writing random off campus thoughts because i read the deal two days ago and just watched the show and idk who else to discuss this with....
i don't personally care about the attractiveness of the actors (it's subjective anyway because i disagree with every man people have called attractive on the show agdjsjsjs and the photos i saw circulating when people were raging about this prerelease were all way more horrendous than the actual show so i have to think some of that discourse is disingenuous) because it means nothing really as far as adaptations go. the people we meet on vacation had fantastic casting, tom blyth is damn gorgeous and i could easily see him as alex, and then the film wasted the casting with shitty writing and changes that altered the entire essence of that character and his relationship to poppy, they were so awful in that movie i couldn't even bring myself to root for him. and i wasn't even a fan of that book, i liked the first 2/3 and hated the final third resolution. the movie had me appreciating everything i raged about when i read it (also two days before it released...i fear this is a pattern).
garrett and hannah were perfect. whether you like the way they look or not the personalities, their mannerisms, the way they are with each other all felt lifted from the book. the changes in the plot didn't fundamentally alter their stories or who they are as people or as a couple . i'm sorry if you were attached to the scenes they removed but i felt that the show's interpretation was a lot more realistic. garrett in the book has already dealt with his feelings on his father, who he is as a person, and hockey off screen. he is mostly fully self actualized aside from the fact that he hasn't shared the secret of his abuse with anyone. that guy 90% knows who he is. which is great. but tv shows need stakes. (mildly in the book but mostly off screen) at some point he would have had to grapple with that sad family history, his love of a violent sport, and have mixed feelings on his relationship with his father. this happening on screen is more interesting. i was genuinely dying when it looked like the show changed the fact that this dude lives and breathes hockey and grows up to become an NHL legend, so these changes also kept me on my toes but they just felt more real. (it's actually great that they distinguished him from his father by giving him consequences too, even some that actually were unfair.)
re: hannah. it never made sense that she'd like justin the jock, so i didn't mind that change and it brought him more directly into her orbit by making him a musician. again, the scholarship thing added stakes and removed unnecessary characters. it was more powerful to see her overcome her mental block and write a song than the song already written off screen pre-series. i didn't hate that amazon correctly called out that hands off thing garrett does in the book as problematic. they referenced it without it being his fault.
a lot of people mentioned that despite the book specifying that ivy leagues like briar didn't give elite athletes scholarships, it never felt realistic or logical. idk much about college sports but this is commentary i saw often, so lol at the show removing that plot entirely. tbh i'm going to defend that choice too: rich folks in the public eye aren't going to try to risk image and withhold tuition from their child. everyone knows who garrett is. if he's suddenly cut off that invites drama. no way a rich asshole obsessed with image is risking that. so it makes more sense his struggle with violence and his father would lead to him wanting to protect hannah by breaking up rather than the reverse. a more realistic use of the noble idiot trope imo.
doesn't really make a difference to the plot or characters making her rapist a hockey player. i do think it kind of sort of adds something to her relationship with garrett, that despite previous experience with a hockey player she felt safe enough with him to be with him ("sort of" because other than that random scene in the beginning when the hockey players pass her by (and i think delaney actually was one of them but it also could have been her imagination? the editing in that scene is intentionally hazy) it doesn't seem like she is generally afraid of other hockey players or the sport. but she did tell garrett she worked really hard to be okay so maybe that's why. also "sort of" because his abuser is also a hockey player, so it makes sense that the inherent violence in the sport and garrett losing it on delaney terrify hannah. these connections aren't explicit but i do think the undertones of these connections are kind of there. and from that lens add something to that climactic scene).
i didn't mind the emphasis on logan and garrett's friendship, but at times the conflict felt unnecessary and dragged on. like, there are things logan does that didn't make me on his side, i didn't think it was completely on garrett for him to be the only one to apologize. i get that he didn't know about his father's abusive history but meh. the jabs at how privileged he is without wondering why he was acting off (until later), idk idk at times it felt like he poked the bear.
i was genuinely sad cindy didn't leave phil's ass like she does in the book. also realistic that it wouldn't happen quickly but god i am so sad.
i could be wrong because i paid way more attention to garrett and hannah in the book but that crush logan has on hannah is way more pronounced in the show. also at times he made some weird underhanded comments about garrett and i get that they weren't that deep but idk idk. like i am not surprised they ended up fighting and maybe male friendships are all so all over the place they give you whiplash but i was ??? during some of those.
did like that hannah kissed logan instead of dean (i imagine they did that because they wanted allie/dean to start in this season and it would not have worked with hannah kissing him in the same season. also added substance to that crush logan has on hannah aside from just general jealousy at what he thinks is garrett's perfect life.)
i was hoping he'd tell more than just logan what a piece of shit his father is like in the books but perhaps that was always unrealistic.
i did not mind the allie and dean plot at all but i haven't read the score. i didn't think the 2 episodes (it's like one episode with some scenes in 2 more episodes but not as substantial as their part in that one episode they explore how they started hooking up. it's 25% of the show at best) of allie/dean took away from hannah garrett. the scenes they left out were tiny slice of life scenes (some of which were present in a dating montage). both of them had their solo plots explored and enough screen time to their own personal issues. and people calling hannah/garrett boring next to a friends with benefits plot are??? like one is about domestic violence and rape, the only thing we have explored with allie and dean is fwb and a conversation on monogamy. bffr. i do hope they skip logan's book to do allie and dean first because i imagine they've already started going through the scenes of that book in this show (idk how much crossover, i have not read the score).
i liked the change that allie didn't need hannah to tell her what happened and figured it out on her own. if they're best friends and she pays attention to her i think she could have figured out that something happened to her even if she didn't know exactly what. kind of an irrelevant change but i liked it because it demonstrated their friendship.
overall a decent adaptation with the same general feeling of the book. it's at least 65% book accurate too imo which is pretty good in the streaming 8 episode season era.
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