I rarely come across good, if not great adaptations. The kind that makes you want to read the original work it was adapted from. usually my experience is that I love the book and hate or am dissatisfied with the movie or TV series or vice versa.

The trick, as storytellers, is how to make a great adaptation that was a crowd pleaser in another form previously. Especially when the story has a loyal and robust fan base. They already know the story, so you can’t or shouldn’t surprise them too much. They should recognize the story but also know that the adaptation is not going to be a word for word replay of the original work.

As a filmmaker, you need to be sensibly loyal to the story you are adapting, while also telling your own story. Which is why I get excited when I see this done well.

When I saw Little Disasters on Paramount+, I was instantly immersed in the story and binged it in one sitting. I enjoyed it so much that I looked for the audiobook online. Usually, I get bored reading a story I already know from beginning to end. However, the story the author told is slightly different from the one produced for TV.

This was my first time reading Sarah Vaughan, a British journalist turned author. I vividly detect her journalist background in her character development: that’s an observation not a complaint. She maneuvers between multiple POVs and storylines seamlessly.

Although I already knew who the main characters were, I still was hanging on to every word the narrator spoke, anticipating the gasp worthy moments. The limited series did veer off in a different direction in the third act. Haven watched the series first, I’m not mad at the changes made in the adaptation.

If you read the book first, it may make watching the limited series feel like a new story for you. It can be familiar and unfamiliar at different times. But that would keep you guessing.