We’re back to the show and the book falling in line with each other. Kind of.
I had a few issues figuring out where to stop reading since a fair few things that happened in the show haven’t happened in the book. And I don’t mean like the single event that the episode ended on. I mean like 3 different things.
SPOILERS AHEAD – WON’T RUIN THE SHOW BUT WILL TELL YOU SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO KNOW BEFORE WATCHING/READING IT
SHOW
BOOK
The interview with Kadmin was done illegally in a real body
The interview with Kadmin was done legitimately in virtual reality
The Raven finds out about Bancroft being at the fight ring and Kovacs tells Ortega
The visit Kovacs and Ortega pay to Kadmin’s lawyers is how they find out about the fight ring
The fight ringleader shows them footage of Bancroft getting into a fight with his son in the stands
The fight ringleader answers some questions but has no footage to show them and appears to be holding back on info
Ortega is badly wounded while Bautista is killed after interviewing Kadmin
This doesn’t happen in the book at all
I didn’t find too many similarities in this section of the book as we seem to be getting more and more variations. As more and more little things change the flow on effects mean more changes need to be made as well.
We may see some things circling back and being shown/read later down the line but I’m not going to know until I get to them.
As I continue my comparison of the book to the TV show, I’ve found that they are in line again. But will it continue?
SPOILERS AHEAD – WON’T RUIN THE SHOW BUT WILL TELL YOU SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO KNOW BEFORE WATCHING/READING IT
SHOW
BOOK
Kovacs wakes up in his own body with no enhancements and some defaults
Kovacs wakes up in a female body with no enhancements
Kovacs remembers his training with Falconer to beat the virtual torture
Kovacs remembers his friend Jimmy to beat the virtual torture
Kovacs gives the speech after waking up that convinces them to unlock him
Kovacs gives the speech in virtual that gets him released from the torture
Kovacs kills everyone in the facility after getting free and before leaving
Kovacs leaves with an escort then kills them while in the flying car
Kovacs leaves with Kadmins head
Kovacs leaves with a doctor’s head
Kovacs sees Ortega at the hotel
Kovacs goes back to kill everyone after escaping the car and avoids the cops as they arrive
Although Kovacs was tortured in both the book and the show, the show was much more graphic and detailed. Which explains why the book was short compared to it being so accurate to the show. Given books generally have more time and space to be more graphic I was a little surprised that this was the case.
The overall feel of the episode followed the book; however, I’m starting to see more and more differences. Which is ok!
Adapting a book to a film version does mean changes will happen. Which is great coz we get to see the writer’s interpretation of the book. And I’m excited to see what those changes will include!
The episode and the book are so different this time! Like SOOOO different!!
SPOILERS AHEAD – WON’T RUIN THE SHOW BUT WILL TELL YOU SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO KNOW BEFORE WATCHING/READING IT
SHOW
BOOK
Kovacs is invited and went to dinner party at Bancroft’s
No invite was issued, and no party happened
Elliot takes Kovacs to get weapons
Kovacs goes to the armourer Bancroft recommended
The knife bio-weapon goes to the tip
The knife bio-weapon is no where near the edges to ensure the owner doesn’t get poisoned
The hooker, Louise, drugs Kovacs
Kovacs goes with them willingly and is drugged at the facility
Since there was so many differences between the two in this episode, there’s not too many similarities to look at. So let’s have a look at them.
Other than Kovacs getting weapons, seeing Louise and being kidnapped, there’s like no similarities between the book and the show. Which isn’t surprising given that this makes up all of like 10 minutes of the episode and only 25 pages.
Not much time to have anything really happen.
I’m kinda hoping that the dinner party happens later in the book so that I can see some of those bits playing out in more detail.
This episode follows the book pretty much to a tee. Theres hardly any differences between the two, although I’ve outlined them below for you.
SPOILERS AHEAD – WON’T RUIN THE SHOW BUT WILL TELL YOU SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO KNOW BEFORE WATCHING/READING IT
You can see the differences summarised in the table.
