12 best book-to-streaming TV adaptations and how to watch

For those who find themselves indoors with more free time than usual in these trying times, though that is certainly not everyone, the issue of finding something to do as the hours pass by may become increasingly pressing. There’s bread to bake, perhaps some work to do, and things to clean, of course, but time barely seems to exist at this point and the days are getting long. 

For those extra long days, here’s a challenge: pick one of these streaming TV book adaptations and read the book first. The shows are great to watch by themselves, but the satisfaction of watching an adaptation and forming an opinion based on your own interpretation of the text is one of life’s sincere pleasures. Most of these shows are short, one-season miniseries and the ones that aren’t are either finished entirely or have pending seasons in development, so the book-to-watch loop won’t leave you on a cliffhanger. Probably.

Sharp Objects 

Sharp Objects modernizes southern gothic in a humid, hazy adaptation of Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn’s debut novel. Amy Adams plays Camille Preaker, the black sheep of her illustrious Missouri family who returns to investigate a series of murders that have terrorized young girls in the small, pig-farming town, and Patricia Clarkson plays her chillingly ethereal mother Adora. The mystery of the murdered girls quickly takes a backseat to Sharp Objects‘ interest in capturing the slow, poisonous darkness at the heart of Wind Gap, Missouri and the way generational trauma bubbles to the surface when the heat becomes too much to handle.

Where to watch: Stream Sharp Objects on HBO

Big Little Lies 

HBO changed the setting of Liane Moriarty’s 2014 novel Big Little Lies from a coastal Australian town to the wealthy Californian enclave of Monterey for their miniseries adaptation, which was so popular it spawned a second (and supposedly final) season despite having wrapped the book’s plot in Season 1. The first season’s all-star cast includes Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Zöe Kravitz, Shailene Woodley, and Laura Dern as Monterey parents whose involvement in a suspicious death is not revealed until the final episode. The miniseries works backwards, showing the beginning of a police investigation and flashing back to the weeks leading up to the fatal event, leaving the audience guessing every second which of the characters on screen is the killer…and which is the victim. 

Where to watch: Stream Big Little Lies on HBO

The Leftovers 

Based on the 2011 novel by Tom Perrotta, The Leftovers was one of the first TV shows to adapt a book and then continue the story. Perrotta introduces the Garveys, an all-American nuclear family torn apart by the Sudden Departure, a mysterious, rapture-like horror in which two percent of the world’s population vanished without trace or explanation. The Garveys all survived, but process their trauma in entirely different ways, which is the focus of Perrotta’s book and the show’s first season. Season 2 features a handful of new characters in a new location, and Season 3 seeks to find peace at once for those who remain — or at the very least, to ask if that’s even possible. – Proma Khosla

Where to watch: Stream The Leftovers on HBO

The Handmaid’s Tale

Hulu’s Emmy-winning take on Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale is one of the streaming service’s tentpole original series for good reason. Its harsh look at a dystopia that feels less unrealistic every day is a sobering and needed reminder of what happens when human rights disappear in the face of crisis. Elisabeth Moss stars as June/Offred, one of many modern American women forced to become a Handmaid — a sex slave whose only purpose is to bear children for a wealthy family in the wake of global infertility. The Handmaid’s Tale’s three seasons follow June as she suffers under a totalitarian regime and learns to wield what power she has to join a mysterious revolutionary movement. 

Where to watch: Stream The Handmaid’s Tale on Hulu

Killing Eve

Luke Jennings’ Codename Villanelle novellas get a perfectly sleek, sexy treatment with BBCAmerica’s Killing Eve, about a formidably skilled assassin and the MI5 agent who becomes obsessed with her (and vice versa). The series captures so much of Jennings’ alluring text, but it always hinged upon the actress who would play Villanelle. In that regard, Killing Eve struck a true bullseye with Jodie Comer’s delicate, sinister, and often hilarious performance. She embodies Villanelle’s sheer psychopathy without ever diminishing her believability, a feat that has us all mesmerized. – P.K.

