Top Ten Tuesday - Ten TV Series That Were A Pleasant Surprise

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is supposed to have a TV theme. Not books? Well, I don't think I'll have much trouble doing this one, since I've done more TV-watching than reading this year.

Yes, I do watch TV. I still have cable, and I watch "mainstream" stations. Ads are annoying and so much of what's on is kind of crappy... but there are still some gems out there, even if they're not always obvious. Here are some of the shows that have pleasantly surprised me, and that I enjoyed (or still enjoy) watching:

Ten TV Series That Were A Pleasant Surprise:

Bob's Burgers

USA, 2011-present

The first time I caught an episode of this show, I had no idea what it was. All I knew was that I was laughing so hard, and I felt like I'd been caught watching something naughty. Despite the crude drawing style, there's something about the Belcher family that seems real... and I love the kids' interactions with their parents. Louise (in the bunny ears) is one of my favourite animated characters.

BrainDead

USA, 2016

This series had been heavily advertised leading up to its premiere, which kind of put me off. But there was nothing else on that night, and I had nothing better to do, so I watched it. Now I'm hooked. The characters are great, the show itself is funny, and it's a welcome bit of lighthearted relief in the midst of a nasty American election cycle. I doubt Republican supporters would like this one... but if you lean to the left even a little bit, you might find this show pretty entertaining. (Does anyone else like the musical recaps at the beginning of the episodes as much as I do?)

Castle

USA, 2009-2016

Even though I knew this show was about a writer (yay!) who tagged along with a cop, I wasn't sure I wanted to watch it. I guess I didn't realize how entertaining it would be, or how much I'd come to care about the characters. This was one of my favourite TV shows for the first 3 or 4 seasons. The final season was a complete trainwreck (and I missed much of it, not really caring enough to watch), culminating in one of the most disjointed WTF?! epilogues I've ever seen after the abrupt cancellation of the series. It was a sad ending for a show that had so much potential.

Downton Abbey

UK, 2010-2015

I think we'd been watching something else on PBS and the first episode of this show just came on. It was sort of like, "Hmm... the heir died on the Titanic, and now they're stuck with three daughters and it's all a big kerfuffle. Whatever shall they do?" Well, they did a lot in the 6 seasons of its run, although I almost stopped watching after the end of season 3 (if you're a fan, you can probably guess why). But there were enough plot threads going on that the show was always interesting.

Emergency Room: Life + Death at VGH

Canada, 2014

This is a short documentary series that we happened to stumble across. Think ER... but it's all real. It's shocking, gory, sometimes amusing... but always very, very interesting to see how the emergency room actually works. The last episode I saw had a construction worker who'd attached his jeans to his knee with a nail gun. A barbed nail right through the bone! (Don't watch this show if you're squeamish, obviously.)

The Great British Bake Off (aka The Great British Baking Show)

UK, 2010-present

I don't know how long PBS has been airing this series from across the pond, but I've caught the last two seasons and I'm hooked. I find it to be more "real" than MasterChef (which sometimes seems a bit scripted and over-edited). I love seeing what the contestants come up with!

Lost

US, 2004-2010

This was one of those shows that was so hyped up that I wasn't sure I wanted to go anywhere near it. But after the first episode, I was pretty much hooked. I enjoyed it right up until the end. And, yes, I liked the ending. (I also liked the fact that there was an ending at an appropriate point. So many TV shows could and should take their cue from Lost and quit while they're ahead.)

Secrets & Lies

Australia, 2014

Yes, I have seen the American version as well. But I'm glad I saw the original Australian version first, because it was a whole lot better. My mom and I were glued to the TV once a week while this series was playing, wondering who'd killed poor little Thom. While the American version was decent and stuck to the story fairly closely, it didn't seem quite as chilling or realistic to me... especially once the killer's identity was finally revealed.

So You Think You Can Dance

US, 2005-present; Canada, 2008-2011

I have to admit, when I first saw what this show was about, I thought it would be like American Idol but with dancers: a few big talents in a much larger pool of people looking for their 15 minutes of fame. But once I gave this show a try, I realized that the format is quite a bit different; we really only see the talent. And there's so much talent! I was really into dancing when I was little, and I would've loved this show back then. I enjoy watching it now.

