10 Worst Book-to-TV Adaptations

It’s nothing new or revolutionary for TV shows to base themselves on books, especially in this modern age of streaming. Heck, some of the most successful shows of all time, like Game of Thrones, are based on books. Since most of these shows have source material to fall back on, it’s easy to create something that is enjoyable and that keeps people coming back for more. Unfortunately, it’s even easier to muck everything up.

Indeed, there have been many TV series that have been based on books, but that do not give their sources any sort of boost in popularity—in fact, sometimes, it’s quite the opposite. It’s often very disappointing for fans of the books (naturally) when these shows come through and set fire to everything the fans loved, and it always leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths. These are the worst book-to-TV adaptations of all time, some of which were canceled quickly before they had the chance to do any more damage.

10

‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ (2022–Present)

Image via Prime Video

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is an adaptation of several works by J. R. R. Tolkien, who penned an enormous universe consisting of thousands of years of history that collectively became known as Middle-earth. There have been several popular film adaptations over the years, so hopes were high when a new show coming out promised to delve into some of the more elaborate and fascinating parts of Middle-earth’s history that hadn’t gotten the chance to be filmed yet.

The Rings of Power was a resounding success with critics because it is technically impressive. The visuals are gorgeous, the action exciting, and the acting is very well done. However, for fantasy fans and for die-hard fans of Tolkien’s work, the show has proven to be a disaster. It destroys much of the lore that one of the greatest writers of all time crafted with such care, and deviates from the source material far too much for its own good. It’s not a terrible show by any means, but it is a major disappointment, especially for those who were expecting something on the level of Peter Jackson‘s acclaimed film trilogy.

9

‘Nancy Drew’ (2019–2023)

Image via The CW

The Nancy Drew series of YA mystery novels has been immensely popular and has seen a few TV adaptations in the nearly 100 years since they’ve been around. All the books claim to be written by Carolyn Keene, but this is actually a pseudonym that numerous different authors have adopted over the years. In any case, the recent incarnation of the series created by The CW is really bad in pretty much all respects.

The main problem with it was that it lacked any of the spirit that made the novels so popular in the first place. The eponymous character is generally known for her bubbly and optimistic demeanor, never backing down in the face of adversity. But in this show, everyone is super moody, and the show bears an overly dark tone, trying to appeal to audiences way beyond the books’ level of maturity. The cast is good, and the show is visually pleasing, but it was just too somber and depressing, and had no reason to last for four whole years.

8

‘Beauty & the Beast’ (2012–2016)

Image via The CW

There are so many adaptations of the original Beauty and the Beast fairytale that it’s impossible to count them all. But among the worst of them is the 2012 series from The CW, which inexplicably decided to go for a more murder mystery route rather than an expansion of the story itself. To its credit, it is a reboot of a 1987 CBS series, but this doesn’t help it at all. Not only does it have to live up to its predecessor, but to the original story, as well.

It did neither of those things. There was zero chemistry between its two main actors, who, in accordance with the story, are supposed to fall in love, and the mystery at its heart was just not that interesting or suspenseful. The series was able to pick itself up and dust itself off as it went on, but the first two seasons are one heck of a slog that’s nearly impossible to get through. Truth be told, while the later seasons are fine, they aren’t worth the agonizing effort of watching Season 1.

7

‘The Rook’ (2019)

Image via Starz

For all of the terrible TV shows that overstay their welcome, at least The Rook had the decency to remain a miniseries. Based on a 2012 novel, The Rook bears a rather interesting premise. Taking place in London, the supernatural drama thriller follows a woman named Myfanwy, who wakes up on the Millennium Bridge surrounded by dead bodies, completely unaware of how she got there or what killed all those people. Eventually, she discovers that she is a sleeper agent with a top-secret British intelligence service.

All of that sounds great, right? Unfortunately, the miniseries fell flat in terms of execution. It failed to make its promising storyline interesting, and deviated so far from the novel upon which it is based that it’s nearly unrecognizable. But perhaps worst of all, it’s just so bloody boring. It could have been a really exciting psychological thriller, but they get all the interesting stuff out of the way early and don’t really keep up their momentum.

6

’13 Reasons Why’ (2017–2020)

13 Reasons Why starts out promising. It opens up with a teenage girl’s death, with her leaving behind a series of tapes, each one listing a reason why she died. These tapes are found by her secret admirer, who, upon listening to them, learns that each of the 13 tapes names specific individuals, with the request being that the tapes be sent to those people so that they can understand their actions and the untimely death of their classmate.

The first season is actually pretty good and remains an intriguing, yet tragic tale of the darker side of adolescence. Unfortunately, the show seriously overstayed its welcome after that, moving far beyond the source material that the original novel provided due to its resounding success. Each subsequent season of the series is pretty terrible and ruined the greatness of the first season entirely. 13 Reasons Why is an example of a show that should have quit while it was ahead and stayed a miniseries rather than trampling all over what made it so popular in the first place.

