The retelling of classic stories with a modern twist has always been a crowd pleaser. I can’t even count the number of times Shakespeare has been redone into a teenage romcom (“10 Things I Hate About You,” “She’s the Man,” etc.).
Good modern TV adaptations are hard to come by, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any out there. Some of my favorite shows were based on classic novels.
A great loose adaptation of Sherlock Holmes is the show “House.” The main character Gregory House is a mirror to Sherlock Holmes. Once you realize the show’s connection to Sherlock Holmes, you’ll never unsee it. House is obviously a play on Holmes, and his best friend Dr. James Wilson represents Dr. John Watson.
The show itself can be very dark and gritty. It has a sense of humor at times, but it really isn’t a show that you’ll walk away from feeling good about the world. I would suggest it to anyone who can handle a dose of pessimism now and then and a main character who’s a bit of an asshole.
Another adaptation of a classic story is the TV show “Selfie.” “Selfie” was only on ABC for seven episodes and was pretty much dismissed as bad when it first aired. The entire show ended up on Hulu for free and eventually developed a small devoted fanbase.
Nonetheless, it’s a fun adaptation of the classic story “Pygmalion.” The story is better known to the world through the musical “My Fair Lady.” Starring Karen Gillan and John Cho, the unlikely duo are brought together when Eliza Dooley needs help interacting with the world without social media.
My favorite adaptation of a classic novel is “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries,” which is based on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” There have been so many incarnations of this Austen classic from the 1995 miniseries on BBC to “Bridget Jones’s Diary.” Although “The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” is technically a web series, the writing has the quality of a well-made TV show.
In this version of “Pride and Prejudice,” Elizabeth Bennet (or Lizzie) is an almost-college grad who isn’t sure what to do with her life. She and her best friend Charlotte create a video diary series together to document what’s going on in her life. Along with her two sisters, Jane and Lydia, Lizzie learns to navigate new jobs, maintain relationships and, most importantly, handle her neurotic mother.
“The Lizzie Bennet Diaries” won an Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media in 2013, becoming the first digital series to do so. The show is funny and heartfelt and is only 100 episodes on YouTube, which is completely manageable.
Modern adaptations make classic stories even more accessible. Not everyone can get through Jane Austen’s dense novels, but lots of people can watch and appreciate her genius through a short web series. It’s the retelling of these stories through TV and movies that makes them truly timeless, and any of these shows demonstrate exactly that.