Canada had its own version for a few seasons, with incredibly talented dancers. Unfortunately, it wasn't able to bring in enough advertisers to make it viable for the network, and it was cancelled.

X Company

Canada/Hungary, 2015-present

I don't watch a lot of programming on CBC, so I could've easily missed the ads for this TV show that turned out to be one of my favourites. The settings are gorgeous, the storytelling is intense, and the characters are perfectly imperfect. Two seasons in, and I think the writers are trying to give George R. R. Martin a run for his money with character deaths... but it's still an awesome show and I can't wait for the next season to be released.

What are some TV series that pleasantly surprised you?

Top Ten Tuesday - Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted at The Broke and the Bookish.

This week's topic is Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows.  This has apparently been done as a topic before, though I can't remember if I participated or not.  I'll pick some of my more recent reads, just in case:

Top Ten Books I'd Love To See As Movies/TV Shows:

The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare
by M. G. Buehrlen

This could be a tough sort of story to put on film, but if done right it could be really interesting.  I think the trick would be getting the audience to recognize all of Alex's past lives as her, so that we're invested in all these "different" characters.  Plus, I'd love to see a visual representation how Alex accesses her other lives.

All Our Yesterdays
by Cristin Terrill

While this one might be confusing (what with the time travel and all), I think it could be done.  It has a strong story that would probably translate well into a movie.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy
by Laini Taylor

Some lucky movie maker would have an awesome time with this one!  All those creatures, the wonderful characters, the amazing worlds...  This would likely be a feast for the eyes.  And, of course, there would be three installments of amazingness...

Liesl & Po
by Lauren Oliver

How cute would this movie be?  Though it would probably end up being marketed to children, it has the potential to be a visual masterpiece.  The settings, costumes, and music have the potential to be amazing.

Listen, Slowly
by Thanhha Lai

This cute coming-of-age story would make a nice movie.  It has an exotic locale, a fish-out-of-water as a main character, and plenty of intriguing secondary characters that would translate well onto the screen.

The Lunar Chronicles series
by Marissa Meyer

While I'm not a huge fan of the books (I've only read the first two... and that's enough for me!), I think they might make great movies.  One of my main problems with the books is the lackluster world-building and my inability to picture the settings as a result.  That issue would, of course, be bypassed by making the stories into a series of movies.

Penryn & the End of Days series
by Susan Ee

While I see most books and book series as translating better into feature-length films, I can see this series as a TV show aimed at teenagers.  It's got romance, gore, and plenty of action... so why wouldn't it work on screen?

Stolen
by Lucy Christopher

While this book is largely about the characters, it also has a setting (the Australian Outback) that would look gorgeous on film.

Under a Painted Sky
by Stacey Lee

One of the first things I thought on finishing this book was that it would make an incredible movie.  The pioneer trail setting, the diverse characters, the action, and the time period would all combine to make this a unique offering for teen viewers (or anyone else who enjoys historical pieces).

The Wide-Awake Princess
by E. D. Baker

I can see a movie like this ending up in the same vein as Enchanted or Ella Enchanted: not taking itself too seriously, but serious fun at the same time.  I'm actually somewhat surprised this book hasn't been translated onto the screen yet.  It would make a wonderful romantic comedy for teenagers.

What books or series would you like to see as movies or TV shows?

Monday's Question of the Day (17)

Monday's Question of the Day is hosted by Eleni at /-LA FEMME READERS-/

Question: When a book is made into a movie or TV show, do you read the book before watching it? Or it doesn't matter either way?

My Answer: I'm not a particularly fast reader, so I don't usually get to the book before watching the movie or TV show. If I've previously read the book, though, I will get excited about seeing it on the screen.

So... I guess it really doesn't matter. Screen adaptations are rarely 100% faithful to the books, anyway, so it's not like you can't read the book after seeing the movie/TV show and still enjoy it.

