Book adaptations for the screen are some of the most popular media today. Most companies want to have pretty good certainty that their product will sell, and one of the best ways to do that is to create content that has a pre-existing following. This is why sequels are so popular, franchises make money regardless of quality, and a great book series can always be guaranteed to sell some movie rights.
This week, Peacock released the mini-series adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s novel Apples Never Fall. The book follows the lives of a family of six as they navigate the complexities of adulthood and generational trauma. As one TikToker who was paid to promote the series put it: any time you have that many characters interacting, it makes for good TV.
Having just read the book in anticipation for the release, I am even more intrigued by how the show runners are going to construct the narrative. There is a big mystery at the center of the plot: what happened to Joy Delaney? As the days go by where the matriarch of the family remains missing, tensions grow, leaving relationships to fray, allegiances to recalibrate, and hurt feelings to resurface. In terms of potential drama, the plot is rife for it.
The problem, though, is that Moriarty’s book shines not because of plot but because of character development. In fact, the final resolution of the book would have been easily considered a let-down if it weren’t for the mastery with which the writer gained our empathy and compassion. I found myself at times during the reading process forgetting to care about where the mystery would go, far more intrigued by the ways each of Joy’s children handled the situation in front of them. As we got to know more about the family’s past, we got a deeper look into how parenting impacts a child, and how we can see the ripple effects of past decisions transforming the way we understand the future.
My hope is that Peacock can bring this richness and depth to life in the interactions of the actors on the screen. My fear, though, is that the binge-style TV watching that we are used to will lead to prioritizing the “whodunit” over the emotional maturity of the story.
When my wife and I were dating, she convinced me to watch One Tree Hill because she claimed it was a “basketball show.” This was, of course, nonsense; nothing about what I love about basketball made the show worth my time. (The fact that I love a good character-driven story kept me engaged with OTH long after the show jumped the shark…) The same can be said for Apples Never Fall. If you think this is a book about tennis, then you are missing the point. But if you think this is a grand mystery, a big reveal about the disappearance of a mother and wife, then what made the book great will have been lost.
In a media landscape where we have more content then we can ever know how to consume, we don’t need more “what;” we need much more “how” and “why.” Apples Never Fall could help shine the light on this essential difference, but only if it is willing to break the pattern it is following.
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