SHOW
BOOK
Kovacs is woken up by Prescott (the lawyer) being in his room
Kovacs is woken up by the hotel with news that Prescott is on her way up
Kovacs sees the re-sleeving facility and interviews Mr and Mrs Bancroft while there
Kovacs goes to Alcatraz to see the storage and re-sleeving facility Bancroft owns and uses
Kovacs reviews all the death threats with the AI from The Raven
Kovacs reviews all the death threats with Prescott
Elliot is a black man who has his daughters stack in VR
Elliot is an old white man sitting on a bench
Elliot needs to be forced to talk about what happened to his daughter
Elliot freely talks about what happened to his daughter
Kovacs chases a guy to cause a fight outside of the brothel
Kovacs is jumped by Elliot and then others
Ortega arrests Kovacs for organic damage
Ortega saves Kovacs from the guy he was chasing
Although there are minor differences in how these are presented, I think I can understand why. I don’t think there was as much awareness around diversity back in 2002 when Altered Carbon was first published as there was 16 years later when Netflix released the TV show. Given the lack of black representation in a country that has such a huge black community I can understand wanting to make a few characters black that may not have originally been.
Although there are minor differences in how these are presented, I think I can understand why. I don’t think there was as much awareness around diversity back in 2002 when Altered Carbon was first published as there was 16 years later when Netflix released the TV show. Given the lack of black representation in a country that has such a huge black community I can understand wanting to make a few characters black that may not have originally been.
I think because this episode so closely resembled the book, they were only able to get through 4 chapters (51 pages) compared to the 6 chapters (72 pages) of the first episode. I’m looking forward to seeing the spread of the remaining episodes in the coming weeks.
In case you missed it, I decided to compare the books to the TV show Altered Carbon. It’s a trilogy with both seasons 1 and 2 currently available on Netflix so I’ll be knocking out one episode a week for you over the next 18 weeks.
Episode length: 59 minutes
Pages read: 72
Chapters read: 6
I’m really looking forward to bringing you my thoughts on each episode compared to the book. Even though I almost instantly found differences between the show and the book, by the end of the 6th chapter I was able to say that the main points happened in each.
SPOILERS AHEAD – WON’T RUIN THE SHOW BUT WILL TELL YOU SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT WANT TO KNOW BEFORE WATCHING/READING IT
To give you a summary, I’ve broken the differences and similarities down into dot points.
SHOW
BOOK
Flashbacks happen throughout the episode
Flashback is the prologue only
The girlfriend is murdered by the Protectorates in cold blood
Sarah (the girlfriend) is gunned down while trying to shoot the Protectorates
Kovacs is made a martyr
Kovacs is show in the chest before he realises what’s happened while reaching for his gun
Bancroft lives in some tower structure where all the rich people live
Bancroft lives in an estate out of the city, overlooking the Reach
Kovac knows what a Songtree is
Kovac doesn’t know what a Songtree is
Ortega has a drink with Kovac while he’s tripping on various drugs before checking into a hotel
Ortega has a drink with Kovac in his hotel room after he’s attacked
Kovacs knows The Raven is an AI hotel before going into it
Kovacs finds out The Hendrix is an AI hotel after the firefight happens
Kovac is attached by like 5 or 6 guys (including one woman)
Kovac is attached by one guy and one woman
Kovac tried to avoid working for Bancroft
Kovac never tried to avoid working for Bancroft
Pretty much everything from when they wake Kovac up until he get’s to Bancroft’s place is slightly different as well. Little things like the process of being woken up, being discharged, knowing vs not knowing the cops are escorting him to Bancroft, being given a letter from Bancroft before being discharged explaining why he’s been brought back. Little things like that are more detailed in the book.
Yet I understand they needed to change it so show you what the narration of the book tells us. Unless they felt like narrating every episode, I can see why they chose to do this a little differently.
The similarities are straight forward in that the general timeline and progress Kovac’s makes in the book and the show are pretty bang on. There’s a detour in the show where Kovac’s goes to get high and drink whereas in the book he questions Bancroft and his wife.
However, if I remember correctly the scene I read in the book where Miriam (Bancroft’s wife) is questioned, that happens in a later episode. It could have just been creative license to get interest in the series early.
