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\n“There\u2019s Always a Reasonable Explanation”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
This Sunday, January 12th, HBO premieres the first two episodes of their 10-episode adaptation of The Outsider<\/em>. Is it good? Absolutely. One of the best. Before I get into that, let me take a little step back.<\/p>\n
With the advent of streaming services, the miniseries adaptation of novels has transformed into something different. Once upon a time, a book was granted four, six or eight commercial-interrupted hours for a television adaptation. Although it appeared over four nights, with a nominal two hours per installment, the 1994 adaptation of The Stand<\/em> clocks in at just over six hours once all the ads are removed.<\/p>\n
These days, we get roughly eight to ten solid hours for a novel adaptation, starting with 11\/22\/63<\/em> (Hulu) in 2016. Since then, we\u2019ve had three 10-episode seasons adapting the Mr. Mercedes<\/em> trilogy (Audience), and in the near future we\u2019ll get similar-length versions of The Stand<\/em> (CBS All Access) and Lisey\u2019s Story<\/em> (Apple TV+). I\u2019m not including in this discussion \u201cinspired-by\u201d series, such as Haven<\/em>, The Mist<\/em> or Castle Rock<\/em>, as well as several others that have been announced\u2014those that take little bits of something from a King work and run wild with it for multiple seasons. I\u2019m talking about straight adaptations of King novels.<\/p>\n
This format also brings back serialized storytelling. Sure, you can wait until all the episodes are available and binge your way through them, but most people won\u2019t be able to wait that long, which means you\u2019ll get an hour a week for two months or so.<\/p>\n
Having that many hours to adapt a book gives the writers the opportunity to explore a novel to its corners. It\u2019s no longer necessary to combine characters or condense scenes, or to create periodic\u2014and often artificial\u2014suspense points leading up to commercials (although Hulu still does this because of its availability in commercial-supported and commercial-free formats).<\/p>\n
It also gives the writers room to be creative on their own. In 11\/22\/63<\/em>, for example, they solved the problem of having a main character who was mostly alone for most of the novel by promoting a minor character into a sounding board. The writers on Mr. Mercedes<\/em> went even farther, concocting entire storylines and adding numerous characters that didn\u2019t appear in the books.<\/p>\n