Over the pandemic the relevance of novels in pop-culture gained momentum as bored adolescents need new series to entertain themselves. The weirdest thing about this is seeing TikTok create a relevancy for ‘young-adult’ high fantasy, specifically with books starring a “fae” cast.
Shortly after there appeared to be a new popularity among “BookTok” with high-fantasy, it was announced that Sarah J. Maas’s ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ (ACOTAR) would be adapted into a Hulu series.
Immediately I did not have the most positive thought for this adaptation. Firstly, Sarah J. Maas has an arguably better series with more action and more character development. ‘Throne of Glass’ (TOG), in my opinion, was the series I expected to get its own adaptation first. Following an assassin-to-royalty arc, this series has so much depth and creative potential to it I have to believe that the relevance in fae-literature had influence in adapting ‘ACOTAR’ first.
On the flip side of that coin; it could be that show runners are trying to see how a book to screen adaptation of this magnitude in this genre does before moving onto Maas’ other series.
Published in 2015, this series follows 19-year-old Feyre Archeron after she kills a faerie wolf in the woods, resulting in her being dragged to the magical land of Prythian by Tamlin, the Lord of the spring court. While trapped in the spring court estate, Feyre begins to understand that everything she thought of the fae was a lie.
Shows starring a high-fantasy realm usually do not get more than one or two seasons. With the world of ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ being as vast and in depth as it is, if it were to get cancelled there would be so much of the story left behind.
Alternatively, they could try to cram all of the information into one season that the show flops on its own. The balance with these types of adaptations are precarious, and when done well should provide an excellent creation that will satisfy fans. With Ron Moore being the creator of ‘Outlander’; another page to screen show that has done well for several seasons, I have my expectations slowly rising from the floor. Working in tandem with Sarah J. Maas on this adaptation, the integrity of ‘ACOTAR’ being upheld looks within grasp.
Here’s what I would really hope to see in season one of this adaptation:
#1 Character accuracy— I want to be looking at the actors for this show and gasp at the authenticity. With this being a highly creative and new project, it is necessary that the world building and adaptation of this includes the original character aspects that so many loved in the first place. If the creative team behind ‘ACOTAR’ does this well, it sets a great precedent for how they plan to accurately handle the series.
#2 The division between the realms— This I feel the show runners will do well as it is a technical aspect, but in the books my favorite geographic aspect to picture was the divide between the mortal realm and the fae realm. Creating the world as it is presented in the books is absolutely necessary to inspire the attachment needed to guarantee this series renewal.
#3 “Under the Mountain”— The action present in the initial novel needs to be just as tense and climatic as it was in the books. The strength that protagonist Feyre has to find to take on the ruthless Queen of the fae helps to shape her character throughout the rest of the series. If the depth of her actions isn’t tapped into within the first season, it potentially sets up her character for failure if ‘ACOTAR’ is renewed.
#4 Dialogue— ‘Shadow & Bone’ did an excellent job taking character lines straight from the pages of the books. Several instrumental scenes used the iconic dialogue that fans anxiously awaited the use of. If ‘ACOTAR’ does this well, half of their work is done for them.
#5 Intent— I hope that the adaptation plans to highlight the genuine storyline within ‘ACOTAR’. It is so easy to get wrapped into the romantic subplot and miss the meat of the series. Specifically, I am hoping that the romantic aspect of this is able to take more of a side-seat to highlight the action needed to propel this series into one of the Netflix “Top 10 in the U.S Today” list.
My trepidation with the series does not take away from the massive opportunity this adaptation has. I want it to succeed as badly as any other fan does, and I want this to set the stage for other page-to-screen show adaptations to come out of the woodworks. As the ‘ACOTAR’ adaptation is still in the very early stages of production, there isn’t much information to go off of besides what we know of the series.
I have high hopes though, I hope they don’t disappoint.
The Beat @APU 