Some of the most binge-worthy shows had pen-and-paper beginnings, acquiring a following before the cameras ever started rolling. If you’re looking for a new show to obsess over or a real page turner to lose yourself in, I have a few recommendations:
Witches of East End
The novel by Melissa de la Cruz was released in 2011 and the televised series followed shortly after in 2013. The Lifetime Network carried the show for two seasons, bringing it to a close only a year after it began. Both seasons can be found on Netflix.
From the very first chapter, the differences between these two mediums are obvious. Freya Beauchamp, one of the magical women followed in Witches of East End, is described in the book as having strawberry blonde hair. The TV show, instead, gives us Jenna Dewan Tatum. She does not disappoint and manages to meet all of the other criteria for the character, but you get my point.
The basis of the plot in the novel has major game-changing differences from the show, too. The Beauchamp sisters are oblivious to their magical abilities in the series, but in the book they are well-aware of their heritage.
The creative licensing taken by screenwriters for Witches of East End produced a product drastically different from the book the show was based on. Read one, watch the other, and you may not even feel like the two are related.
The Magicians
This show is based on a series of books written by Lev Grossman in 2009, so that promised viewers a (hopefully) long stint on SyFy, the network that picked up the show in late 2015. With a second season scheduled for released in January 2017, that seems to be holding true so far, at least on the surface.
Season 1 might have made that tricky, though, according to UWF alum McKenzie Kees, who has read the whole series. The franchise follows Quentin Coldwater and his peers through a grad school like no other where the magic is obvious, but the evil and the talent are shroud. Kees says that the screenwriters made some huge leaps through the books in season 1 alone, which might complicate the progression of the show. One major difference, she says, is the role of character Julia Wicker.
“In the first book, she is hardly mentioned at all except for maybe a few passages,” indicated Kees. “I’m relatively certain her backstory isn’t mentioned much in the books.”
Julia Wicker is a principal character in the TV series, though, demonstrating the variance between the two mediums. Either way, my own experience tells me the first book is a fun read and the show is positively enchanting, so both are worth checking out.
Pretty Little Liars
If you have successfully lived on this planet without ever hearing about Pretty Little Liars until this very moment, I don’t believe you. It has been a pervasive television phenomenon since it debuted on ABC Family (now Freeform) in 2010. The books were released four years before that in 2006.
High school friends are forced to face their crimes when a mysterious person known only to the girls as “A” begins dragging out their darkest secrets. I’ll admit to having avidly watched the series for several seasons before becoming utterly confused and dropping off the wagon. Because of that, I did not dare pick up the series of novels that inspired it. The internet tells me that the fate of certain characters varies from page to screen, which carries the plot on a slightly different path through Rosewood.
Between the 16 books and seven seasons so far, this franchise provides plenty of content to explore for deviations.
Game of Thrones
You could build a house with the Game of Thrones series, or rather a castle, perhaps. It is a thick collection of literature written by George R. R. Martin that are about as old as the average college student, having been released back in 1996. The show has been wildly popular since its release in 2011, but fans of the books will notice some missing pieces.
Some characters from the text haven’t even made it on screen and those that did transcend the page are having way more sex than they did in the books.
“I’d say they are different enough to make the books worth a read,” said UWF Alum Joseph Mays. While he notes the discrepancies, he feels both products were enhanced by the existence of the other.
With the show set to end following its eighth season, the books might be a good way to extend the experience for fans who just can’t get enough.
Thumbnail courtesy girlmuseum.org