S02.E11: Here There Be Dragons

[ribboninthesky1]

3 hours ago, jhlipton said:

Pretty much any book-to-TV or -movie is going to have gaps, just because of narrative differences. 

I understand.  But in this context, the book's explanation makes more sense.  I'm unconvinced that at least some, if not all, of the book explanation couldn't have been adapted for the TV show, but mileage varies. Also, one of my main points is that I feel the showrunners are assuming viewers have read the books, and thus have the benefit of the book narrative when watching the show.

I've noticed more than a little of book discussion in this forum related to the show to further explain something, which is certainly understandable, but I'm not willing to cut the show much slack. That's the challenge with adapting a book to TV - the book allows for more fleshing out of story and characters.  Nevertheless, the show still needs to maintain a cohesive narrative, which I think the season is losing somewhat. I understand in the abstract what's at stake, but it also feels like character actions are being driven by the story rather than vice versa.  But this is clearly a minority opinion, c'est la vie.  

[jhlipton]

The author(s) (there's two, but they write under one name, like "Ellery Queen" back in the day) are an integral part of the show, which may actually contribute to this, since they're (obviously) familiar with the story.  Maybe if there were people involved who hadn't read the books, there might not be the problem.

[that one guy]

On 4/11/2017 at 8:35 AM, ribboninthesky1 said:

Prax comes into the books in a different way. They meet him on Ganymede, and he asks for help finding his daughter. After Holden breaks with Fred Johnson, they decide they're going to start contracting out to make money, and Prax hires them. Along the way, they discover the connection to Protogen through Mai's doctor. So in the show, they seem to have switched it around a bit for the sake of narrative streamlining. The Roci crew seem driven by the narrative much more here than they did in the books.

This kind of makes sense. As a non-book reader, the first season I wasn't exactly in love with this show, because for most of the year, I didn't really know who the protagonists were and why they were doing stuff. I felt the show was great at world building - it wasn't hard to grasp what the larger conflicts and politics were about, and it was an interesting world. But for a while they kept introducing supporting characters who were more interesting to me than the main characters were, and I didn't read them that way - Miller's partner, the rookie cop, the crew of the Martian warship, etc. I was bummed that people I was interested in kept dying or leaving the show, while it ended up following people who were less interesting to me, and for some reason I didn't realize they were going to be the protagonists for a few episodes. I abandoned the show for a bit, actually, after the show spent a bunch of time on a Belter ship being boarded by one party or another and I just. did. not. care. I was asking, who are these guys? Why do I care? What am I doing watching this show anyway?

So this season I like a lot better! Much of that is that our characters are better drawn.  So instead of having the same crew stumble accidentally onto the same conspiracy, again, which I would have found frustrating, they just have Holden obsessed by it. At first I was asking, "who do these people think they are and why is it their job to save the world? They don't, in fact, even seem to have jobs at the moment..." but it just became very character based. Holden is the crazy radical son of crazy radicals, he's attracted to other crazy radicals like Fred, and he wants this mission because his life's just kind of been empty, and he's been waiting for this. Sort of like Miller last season, but more mission focused and less interpersonal. I like the more personal motivations, as opposed to a coincidence that pulls them back into the same plot they dealt with last time.

[Holmbo]

On 2017-07-04 at 7:48 AM, doram said:

 (I actually get a little twitchy when I see casual mentions of book plots on this thread because some of them are spoilery)

Me too. For example someone a few threads back mentioned how a character looks in the books as described by another character, and then I know these two probably meet in the books.  I would prefer zero book talks in the episode threads, even comments about what has been changed from the books. They seem like enjoyable books, I will probably read them at some point but I'd like to watch the show first and see how it does on its own. I understand though that book readers will not separate the two medias in their minds and  there are not enough commenters here for separate forums I think.

I'm also surprised there's not more reactions to the lost baby @doram It does seem it was taken from her somehow.