this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2026
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Television

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List of Best Rated TV Series as voted by the Fediverse

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[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

For me it's gotta be Goncharov

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Why are half the replies in this thread about film adaptations? Are you guys illiterate or bots?

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

Why not both?

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 2 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Call me crazy for this, but as much as I liked the book, I really like the original animated Animal Farm, a little more than the book. Definitely takes some good parts, like taking the sheep aside to force them to practice their "2 legs good" thing and a few other things. Like the whole thing of them using a gun ( possibly a shotgun IIRC ) as part of a memorial tradition where they fire it for those who died in part of the revolution fights. But still pretty good.

Though, speaking of George Orwell, I have a minor gripe with the original black and white 1984 adaptation. It's a very minor thing, but I don't like how for the journal the main character writes in cursive when the book states his writing is kinda blocky and childish, IIRC. Cannot say much more since I didn't finish that book.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 9 hours ago

Inuyasha.

The show is basically just taking the manga scene for scene and animating it, while adding more adventures.

[–] Dagnet@lemmy.world 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Assuming anime/manga counts: Frieren

The manga is really good, don't get me wrong but the anime turned single page combats into all out super well animated fights with good music and great direction.

[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 1 hour ago

Anime definitely counts

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 19 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (2 children)

The Expanse

OK, the books are pretty good in themselves but the first few seasons of the show are amazing in storytelling, accuracy wrt their source and adding color through visuals, casting, voices/accents/dialogs... And Thomas Jane is perfect in his role of noir fanboy but also real detective.

edit: just want to make clear that I'm not saying that the books are bad or even worse than the show! I enjoyed both immensely. But rarely is a good book paired with a good show.

[–] unbanshee@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 9 hours ago

Also the supreme elevation of Camina Drummer. TV Drummer is the good shit and Cara Gee is fantastic.

But the show is also worse because of the pressure cancellation. They crammed in as much Laconia as they could and it's not bad, but it does feel rushed and incomplete.

[–] phailhaus@piefed.social 14 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

The show can see the future, which helps the early seasons a lot. Knowing what happens in the later books allows them to bring stuff forward. A great example of this is in the pilot when Avasarala is torturing a Belter and questioning him about stolen stealth tech. This is a character that doesn't even appear in the first book and it is setting things up that don't become important until book/season 4/5.

The authors being active writers on the show and senior producers on the later seasons also helps. They aren't in charge, which means people with TV experience make the show work, but they keep the voice consistent. Regardless of who is credited as writer on an episode, nearly all Amos stuff in the first two seasons is written by one of the authors so that his mentality would be consistent. Throughout the whole run of the show, pretty much all the formal speeches are written by the other author.

The last thing that really helps them is the drive to be faithful to the story of the source without being slave to it. This leads to many small changes that slot actors they already have into story beats, giving the viewer more connection to what they see. Drummer, for example, is a tiny character in the books but the actress was great so they kept slotting her in instead of having a different Belter for everything. She even erased the existence of a main POV character and took on that role, outlived his role and just kept going. That then leaves his character design available, so he ends up being a major character in season 5, a completely different book.

We can thank Game of Thrones for a lot of that. One of the authors worked for GRRM for a while and was involved in his side of the early seasons of GOT. Even early on when it was well received, GRRM was getting frustrated by the changes the show was making without regard to knock-on effects. When selling the TV rights for Expanse, they fought to be in the room for both writing and production so that they could have a say when decisions were being made as opposed to just being asked for feedback after the fact.

[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 5 points 18 hours ago

The authors being active writers on the show and senior producers on the later seasons also helps.

Oh, I did not know that. Every movie/show I know where that is the case is a better adaptation and usually quite good.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 16 hours ago

I like the jurassic park movie more than the book.

[–] xtapa@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The new Dune. Especially the first movie was such a good experience. The first book was a cool read, but the movie made a few changes that felt just right, e.g. the way darker Harkonnen theme.

The following books are just disappointing really.

[–] misk@piefed.social 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

This must be some kind of ragebait.

[–] xtapa@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 5 hours ago (2 children)
[–] misk@piefed.social 1 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

How many Dune books have you read? I don’t want to spoil something.

