Whatchu Watchin?

[Mummelmann]

Jumpin said:

Right now, watching The Handmaid's Tale.
Into season 2 right now, the show had a sudden shift from feeling like a novel to feeling like a TV show... I'm guessing this is where the source material ran out. The difference is in the process. Screenplays are generally written Outline→Draft→Revisions, while books are generally written Rough Draft→Second (and sometimes 3rd, 4th, 5th...) Draft→Outline→revisions. Not always! Some auteur directors (like Tarantino) write screenplays the novel way, while some authors (Dan Brown) write novels the screenplay way. But anyway, you can kind of tell because suddenly the themes became dimmed (pushed more into the backdrop) and the dialogue became less characteristic and more catchy and the story became less thematic and more mechanical.

I recently finished it myself, and agree with your assessment, there's a shift after season 1. Seasons 2 and 3 were still very good, in my opinion, there's some immense acting talent on display (Ann Dowd shines especially bright later on). My main gripe with the show overall is the inconsistency in thematics and characterization, as well as overuse of certain plot tools and lack of cohesion in setting and consequences. All in all, I really enjoyed the show, but it did drop off in quality over time, like most shows do. 

Currently, I'm watching the Dexter spin-offs, finished "New Blood" yesterday. It was okay, nothing more, the writing seems very dumbed down from the mainline series, as I remember it. Started "Original Sin" after that, watched about half of the season so far. Patrick Gibson does a good job of manifesting Dexter, his mimicry, motions, and speech patterns (to a lesser degree), and he has the right look. Christian Slater is always fun to watch. I think they did Debra dirty in this prequel though, she comes off as entitled and whiny, and rather stupid (even for a teenager).