Top 10 TV Couples

I thought I'd take a stab at this meme that's been making the rounds. I saw it on Angieville, but who knows where it started...

Here are my Top 10 TV Couples:

10. Homer & Marge Simpson
The Simpsons (1989-present)

We've been watching them for 20 years now, and they're instantly recognizable as one of TV's most famous couples.

I can't say that I'd be as forgiving as Marge. She's put up with an awful lot over the years... from Homer's alcoholism to his ridiculous ineptitude that really should have nuked Springfield by now. But they still care for each other, even after being married all these years.



9. Sydney Bristow & Michael Vaughn
Alias (2001-2006)

I always wanted these two, a CIA agent and her handler, to get together. There was quite a bit of sexual tension between them... which, as it turned out, was far more interesting than their actual chemistry once they got together. Oh, well.












8. Cliff & Clair Huxtable
The Cosby Show (1984-1992)

I just loved this show, period. Cliff's interactions with his wife and kids were just fantastic. This is probably the sitcom I remember most fondly from my childhood. Cliff and Clair were great parents, teaching their kids valuable lessons without being too heavy-handed. And they loved each other, too. That much was obvious. Great show, great acting, great TV couple.










7. Hiro Nakamura & Charlie Andrews
Heroes (2006-present)

This was a short-lived coupling, but a very sweet one. Charlie is a waitress that Hiro meets at a diner in Texas. She has a power: memorization. Unfortunately, this ultimately cuts the friendship short when Charlie is murdered for her gift.








6. Rick Castle & Kate Beckett
Castle (2009-present)

This is a newer TV couple, but already one that I enjoy watching. I can't ever see these two getting together (without the show jumping the shark), but the interplay between them is interesting and entertaining. She's a no-nonsense police detective. He's a novelist who's shadowing her for research purposes. Even though he usually makes a nuisance of himself, the case ends up getting solved (and it's often thanks to Castle's insights, gleaned from years of thinking like a murderer while writing his books). They make a good team.

5. Niles Crane & Daphne Moon
Frasier (1993-2004)

If you were like me, you wanted to cry right along with Niles when Daphne got engaged to Donny. Right from the beginning, Niles was smitten with Daphne, and his feelings only grew as the seasons went on.

Niles and Daphne did eventually get together and, surprisingly, it worked. Whether it was the writing, the characters, or the actors, when these two finally got hitched, you were happy for them.

4. Mike Hannigan & Phoebe Buffay
Friends (1994-2004)

I know most people would probably pick Ross & Rachel or Monica & Chandler when they think of couples on Friends. But Phoebe and Mike were my favourite. I loved the unconventional way they met. And I loved how Mike liked Phoebe because of her weirdness... not in spite of it. It gives all of us less-than-normal people hope.







3. Juliet Burke & James "Sawyer" Ford
Lost (2004-2010)

Because I'm putting these two together, you might assume that I want Jack and Kate to get together, too. I guess so, but I don't find their on-again/off-again romance very interesting. The Juliet/Sawyer dynamic, on the other hand, feels much more real to me. I have no idea if this relationship is definitively kaput or not (with all the twists and turns in Lost, you never know)... but I sure hope that last season's finale didn't spell the end of "Suliet".




2. Beth Turner & Mick St. John
Moonlight (2007-2008)

This was one of my favourite shows of the 2007-2008 season. It was a pity this cheesy, campy (but fun) show didn't last longer. Mick St. John is a vampire (a relatively young one... I think he was in his 80s) who is also a private investigator. Beth is a human who works for an online news outlet. Their paths eventually cross because of a murder case. Beth doesn't find out about what Mick is until a few episodes into the series, and I loved her reaction. After getting over the initial shock, she was almost giddy with curiosity... and Mick was pretty willing to explain things to her (none of this "I'm so depressed about being a vampire that I'm going to be emo for the next 200 years" nonsense).

I think this relationship only would have gotten more interesting. Unfortunately, all we can do is speculate (unless some exec wants to give Moonlight another go; Alex O'Laughlin's new series sucks -- and not in a vampirey way -- so he'll probably be free for such a project soon).