[–] xtapa@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 hour ago

Dune, Dune Messiah and Children of Dune. After that, I lost interest, so go on and spoiler me.

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Which community do you think this is? Did you read the thread title?

[–] xtapa@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I have seen dune on TV. So... What's your point?

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 1 points 1 hour ago

That's not what a TV adaptation is...

[–] Berttheduck@lemmy.ml 12 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

The boys. I found the TV show pretty decent, not great but decent, and the ending was great in comparison to the comics.

[–] InfernoWarrior@piefed.social 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

I have personally only seen people complaining about the ending. But regardless, I would generally agree.

[–] Berttheduck@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 hours ago

Yeah same, I laughed with despair at the comics ending though so the TV ending being just ok was excellent by comparison.

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 14 points 23 hours ago
[–] popcar2@piefed.ca 6 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Most of the MCU offerings are way better than the comics they're based off. I remember checking out Marvel comics after infinity war came out and my biggest impression is that most of them really aren't worth reading.

Same for their TV shows. Loki and X-Men '97 are pretty good.

[–] usernamefactory@lemmy.ca 5 points 15 hours ago

This one feels a little unfair since you’re comparing decades of history across dozens of characters, with so many peaks and valleys.

I considered bringing up Batman The Animated Series myself, since I agree with many fans that it’s possibly the best encapsulation of that character overall. But I still feel like the very best Batman comics, like Dark Knight Returns, beat it out as self-contained stories. Also there are side characters like Catwoman who definitely have better representations in the comics, because there they’ve had entire series devoted to fleshing them out.

On the Marvel side, I’d take Brian Micheal Bendis’ run on Ultimate Spider-Man over any film, but that benefits from being a full decade worth of monthly tales with a single extremely strong creative voice. Hard for a two hour movie to beat that.

[–] original_charles@lemmy.world 4 points 21 hours ago

Jaws. The characters in the book are very unlikeable, and the movie's tone is much different helped in large part by John Williams' amazing soundtrack.

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 5 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] riot@fedia.io 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

What book (series) is that? Or is it a comic? My web searching is failing me.

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Oh hell very good point. It is based on the Crichton movie.

[–] riot@fedia.io 1 points 1 hour ago

Aw, shucks. Was kinda hoping there was as a book series to dive into 😄

[–] JackTea@piefed.world 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Read the first two books, then started on the show. Quit after a few episodes.

[–] usernamefactory@lemmy.ca 1 points 19 hours ago

Surprised I’m the just to mention The Shining.

Also 2001 A Space Odyssey, although those were developed in tandem.

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 2 points 23 hours ago

Friday Night Lights

[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Very good films for sure, but what books are they based on? The 1990/91 comic? Or do you mean the conspiracy theory of the same name?

[–] MurrayL@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago

Yes, the films are based on the 1990 comics. Not to say the comics are bad, but they’re definitely outshined.

[–] Overspark@piefed.social -1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 5 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Nope nope nope, gotta say no to that one.

You're entitled to your opinion, even if it's wrong. But no.

Are the references in the book dated? Yes. It is a product of its time, before there was a full realization of what full on global nuclear/biochemical warfare would do to the planet. The movie is good, I enjoyed it. I wouldn't put it on par with the book. Even the Gaffigan theory doesn't work, because when I read the book it took me two hours, and then I took a nap

Thank you for listening to my TED talk

[–] Overspark@piefed.social 2 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Thank you for almost respecting my opinion 😂

I read the comics after seeing the movie, and couldn't get over how bitter and negative they are. The tone of the movie was much more my thing.

[–] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

A reasonable choice in taste. Yeah, Alan Moore is… an intense individual

[–] riot@fedia.io 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

What's the Gaffigan theory? My web searching isn't giving me anything that makes sense to me.

[–] SirSamuel@lemmy.world 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I was riffing off of one of his old stand up routines.

Yeah the book was much better than the movie.
Oh really? You know what I liked about the movie? No reading. It only took two hours, and then I could take a nap

[–] riot@fedia.io 1 points 1 hour ago

Ah, I see! Haha. Much obliged.

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip -1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Noctambulist@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

BtVS was not an adaptation but created by Joss Whedon for the 1992 movie and 1997 series. Any comics or other media came later.