The TV Series
Those of you that have visited my Facebook page will realise, from my profile photo, that I love the series of books that is ‘A Discovery of Witches’. So it was with great excitement that I sat down to watch the first episode of the Sky adaptation. I had everything crossed that they would do justice to the book. Before I delve deeper this will contain spoilers for that first episode, so if you haven’t watched it yet, it may be best to avoid reading this.
My initial thoughts
The Characters
Obviously I know that adapting a book to the screen is inevitably going to mean some things have to change. Diana Bishop wasn’t how I had pictured her in my head, I had her down as a brunette and her personality jars a little with how I had imagined it. Only being one episode in we haven’t had a chance to fully explore the other characters yet. My initial impressions of Matthew seem to fit with the book – academic searching for a reason the creatures are struggling. The casting of Peter Knox and Satu looks spot on, can’t wait to see how those two develop.
The Storyline
Although it’s really a little too early to tell, so far it was pretty spot on. I loved the added touch of Diana ‘bumping’ into her dead father as she fled the library. If you’ve read the books you’ll instantly have understood this added detail and if you haven’t it’s a great mystery for you to solve. I last read the books around 6 months ago but I am fairly certain Marcus didn’t try and change anyone. I understand why they added this however, as it neatly led to the discussion of vampires failing to become sires. Introducing us to the reasons the vampires want Ashmole 782, I am assuming we will find out the witches and daemons motives as the series continues.
The Setting
I loved seeing the setting of the book brought to life, I had imagined the Bodleian so many times seeing it in the ‘flesh’ was brilliant. One for the bucket list. Oxford itself has been featured on screen and in books so many times, you can see why, the place looks very atmospheric. Again somewhere I am going to have explore at some point.
Will I keep watching?
YES! I’ve previously been really impressed with how Sky have handled book adaptations (I loved the Discworld ones) so I have high hopes. I will be sharing my thoughts when the series has finished. Happy watching!
What did you think? I would love to hear your thoughts.
I would love to hear your thoughts, please leave me a comment