1. Ned & Charlotte "Chuck" Charles
Pushing Daisies (2007-2009)

Yet another victim of network execs who don't know a good thing when they see it, Pushing Daisies introduced us to Ned (I don't think he has a last name... does he?) and his childhood sweetheart, Charlotte Charles (who goes by "Chuck"). These two managed to make a relationship work, even though they couldn't touch each other or Chuck would die... again.

Everything about this show was sweet... from the visuals to Ned's occupation as a piemaker to the romance. At least the two seasons are available on DVD so we can fall in love with one of TV's cutest couples all over again.

The Vampire Diaries

Okay, so I haven't read the books. I did Google them, though. They're pretty old (like 1991 old). That explains why I never read them. I was only in my early teens when they came out, and I never really got into paranormal series like some other kids my age did at that time.

In any case, I went into watching the series knowing that L.J. Smith had not ripped off Stephenie Meyer, so I wasn't really looking for comparisons with Twilight. In fact, the only real Twilight thought that crossed my mind was that I thought Nina Dobrev looked more like the Bella I imagined than Kristen Stewart does. Oh, well.

For the most part, I was entertained. And not just because of the story. I guess the pilot was filmed around here, because for most of the hour I was playing "guess the location". Small-town Virginia? Try suburban British Columbia. (Subsequent episodes appear to be filmed in Covington, Georgia. There goes my game...)

I liked the characters (though I couldn't really compare them to the book... maybe that's a good thing). Damon was deliciously evil; I think he'll be a good contrast to his more passive brother. And Elena was good, in a sort of bland heroine kind of way. I'm hoping her character will be fleshed out more as the series progresses.

So now I'm kind of curious about the books. Maybe I'll have to give them a try. But perhaps it's best to wait until at least the end of the first season; I don't want to ruin my viewing with endless comparisons between the TV show and the books.

What were your thoughts on the show?

Musing Mondays (1)

Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page...

How do you react to movies made of your favourite books (or even not-so-favourite books)? Do you look forward to seeing them, or avoid them? Do you like to have read the book before seeing the movie?


In general, I look forward to seeing movies (or TV series/miniseries) that were made from books... particularly if I've read those books. I enjoy seeing someone else's take on the story, and whether the filmmakers saw the same thing in their head as I did when they were reading the book. Harry Potter (especially the first movie) was a good example of that. So much of what I saw on screen matched really well with what I'd seen in my head (scenery-wise, anyway... the characters themselves were another matter).

If it's a book I like, I'm going to be more critical of the movie. I Capture the Castle is one of my favourite books. The movie was just so-so for me. It wasn't horrible, but for whatever reason, it didn't really capture the magic of the book. Jane Eyre is another favourite, and I've seen a few movie versions. I haven't really seen one that I hated; most of them are pretty good (I especially like the newish Masterpiece Theatre version starring Ruth Wilson as Jane). And I tend to like most Jane Austen adaptations... even though I haven't read any of the books in full. I got through half of Sense and Sensibility back in 1995 or so, and I'm in the middle of Pride and Prejudice at the moment. The 2008 BBC version of Sense and Sensibility is one of my all-time favourite movies... and it makes me want to pick the book up again at some point.

I do like to read a book before I see the movie. That's probably one of the reasons I've never watched The Da Vinci Code. I wanted to read the book first. But it's sitting on my shelf, mostly unread. I got as far as the main character trying to escape from the Louvre, and it just went on and on and on... and I got really, really bored. (Yes, I know that was in the first few pages.) So I may just watch the movie and forget about the book; I've heard the movie doesn't follow the book that well, anyway. The Time Traveler's Wife is a movie that I'd love to see. I read the book years ago and loved it. Oh, and The Lovely Bones is coming soon, too. I hope these movie versions can live up to the books.

