When you are reading a book, you get emotionally invested in the story and its characters. You start forming images in your head about what they look like, how they dress, what they sound like, and all their little quirks based on reading about their lives. Then one day, Hollywood announces it is doing an adaptation. This could go two ways: either it’s going to be fantastic seeing these characters that you have fallen in love with be brought to life, or you are going to watch as producers slowly ruin your favorite characters as they simplify their entire stories into a couple of hours.
The Love Hypothesis, one of the most popular romance novels of recent years, is the latest book to make the jump from page to screen. But does seeing Adam and Olive come to life make the story better, or does it take away from the version readers created in their heads?
The movie brings some of the most memorable parts of the story to life, but it also makes some major changes. It cuts the character of Dr. Holden Rodrigues entirely and changes the details of several events, including taking away the fact that Adam had a crush on Olive for years. Some scenes are also completely new, such as Adam and Olive attending Dr. Fastuca’s cocktail party and Adam finding out about Tom’s true nature. Despite this, the movie still kept the little details that made the book so lovable, like Fluchella, Olive’s unicorn knee-high socks, and, of course, Adam and Olive’s opposites-attract dynamic, with his grumpiness balancing her sunny optimism.
The Love Hypothesis isn’t the only adaptation proving that changing the original book details isn’t always a bad thing. Prime Video’s Off Campus also takes some creative liberties with Elle Kennedy’s books. Instead of following the books in their original order, the show has rearranged certain storylines and expanded the characters’ lives beyond what we see in the novels. The changes actually work because they allow the characters to develop as a group rather than forcing each season to follow one book perfectly.
There is something satisfying about seeing the Off Campus characters come to life. The friendships, settings, and relationships that readers imagined while reading the books can finally be seen on screen. With Season 2 already renewed, it will be interesting to see how the show continues to change the story while still keeping the elements that made the books so popular.
Maybe the best adaptations aren’t the ones that copy the book word for word. They are the ones that understand why readers loved the book in the first place. If an adaptation can make readers recognize the characters they fell in love with while also giving them something new to enjoy, maybe the movie can be just as amazing as the book.