10 TV Shows That Improved Upon The Source Material
5. The Leftovers
HBO's The Leftovers may never have received its awards due during its three-season run, yet it remains one of the most acclaimed TV shows of the last decade for good reason.
The show was co-created by Lost's Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, the author of the 2011 novel on which the series is based.
And though the show's first season clings fairly close to Perrotta's novel, after that it leaps off to become a considerably deeper and more impactful piece of work.
Comparing a 28-episode TV show to a single 336-page book may not seem inherently "fair," but it's simply the case that the series used the novel as a launchpad for a more involved, emotional, and profound meditation on grief. This is aided of course by intensely powerful performances from Justin Theroux and Carrie Coon.
Perrotta gets to keep a lot of the credit, though, as he remained a major creative force throughout the show's three seasons, co-writing eight episodes with Lindelof including the series finale.