Where to watch: Stream Killing Eve on Hulu

Looking For Alaska

Image: Alfonso Bresciani/Hulu

John Green’s debut Young Adult novel Looking For Alaska is a timeless story of youth, friendship, and tragedy, but Hulu’s 2019 adaptation of the novel firmly roots the plot in the book’s release year of 2005. Anyone who grew up in the mid-00s will immediately recognize the clothing, references, and slang of their teenhood and the show’s unbelievably good “period” soundtrack includes The Killers, The Postal Service, Rilo Kiley, and a few surprisingly touching covers. Looking For Alaska is a heart-wrenching time warp of a miniseries that perfectly captures Green’s novel and what it feels to be young, clever, and touched by an unknowable sadness. 

Where to watch: Steam Looking For Alaska on Hulu

Little Fires Everywhere
 

Hulu’s latest page-to-screen darling is Celeste Ng’s engrossing novel about an affluent Ohio suburb thrown into chaos by the arrival of two new residents. The picture-perfect Richardson family loses its axis in the face of traveling artist Mia and her daughter, neither of whom care for the superficial minutiae that otherwise define life in Shaker Heights. The families’ inevitable intertwining leads to one complication after another, unearthed secrets from the past, and a whole lot of loathsome staring contests between Kerry Washington and Reese Witherspoon. It’s spring streaming’s hottest ticket — just don’t get burned. -P.K.

Where to watch: Stream Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu

The Umbrella Academy

Image: Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix

The Umbrella Academy graphic novels, written by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way and illustrated by Gabriel Bá, are futuristic, funny takedowns of the classic superhero team story. The Netflix series adds more to the source material by fleshing out its villains and going deeper into the messed up childhood dynamics of the show’s main heroes. In The Umbrella Academy, five children with extraordinary powers are adopted by an eccentric millionaire, who trains them to work as a team to save the world — but the series starts several years after all that is over and done with. Those children, now estranged adults whose childhoods were lost in a blaze of heroics, return for their father’s funeral and finally face the reality of their broken family. Oh, and they have to save the world again. 

Where to watch: Stream The Umbrella Academy on Netflix

I Am Not Okay With This

Image: Courtesy of Netflix

Another superhero-adjacent Netflix book adaptation is I Am Not Okay With This, also based on a comic book. The book, written by Charles Forsman, follows Sydney Novak, a teen girl who suddenly develops telekinesis amidst a series of other, more confusing occurrences in her life. The series sets up Season 2 perfectly while keeping its focus on Syd, her best friend Dina, and the mountains of trouble they manage to get into over the course of Season 1, and anyone looking for a good, angsty teen drama with a superheroic flair will find something to like in their story.

Where to watch: Stream I Am Not Okay With This on Netflix

Alias Grace 

Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale may be the most popular Margaret Atwood adaptation available — but Netflix’s Alias Grace captures the legendary author’s tone and style with unparalleled finesse. Whittling down Atwood’s 400+ page work of historical fiction into just four and a half hours of viewing, this six-part limited series rips straight from the page. Not only does the adaptation regularly use Atwood’s exact verbiage to tell the story of these ghastly 1843 murders (relying heavily on narration to do so), it also captures the jarring multiple perspectives that come with reading the text. Whether or not you’ve read the book, Alias Grace is a fundamentally literary experience that will scratch all your good read itches. — Alison Foreman

Where to watch: Stream Alias Grace on Netflix

The Haunting of Hill House

Image: Steve Dietl/Netflix

Shirley Jackson’s impeccable work of psychological terror has been adapted before, and dare I say it’ll be adapted again. But Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House reimagines Jackson’s world with such inventive liberties that it will always exist in a class of its own. Far from faithful, Mike Flanagan’s series (due to release its second season sometime this year) takes the heart of Jackson’s 1959 story and transports it to a world laden with modern terrors and traumas. If you haven’t made time to enjoy both, then make that a priority. They both capture special corners of the horror world and make for a collective experience unlike any other. — A.F.

Where to watch: Stream The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix

Good Omens

Based on the 1990 cult favorite novel co-authored by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Good Omens tells the story of an angel and a demon attempting to avert the Biblical apocalypse. There have been previous attempts to adapt the whimsical book, but the miniseries format seen on Amazon Prime was clearly the best choice to showcase its bizarre and irreverent tone. Good Omens is part road trip tale, part supernatural romance, part coming-of-age narrative, and part balls-out weirdness when it comes to portraying the war between Heaven and Hell, and David Tennant and Michael Sheen glow as the demon and angel setting themselves against the inevitable end of the world. 

Where to watch: Stream Good Omens on Amazon Prime Video