Unlike with books, you’ve got one to two episodes to get the audience interested. If you weigh those episodes down with boring stuff like someone being questioned, you might lose the audience and cost the show success. Which is exactly why the show is “based on” the book. Not a direct adaptation of the book.
A few years ago, a new sci-fi, steampunk series was released on Netflix; Altered Carbon. As soon as I saw the trailer, I knew it was one I wanted to see, so when it finally dropped, I binged it over a single weekend. The following month I was able to keep reliving each episode as my work friends worked their way through the series and I was able to talk about it with them.
We dissected each episode from the choice of actors, the cinematics, the way it was shown and what they could have done differently to make it better. When I started my book blog a couple months later, these same friends suggested I do a comparison of the book to the Netflix adaptation.
Before Christmas I saw the announcement that Season 2 would be dropping in Quarter 1 of 2020 so I realised I needed to get a move on with my comparison of Season 1 if I wanted to keep up. Especially since there are only 3 books!
To help with this I asked for a Secret Santa to give me a copy of Altered Carbon, and I was lucky enough to get it! Yay!
Unfortunately, I’d signed up for so many book tours in January and February I knew I couldn’t get to it until March. So even though Season 2 dropped a week ago I’ll be reviewing Season 1 with the first book over the next 10 weeks. Then I’ll go straight into Season 2 over the following 8 weeks.
Whether you’re a fan of the books or the show, come back every week on a Wednesday to see how the show and the book are the same or different, and who did it better. Feel free to disagree or even point out anything I’ve missed coz I’m only human and I may see or interpret things differently to you.
Come back in a week for my comparison of the first episode of Season 1!
You can also keep track of each episode and book over on my Altered Carbon page.
Welcome back, today’s thoughts are on a different topic to Monday’s review of A Different Time, and I hope you enjoy them.
When I had a sick day off work, I took the time to give my body a rest from the stresses of study and blogging and watched like 3 movies and slept a whole heap. As part of my Netflix random scrolling until something caught my eye, I saw Brooklyn.
You may remember that I didn’t really enjoy this book towards the end so you’re probably wondering “why would you watch the movie of a book you didn’t really like?” Well as it turns out, in this case I think the movie is better than the book.
I know! I’m a book lover, I’m meant to say the book is ALWAYS better!
But in this case, I can’t say that. All the stuff I didn’t really like didn’t really come across in the movie. She didn’t feel like she was cheating on her husband. Just enjoying a trip back to her home country.
However, there were a few times in the movie where thing’s didn’t make sense. That was because they’d cut scenes out from the book as they always do. But that meant when she got pulled off the floor of work, why she got enrolled in a bookkeeping course, why her boyfriend kissed her on the doorstep and a few other things left me going “wait what? O that’s right! This happened in the book!”
For those people who haven’t read the book I bet they were pretty confused. Because it did feel like some gaping holes had been left open that probably should have been filled a bit better.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed what I think is my second TV/Movie to book comparison. I promise more will be coming! On Monday I’ll be doing a bit of a promo for a book that’s being re-released under a different name with some changes. You’ll need to come back to find out what it is!
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child first started performing like what, five years ago? And I finally got to see it for myself! YYYAAAYYY!!!!
The best part is that I didn’t even need to leave my home city. It started out on the West End in London in 2016 before opening on Broadway in New York a year ago. I can’t believe how lucky I feel that Melbourne, Australia was the latest to open.
I might have actually gone like a month ago, but I’ve finally found time to tell you about it. Man did my time get taken up with my assignments. Now I will #KeeptheSecrets because if any of you are planning to see it, I don’t want to ruin it for you.
What I love about this production is that they worked together with the theatre owner to refurbish the whole place. The little details they included were amazing. The H’s in the carpet, the dragon’s holding the lantern’s as if we’re in Hogwarts. It really made you feel as if you’d stepped into the magical world of Hogwarts.
