The Shards shows how not to adapt a novel
The Shards, Week 2
Last week, I was kind of digging The Shards. It was a bit languid, but it still pretty much felt like the novel. All of that is out the window now, thanks to Bret Easton Ellis’ involvement ending after the second episode.
I’m not sure what Ryan Murphy has adapted for FX, but it’s certainly not The Shards. The critique that has been lobbed at Murphy the most for the latest episodes of The Shards is that it’s quickly turned into Glee. I can see why. The show quickly creates ludicrous plotlines for the supporting cast like Mrs. Schaffer (Evan Rachel Wood) doing porn and fucking one of her daughter’s classmates, Ryan (Daniel Dale), who is also doing porn. Murphy also introduces Really Rhonda, a character not in the novel, played by Ivy Wolk. I think Wolk (who I know personally, full disclosure) is a fab actress, but Really Rhonda has Tourette syndrome and loves roller skating, and we’re supposed to believe the most popular kids in school hang out with her? Yeah, okay.
On the one hand, Murphy’s frequent inclusion of characters with disabilities in his series is admirable. On the other hand, it often gives sideshow instead of a genuine desire to present those characters as three-dimensional humans. Rhonda exists only to ratchet up the terror from The Trawler, whose serial killing in the novel is played more as an ominous dread looming over Los Angeles. In the series, it makes sense for us to see The Trawler, but having him torture his victims by feeding them live animals in cages just comes across like we’re watching an episode of Criminal Minds. At no point in this week’s two episodes, “Help Me! Rhonda” and “Robert’s Party,” does The Trawler come across as scary. And so now, The Shards has sinned by failing to be as terrifying as the novel, deviating wildly from it, and turning into a cartoonish teen drama.
Not to sound like Norma Rae, but I’m a staunch defender of artists’ rights. I don’t necessarily think a reimagining of a piece of work is bad. Christopher Nolan has the right to reimagine a 3,000-year-old poem! Emerald Fennell also has the right to reimagine Wuthering Heights, given it is 180-years-old and there are numerous adaptations that already exist. One of the best adaptations of the past decade was Watchmen, which deviated massively from its source material to tell an incredibly powerful story about the history of racism in America. Reimaginations can be really cool! Claiming ownership of any story you haven’t written is weird, but when it’s old as fuck, maybe it’s time to move on and read something else. And yes, that is a pointed comment about losers who can’t seem to move on from Harry Potter and plan to watch (or work on) the HBO adaptation, knowing that wicked witch J.K. Rowling plans to use all the royalties from it to fund anti-trans legislation.
But when you’re the first adaptation of a novel, it’s understandable that fans might be protective. Sure, adapt things however you’d like, but the reason existing source material gets greenlit is that an audience already exists. If you piss off the audience, then what was the point of adapting it in the first place? Everything about The Shards points to Murphy not really giving a fuck about the source material and using it as a jumping-off point to write a pulpy series about the ‘80s in Los Angeles.