qatesiurade
Cheyenne
Charmingly offbeat, just like you'd expect! — 31 weeks ago
I didn’t realize until I listened to a little of the audio commentary that Neverwhere had originated with this TV show. I can’t account for this gaping hole in my knowledge about things Gaiman, but I won’t conceal it either. That said, I could see the novel struggling to get out of the constraints of the teleplay, especially given those constraints originated as much with the BBC’s budget and production schedules as with the limits of episodic television writing itself - to move the story along, keep it spare, focus on the plot. While these are also constraints in comic book writing, Gaiman has said many times that he really likes to sprawl. I could feel him wanting to sprawl as I listened to his commentary (but the commentary was so dull - delicious as Gaiman’s voice is—that I stopped listening after episode 1).
As for the show itself, it had a lot going for it, including some very good casting and a certain charm imparted by its on-location sets made funkily unrealistic by, as Gaiman explained “shooting them on video but lighting them for film.” I have no idea how that works, but it did give a goofy Tom Baker-and-earlier-era Doctor Who feel to the production. I kept expecting wobbly sets, wobbly sets.
Having already read and loved the novel, the show had no surprises for me, but watching someone’s version of how it looked and sounded was fun. Realizing this is how the story evolved first was (pardon me) funner.
