The Terror of Knowing

Welcome one, welcome all, to ‘Emma Remembers Top 5 Wednesdays Exists And Decides To Join In’… again. Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly meme/challenge which was created by the wonderful Lainey from gingereadslainey and is now overseen by the equally lovely Sam from Thoughts of Tomes. Every Wednesday, participants devise their Top 5 based on a given topic.

This Wednesday’s theme is Books You Want to See as TV Shows. As a huge fan of TV, it will come as no surprise that it was difficult to narrow down my choices to just five books. But, for the most part, these books are all stories I feel would warrant a long story-telling format than, say, a film could provide.

I had severe case of deja vu whilst composing this list and I realised it’s because I’ve actually done this topic before and a lot of my choices are still the same! I’m nothing if not consistent (read: obsessive) about books I want/need as TV shows. I’ve tried to include a few new things into the list though, just to mix things up.

5. The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling

I know what you’re thinking – do we really need yet another TV crime drama? Ordinarily, I’d agree with you; the fact I groan internally every time ITV release yet another detective drama attests to the fact that the genre isn’t my favourite. The reason I’m less than impressed with is is that I think a lot of these TV shows are “safe” shows, they’re police procedural, and they have a set formula that is very rarely deviated from in interesting ways. I think, however, that the Cormoran Strike series has enough meat in it to prevent that from happening. The characters are better sketched out, the plots interesting, and with the right actors it could be amazing. And, of course, after picking this I just Googled to see if there were any adaptations in the pipeline and it looks like there are and, better yet, a TV drama set for BBC One – couldn’t have imagined it better myself!

4. The Bone Season/The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon

I’m completely in love with story and I downright need to see it realised on-screen. The rights to the film were bought by Andy Serkis’ Imaginarium Studios and I assume that’s still happening (anyone got an updates on that?), which would be great because I think the story needs a company that could realistically motion capture to create the supernatural elements of this story. However, I also wouldn’t say no to a darker, grittier TV show, especially of The Mime Order. Think the tone of Netflix’s Jessica Jones but displaced to this dystopian London with its orders of clairvoyants and Victorian-inspired gang systems.

3. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

I think of all the books on this list, this series is the one I’d be most worried about if they made it into a TV show. The narrative is amazing but, let’s face it, most of the gripping nature of this book is in the characters themselves rather than necessarily the story. The story itself is bonkers but in a way that I think they could make a really Instagram-y aesthetically pleasing TV show, full of long-shots of beautiful-but-sinister-woodland, so long as there was a slightly witchy, (Urban) Gothicy undertone to it too. Someone made these fake TV credits and basically just take the tone of this, plus the tone of the likes of Supernatural and Buffy, cast actors that really, really know/appreciate the source material, and I think I’d cry of happiness.

2. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Maybe it’s because I recently read this lately and am utterly enamoured with it but I think Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha world is something that needs to be realised on screen. As far as storylines go, I personally think the Six of Crows story would make for a better on-screen narrative than the Grisha trilogy, so that’s why I’ve chosen it over Bardugo’s first series in her fantasy world. A gang of criminals, an impossible heist, magic and mayhem, I think this would actually make a great dark, gritty fantasy sort of show – my brain is thinking something somewhere between Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinders, to be honest.

1. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

Ok so this is one that’s actually definitely happening sometime (hopefully) soon but it nevertheless gets the top spot on this list because A Series of Unfortunate Events deserves better than the film that was made of the first three books. I actually didn’t hate the film (controversial opinion I know) but I felt it was done a disservice by the film medium as there was far too little time allowed to tell the story of one book, let alone of three. What resulted was hodgepodge and didn’t quite work. But it did persuade me that, in the right hands, a TV series of the books would make a wonderfully weird and immersive world. Provided you have the right creative team to create this steampunk-ish, slightly Gothic and macabre setting, I think it would be wonderful.

So there we have it – those were the top 5 books/series I want to see as TV shows.

Do you agree/disagree with my choices? Do you have a Top 5 Wednesday list or post of your own? Be sure to link it below if so; I’d love to take a look!

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