5

‘The Walking Dead: World Beyond’ (2020–2021)

Image via AMC

The original run of The Walking Dead inspired a few spin-offs here and there, but none have been as truly terrible as The Walking Dead: World Beyond. All the shows are based on a series of comics-turned-graphic novels, and gained pretty positive reception, even though viewership kind of fell off towards the end. The show is pretty basic, with it being about a zombie apocalypse, albeit featuring a huge number of characters, with the spin-offs sort of extending the plotline.

Perhaps what made World Beyond so bad was that it brought nothing new to the table: no new interesting characters, no new developments in the zombie pandemic, no nothing. On top of that, it came out while the original series was still running, making the entire franchise feel overly crowded and hard to swallow. Maybe audiences just needed a break, but World Beyond offered little to reinvent the universe, and didn’t really do the comics any justice, either.

4

‘Supergirl’ (2015–2021)

Image via The CW

For all of its campy awfulness, it’s frankly a miracle that Supergirl lasted as long as it did. Supergirl was conceived as a part of the Arrowverse, which has most certainly seen its share of ups and downs over the years. To its credit, Supergirl‘s main cast are experienced and really give it their all during each of their performances. The problem isn’t the actors, it’s literally everything else. The script and dialogue were cringe-inducing, the “action” sequences are cheesy and awkward, but the worst part of it all is the show’s atrocious CGI. Oh man, that CGI.

From obvious green screens to unconvincing visual effects, Supergirl has some of the worst CGI ever seen on television. Clips of it even went viral online because of how horrid the CGI is, becoming the subject of mockery from fans and non-fans alike. Even though that’s the most glaring issue in the show, there’s a whole lot more about it that misses the mark by a mile. Even though it’s based on comic books rather than a novel, Supergirl most definitely counts as one of the worst book-to-TV adaptations ever.

3

‘Inhumans’ (2017)

Image via ABC

Inhumans is frequently cited as the worst ever drama series and the worst comic book-to-television adaptation, and it’s most certainly not hard to see why. It was such a travesty that it only lasted eight episodes before being canceled and swept under the rug. Unfortunately, people didn’t forget how atrocious the show was. Honestly, thank goodness this show isn’t part of the MCU, or it could’ve ruined the entirety of the franchise.

Critics were extremely harsh with their reviews, stating that Inhumans tries to do a lot of things, but remarkably, fails to do any of them… or at least, fails to do any of them well. Other critics were even more harsh, saying that calling it a train wreck is almost too generous, because, at least a train wreck, people can’t look away from, whereas Inhumans is so easy to turn off. It’s a mess, and it’s no surprise to anyone that this show was canceled so soon.

2

‘Are You There, Chelsea?’ (2012)

Image via NBC

In general, biographical sitcoms can work, especially biographical sitcoms based on comedians’ lives. Take a look at shows like Seinfeld or Everybody Hates Chris, for example. Both are based on the lives of their comedian creators, and are some of the greatest sitcoms ever conceived. So, when a sitcom was announced based on Chelsea Handler‘s memoir, there was no reason to expect the level of awful that it actually delivered.

The memoir is mostly a collection of humorous anecdotes from Handler’s life, many of them awkward or embarrassing. It’s not exactly high art, but it’s enjoyable and fairly relatable. The show, however, was nothing short of an atrocity. To say it wasn’t funny would be a huge understatement. It lacked every ounce of the dry wit that helped launch the memoir onto the bestseller list, and for all of its attempts, lacked anything original or even remotely humorous. Are You There, Chelsea? is one of the worst sitcoms of all time, and one of the worst adaptations of a book ever made. It’s no surprise to anyone at all that it only lasted one season.

1

‘Caillou’ (1997–2011)

Image via Télétoon

Ask any parent out there, and they’ll tell you no children’s show grinds their gears more than the critically-panned Caillou, an animated series about a four-year-old French-Canadian boy based on a series of picture books. Generally speaking, kids’ shows should be educational, and should present children with ways to deal with real-life situations while also helping them develop basic life skills like reading and writing.

Caillou offered none of that. The titular character is nothing but a whiny, spoiled brat who always gets his way by kicking and screaming or otherwise throwing some sort of tantrum. At no point does it present children with how to deal with negative emotions; instead, it spreads the message that they can get pretty much anything they want if they scream loud enough, so it’s no surprise that parents loathe this show with every fiber of their being. Heck, even non-parents can’t stand the little bald brat and his frequent meltdowns. There have been numerous attempts at a revival, but these have always been met with severe rebuttals from the public. Caillou is a terrible influence on kids, and pretty much everybody hates it, so there’s no doubt that it is, without question, the worst book-to-TV adaptation ever conceived.

Caillou

Release Date

1998 – 2018-00-00

Network

Treehouse TV

• 

  Claudia-Laurie Corbeil

  Caillou (French language version)

• 

  Violette Chauveau

  Mousseline / Clémentine (voice)

• 

  Nathalie Coupal

  Doris (voice)

• 

  Gilbert Lachance

  Boris / Rexy / Gilbert (voice)