From Collider · Jessica Toomer · · 4m
10 Must-Watch Miniseries Based on Books
Top TV adaptations that honor books without losing their soul.
In brief
Top TV adaptations that honor books without losing their soul. Netflix's 'The Haunting of Hill House' and 'Maid' rank among the best book adaptations for their faithful yet fresh storytelling. Originally reported by Collider.
Book adaptations have a rough reputation
Book adaptations have a rough reputation because they often squish beloved novels into two-hour runtimes or pad them out into four seasons of pointless invented plot.
Miniseries found a middle ground
Miniseries found a middle ground by giving enough room to tell the story and a concrete place to stop without turning into a boring photocopy of the source material.
10 shows ranked by priority
The ten shows below all pulled off the tricky part of respecting the source material without turning into a boring photocopy of it, using TV to do things paper counterparts can't.
10. The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
The Crain family has been avoiding one very bad summer at Hill House for twenty-six years by the time Mike Flanagan's 2018 Netflix show catches up with them.
The show adapts Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel
Flanagan took Shirley Jackson's 1959 novel and turned it into a family drama that happens to have ghosts in it.
Five grown siblings get pulled back
Five grown siblings, each of them messed up in a different way from that summer, keep getting pulled back to the house their dad drove them away from in the middle of the night.
Episode six is the standout
Episode six is the one everyone talks about because it's a technical showcase but the reason it's so memorable is that you already care about the family by then.
9. Maid (2021)
Margaret Qualley plays Alex, a young mom who leaves her emotionally abusive boyfriend with a toddler in the passenger seat and about nine dollars to her name.
Molly Smith Metzler's Netflix show
Molly Smith Metzler's 10-episode Netflix show, adapted from Stephanie Land's 2019 memoir, follows Alex as she tries to line up shelter housing and food assistance while chasing down some kind of custody arrangement, all while cleaning houses for cash.
The real reason to watch is Andie MacDowell
The real reason to watch is Andie MacDowell as Paula, Alex's mother, who is also Qualley's actual mom in real life.
8. Say Nothing (2024)
FX and Hulu's 2024 adaptation of Patrick Radden Keefe's nonfiction chronicle of the Troubles has the toughest source material on this list and wisely does not try to soften anything.
The story braids together abduction and radicalization
The story braids together the abduction of Belfast mother Jean McConville and the radicalization of Provisional IRA members Dolours and Marian Price.
7. Roots (1977)
Roots was the television event of 1977, watched by an audience that would be impossible to gather today.
LeVar Burton's debut performance
LeVar Burton's debut performance as Kunta Kinte, a young Mandinka man captured in West Africa and sold into slavery in colonial-era Virginia, is still his best.
The 2016 History Channel remake
The 2016 History Channel remake, with Malachi Kirby stepping into the Kunta role, is more careful with historical detail and gives real space to the African chapters that the original had to compress.
6. Pride and Prejudice (1995)
Every Jane Austen adaptation since 1995 has been trying and failing to get out from under the shadow of this BBC version.
Andrew Davies wrote the screenplay
Andrew Davies wrote the screenplay and Simon Langton directed, giving Austen's 1813 novel the pace she actually wrote it in.
The pond scene isn't in the book
The pond scene isn't in the book; Davies invented it and uses his one liberty well.
5. Band of Brothers (2001)
Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks adapted Stephen Ambrose's 1992 book into ten HBO episodes that premiered in 2001 and cost more than any other show at the time.
Each episode follows a different Easy Company member
Each episode picks a different member of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry, 101st Airborne, and follows them from training in Georgia to the drop into France, through the Netherlands and the worst of the Ardennes winter, and eventually up to Hitler's Eagle's Nest.
What it means
Netflix's 'The Haunting of Hill House' and 'Maid' rank among the best book adaptations for their faithful yet fresh storytelling.
