While there are some moments in the BBC miniseries that can be praised, what truly lets this down is the degree to which the plot strays from the book. What the book truly conveyed to the reader (& which the series failed to illustrate) were some truly fundamental points:
Triffids were everywhere - sometimes even in a person's garden, mostly non-threatening, unless someone tried to uproot them. The result is the TV series truly fails to communicate how blind everyone is to the threat of the Triffids. Triffids are intelligent - they're not mindless meat-eating machines. In the book, they wait patiently until the meteor storm, before breaking down their fences and attacking. Morality vs. principles - some really powerful plot developments were completely ignored by the series in their re-write. Like the doctor at the beginning, who jumps out the window, the little girl among the crowd who can see, but it too young to understand people want her to find food - the girl who offers herself to masen in return for him staying to protect their blind group - the starvation, the rampant disease. The series conveys this abysmally. Getting a person to stand off-shot throwing paper from a balcony does not convey London grinding to a halt.
This series makes an underwhelming attempt to paint a world as the book shows, and chooses instead to dedicate a big portion to illogical and imagined scenes fighting triffids with (newly-discovered) tentacles, Bill Mason's father issues (again, invented for the series), and enough Eddie Izzard/Torrence to make you wince.
Why this take on a best-selling book couldn't stay faithful to the plot, flabbergasts me. There's enough action, emotion and content in the book (but not too much...) to make a 3hr adaptation, even with a very modest budget. What they've created instead is a hollow mockery of a much beloved story, and makes zero improvements at the same time. As a minimum, I'd dearly have liked to see the discussion around the man-made weapon satellite accidentally dropping from space and blinding everyone from space. The thought the blinding and everything that followed was possibly self-inflicted was complete missed by this series.
Triffids were everywhere - sometimes even in a person's garden, mostly non-threatening, unless someone tried to uproot them. The result is the TV series truly fails to communicate how blind everyone is to the threat of the Triffids. Triffids are intelligent - they're not mindless meat-eating machines. In the book, they wait patiently until the meteor storm, before breaking down their fences and attacking. Morality vs. principles - some really powerful plot developments were completely ignored by the series in their re-write. Like the doctor at the beginning, who jumps out the window, the little girl among the crowd who can see, but it too young to understand people want her to find food - the girl who offers herself to masen in return for him staying to protect their blind group - the starvation, the rampant disease. The series conveys this abysmally. Getting a person to stand off-shot throwing paper from a balcony does not convey London grinding to a halt.
This series makes an underwhelming attempt to paint a world as the book shows, and chooses instead to dedicate a big portion to illogical and imagined scenes fighting triffids with (newly-discovered) tentacles, Bill Mason's father issues (again, invented for the series), and enough Eddie Izzard/Torrence to make you wince.
Why this take on a best-selling book couldn't stay faithful to the plot, flabbergasts me. There's enough action, emotion and content in the book (but not too much...) to make a 3hr adaptation, even with a very modest budget. What they've created instead is a hollow mockery of a much beloved story, and makes zero improvements at the same time. As a minimum, I'd dearly have liked to see the discussion around the man-made weapon satellite accidentally dropping from space and blinding everyone from space. The thought the blinding and everything that followed was possibly self-inflicted was complete missed by this series.
