It Begins with a Book Series
First off, a little background. We told you a few months ago about the news that the lead characters in Deborah Harkness’ trilogy had been cast (Teresa Palmer as Diana Bishop and Matthew Goode as Matthew Clairmont), and our guest contributor, Mackenzie, was ALL about it. Her enthusiasm made me smile; I remember that feeling – when a book series you absolutely love is getting adapted into what will hopefully be a great show or a great film franchise. I envied her excitement.
Author Deb Harkness with Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer source
I have to admit, I was slightly underwhelmed with DoW when I first read it. I liked the first book alright, and didn’t finish the second. Something about the All Souls Trilogy felt off to me. It could have been that at the time it came out and all of my friends were reading it, we were heavily involved in the Twilight fanfiction world – reading and writing and discussing those stories almost every single day, and sometimes obsessively. There were elements to DoW that smacked very highly of TwiFic; in fact there were pretty substantive rumors floating around that Deborah Harkness was a TwiFic author and was using tropes and characters from that fandom in her novel.
And here’s a little discussed fact about fanfiction worlds that no one else may tell you: when you are in them, and I mean, when you are obsessively immersed in the reading and writing and critiquing of a fandom’s fanworks, it can become virtually impossible for you to read or appreciate other types of media. If you pick up a novel that is close in genre or category, you can unwittingly fall into a trap of critiquing it based on all the ways it’s not like your favorite fandom works. It’s why I spent close to a year reading nothing BUT Twific. Nothing else gave me my fix in the same way. Even bad fic was better than good novels that didn’t have an Edward in them.
I say all that because I am not sure that I gave DoW its full due at the time that I read it. It has lots of things that I love in novels: paranormal ancestry, historical easter eggs, academia, magic and manuscripts and … romance. Whether or not I ever pick up the book again, I want the show to be good. Really good. I want studios to see more reason to pick up great paranormal series (like the Fever Series) or historical romances (like The Bronze Horseman) and turn them into great television.
It Begins with a Trailer
So, as a non-fan, I’m here to say that I’m excited for this show. And I’m keeping tabs on the production. To that end, Sky One, the distributor in the UK, has released some stills from filming and a very short, very British, trailer.
We KNOW British television companies make great shows, and we also know that they make horrific trailers, so I’m hoping that the tone of this is not indicative of what the show will be like. I believe it’s mostly cobbled together from a longer preview video of their upcoming shows. I’m hoping those two facts together (bad British trailers and piecemeal teasers) mean that the show won’t be as House of Anubis as this makes it look.
One thing that the teaser does show is the ethereal nature of the novel. Matthew certainly seems to be sneaking up on Diana at inopportune, foggy times.
source: Sky One
Regardless of what you think about the book or the first look teaser trailer, the cast is top notch. Louise Brealey from Sherlock is Gillian (we see a glimpse of her in the trailer), Alex Kingston of Dr Who fame is Sarah Bishop, and Lindsey Duncan is playing Matthew’s mother, Ysabeau de Clermont.
But, let’s be real, it’s probably going to be all about these two isn’t it?
source: Sky One