Sometimes, though, movies just go wrong. The prime example for me is Howl's Moving Castle. A Hayao Miyazaki version was made in 2004. I've never been a fan of that style of animation anyway, but when I saw the movie -- based on one of my favourite Diana Wynne Jones novels -- I almost cried. It was so bad. The characters were nothing like their book counterparts, huge (and interesting) portions of the plot were left out and replaced with some strange shapeshifting nonsense and anti-war commentary, and the voice casting was just atrocious. Perhaps it was better in the Japanese version, but the dubbed English version was laughably bad. Howl was drawn as a bishōnen sort of guy, and then was given a voice that sounded like a bear on steroids.

And then there's Twilight. I saw it in the theatre shortly after reading Breaking Dawn (which ultimately soured me on the whole series... after being bored silly by New Moon and Eclipse, I'd hoped the last book could redeem the series; it could not... and I think it just made things worse). So I went mostly for interest's sake. I wanted to see how the story would be adapted to the big screen. Just like the whole series is a great example of how not to write a book, Twilight (the movie) was a great example of how not to adapt a book into a movie. I highly doubt that Stephenie Meyer intended for any of her characters to be comedic, but that's how they came across. Whether it was the poor casting, the bad wigs, or the questionable acting, the movie was causing a lot more giggling than swooning in the theatre where I saw it. Jasper, who I always saw as a dangerous, reserved, and somewhat tragic character, was reduced to a bit of comic relief, a character who walked around with an expression that alternated between a deer in the headlights and someone with a bad case of constipation. And when Carlisle, supposedly supermodel-perfect Carlisle, walked on screen for the first time looking like the pasty victim of some strange wasting disease, there was a collective snicker from the whole theatre. Perhaps Twilight tried too hard to stay true to the book. Some things just don't translate very well to the big screen. (A lesson to be learned: if hair colour isn't crucial to the story, don't be such a stickler about it. That's probably half the problem with these characters: horrendous wigs and dye jobs. It's hard to take them seriously when you're distracted by that much weirdness. Not everyone can pull off platinum blonde hair *cough*PeterFacinelli*cough*.)

Is that enough musing for Monday?

The Book Was Better!

That seems to be a common lament after the screen adaptation comes out. But it seems to be a bigger issue if you've already read the book. I'm finding that there are quite a few movies or TV series that I've seen or watched where I haven't read the original book first. I saw Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring without having read the book (I still haven't read those books... but I have read The Hobbit, so I'm not completely unfamiliar with Middle Earth). I watched The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story long before I read the books they were based upon. And I've just finished watching the first season of True Blood... without ever having held Dead Before Dark in my hands.

On the flip side, there are plenty of movies or TV shows that I've watched where I'd read the book first. More often than not, they're a disappointment. I suppose it's the inevitable comparisons, and the fact that you can cram more into a novel than you can into a screenplay. Plus, some moviemakers feel the need to put their own spin on the story, which can often be disastrous... at least in the eyes of the fans of the original book(s). I was very disappointed with the movie version of Howl's Moving Castle (one of my favourite books). I'm not an anime fan anyway, and I really didn't think that style suited the story. I can only imagine how awesome it would have been if someone like Tim Burton had done it, or if it had been given a treatment similar to that of the movie version of Coraline. I Capture the Castle was another disappointment. On its own, the movie is fine. But for me, it failed to capture the magic of the book.

As someone who likes to read books and watch movies, it seems that it's almost better if I watch first and read second. Then there are fewer expectations. The comparisons are still there, but there's also the fun of reading the book and discovering great little bits of the story that weren't included in the movie version (I'm experiencing this now as I'm reading Pride and Prejudice). I don't hate the movie if I enjoyed the book more... at least, not if I watched the movie first. However, if the book was awesome and then I'm disappointed by the movie, I'm liable to be more critical of the movie. So I'm a bit nervous about The Time Traveler's Wife. I read the book years ago, and I've been eagerly awaiting the movie version ever since. I guess we'll see if it can live up to people's expectations. At least the casting looks fairly good (that's pretty much how I imagined Henry and Clare)...

Anyway, after seeing a movie (or TV show) I enjoy, I often want to read the book it was based on. So I guess I'm going to have to add Dead Until Dark to my TBR pile. How many books are in that series again?