Even the staff were amazing. Imagine walking in and having them taking your coat to the coat room before you even realise there is one. Kind of helpful like a house elf. When I ordered drinks for mum and I they asked if I wanted to order drinks for intermission so I wouldn’t have to line up. I mean talk about helpful and making sure I got the most out of my experience!
Even the production was great.
I read the screenplay back when it was released but the way they brought it alive was something else entirely. The little details they included, the facial expressions, the tone of voice. Even how they made stage changes between scenes into a performance of their own rather than a surreptitious change and movement of props.
At one point my mum got a fright because of how intricate, realistic and engaging the performance is. My sister’s advice to get seats in the stalls was definitely good advice! Even if the tickets are more expensive, it’s worth it! Seeing this live really did exceed all my expectations.
My advice to you? If you get an opportunity to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child live on stage. See it! I really hope the quality performance I experienced is replicated in every location this is brought to. It was amazing!
So I watched Fantastic Beasts (the latest one) a few weeks ago (finally!) and I had a few issues with it. I really need to talk about these coz I haven’t got anyone that I can talk to face to face about this so I’m putting it out to you all to discuss with me!
To start off with, let me list roughly what they are before I go into them.
Dumbledore’s age
McGonagall’s age
Grindelwald’s age
Nagini is a person?
Dumbledore’s age
I’m not one to complain about a fairly good looking guy being cast, and Jude Law does a good job of being attractive if you like posh, smarty pants Brittish guys. Since that’s not really my thing, I can appreciate that he’s good looking without being in love which clouds me to other aspects of his character.
In this case, it’s the fact that he looks like he’s about 35-45. Given that Harry Potter is set in the late 80s early 90s, and Fantastic Beasts is set in the 20s. Which means that by the time the Harry Potter movies are around he’s gotta be like…*pause while my brain desperately tries to do some maths….resorting to counting on my fingers*…over 100 easy.
Does that sound feasible to you?
Like I know they have magic, but that just seems a bit ridiculous even with magic. And I feel like (not that I’ve double checked) Dumbledore was pitched at about the 80-90 year old mark by the time Harry starts school. So how can this work?
BTW, with Scamander being an old student of his, it gives credibility to my thoughts that he’s like 35-45 by this movie.
McGonagall’s age
So this one was more like a fleeting look at her but again. She’d have to be close to 100 by the time Harry starts school. And I swear she’s described as being in her 50s or 60s in the Harry Potter books.
Which means she can’t have been born yet, or if she was, only just meaning she’d still be a tiny baby. So how the hell did she end up being in this?
From my memory of the Harry Potter books (I will admit it’s been a while since I’ve read them), it’s implied that Dumbledore taught her at school, which would mean that she’s not old enough to look kinda weathered yet in this movie.
Given my estimation of Dumbledore’s age in this movie, she can be at the most, like 20 years old. It just doesn’t work!!!
Grindelwald’s age
This one is bad enough that even my boyfriend who hasn’t read the books and can only say he’s seen the movies picked up on this one. With Johnny Depp’s character being entirely white haired my boyfriend turns to me and asks “I thought he’d be younger in this?”
My response? “Yea he’s only meant to be 3-4 years older than Dumbledore, so he should be around the 40 year old mark. But given his character was like 80 in the last Harry Potter movie he should be a baby now, not an older adult.”
This obviously backs up my point that Dumbledore should be much younger in this movie! So based on the information that by like 1995 Grindlewald should be about 80, that means in the 20s he should have been….10ish?
If Dumbledore is 3-4 yrs younger than Grindlewald he would be about 5ish. How is that old enough to be a teacher?
Nagi is a person?
What the hell? I thought if you turned into an animal (other than an animagus or a werewolf) then you couldn’t really be human again?
Like Hermione needed help from the nurse when she turned herself into a cat, and that took a few weeks to wear off. How is it then that Nagini has the same name as Voldermort’s snake which implies that she get’s stuck in snake form even after being turned into a human for a little bit from a polyjuice potion.
Which begs the fact, why couldn’t she talk as a human in the Deathly Hallows if she was originally a human?
If even the uneducated can pick up on these blatant issues. How the hell did they think they could get away with it?!
What are your thoughts on my issues with Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald?
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