11.22.63
I understand that when you go to adapt a book to a movie or series, many changes will have to be made, some of them big changes. And obviously when adapting a 700+ page novel that spans over 5 years and jumps between time periods, you're going to have to make some big changes. This adaptation was not successful, in my opinion.
For a book that - let's be honest - needed some cuts, the extra side plots and small details are removed, and I get it. But I would argue that the parts that were left and what was added to those parts somehow managed to detract from the overall theme of the story, which I think is about learning to accept that everything happens for a reason, and also the importance of living in the present and relishing the relationships and nuances that make up our lives. Jake and Sadie's romance is rushed through, jumping all the way from 1960 to 1962 before they even start dating, completely removing anything that would be evidence of this great love story that is so eloquently done in the book.
Adding Bill to the story is a practical addition, otherwise we'd have to learn all about Jake's Oswald Quest through voiceover or him just rambling everything out loud to himself, which I was glad they didn't do. However, my biggest issue with the book was the fact that Jake is not a very likable or interesting character. It's hard to pin down who he actually is. Instead of fixing that in the series and giving him some more distinct character-defining moments/traits, we instead get a TV-added character in Bill, who Jake literally treats like shit, passing off all of his Oswald work to him so he can spend time with Sadie. What happened to Jake being lonely and feeling like an outcast in society? What happened to tension with Sadie because he is juggling two separate lives? I guess this is still going on but it's so minimal that it just seems like he's forcing everything onto Bill. Poor Bill.
James Franco as Jake also doesn't work for me. I've seen him in other non-comedy films and I thought he was a good actor...but I am questioning everything. He is either phoning it in (which I doubt because he's one of the producers on this) or he wasn't that great to begin with. I don't know man...some of his scenes are hard to watch. He's like a grimacing potato. Which again lends itself to Jake being an uninteresting and unlikable protagonist. Sarah Gadon as Sadie on the other hand is fantastic. Perfect casting.
My other issue with this show's modifications was the way they sanitized the story for a wider audience. I understand that they wanted it to appeal to more people, but at the same time it's a Stephen King novel. What happened to the uber-violent Frank Dunning, or Sadie's horrifying disfiguring scar, or Jake's kneecap being shattered with a lead pipe and his brain damage? The beating he took did NOT warrant the brain damage that carried over from the book. It was laughable.
I don't know if anyone could have adapted this successfully, but kudos to them for trying I guess. It is entertaining and I'm sure I would have less issues with it if I was going in blind never reading the much better source material.