystery story revolves and the comedy — particularly from Reese Witherspoon, who plays the character of Madeline.

School orientation is a stressful day for everyone, including children and parents. Madeline proves as much by almost getting into a car crash with a car full of teens, including her daughter from her first marriage and then twisting her ankle. This is where the story starts, in a flashback after the first few minutes establish someone has died at a school fundraiser. This opening episode stays (mostly) true to the story, setting the tone for the tiny beach town of stuck-up mothers and their precocious children.

We meet Madeline, her daughters, her husband, ex-husband and his new wife, Bonnie, as well as Madeline’s best friend Celeste and new friend Jane. Each has kids in the same first grade class, where little Amabella is apparently choked on the first day by a boy in class. She places blame on Ziggy, Jane’s son, who denies having hurt the little girl.

That’s about as far as we get into the story, but in some beautifully shot flashback images, we get the idea that Jane and Celeste have some pretty haunting histories. The visual markers of this are perhaps less subtle than those in the book, but they certainly grab attention.

Differences from the book include the story happening in California instead of Australia and the kids being in first-grade instead of kindergarten (perhaps another year allows for them to be more mature and have more of a voice than in the book?). The series also softens the relationship between Madeline and her older daughter. While they’re sour with each other in the first half of the episode, they have a nice moment at the end that doesn’t really happen in the book until — well, ever. In the show, Ziggy also asks his mother why Amabella said he choked her when he didn’t. That doesn’t happen in the book. While that may seem like a minor detail, it’s really an important one for the overall story and works to make the viewer more sympathetic to Ziggy and Jane.

But the story is so good, the setup so well done, the child actors so good, and Reese Witherspoon’s portrayal of Madeline so comically spunky, there’s no doubt I’ll be watching the rest of the series.

 

‘Big Little Lies’ Coming to HBO

If you haven’t yet read Liane Moriarty’s huge bestseller, Big Little Lies — don’t worry, I haven’t yet either!– there’s now more incentive to do it. The bestselling novel is coming to HBO in the form of a limited series.

According to Collider, the series is set to debut in 2017, and it looks awesome. I only found out about this a few weeks ago when I was watching HBO and saw the trailer.

The series stars Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Adam Scott and Laura Dern. It’s interesting that it’s set to air in this way on HBO, but apparently the story is complex enough to warrant more than your standard 120-minute feature, and the cast is so good, well, does it really even matter how long it is?

Meanwhile, this isn’t the last we’ll see of Liane Moriarty adaptations. According to Variety, Witherspoon and Kidman have already teamed up to produce a movie version of Moriarty’s Truly, Madly, Guilty.