I’m not going to lie… creating this list was a pretty bleak look at Showtime’s offerings. While some of their programming not based on books like Yellowjackets and Ziwe are some of the most entertaining shows across streaming, the book adaptation department is definitely lacking. Many options come from ethically thorny authors like former heads of the FBI, or the shows themselves just aren’t good. When putting together these lists (including for Starz, AppleTV+, and Hulu), I’m looking at what is a good show and how others feel about it, too. However, in all of this mess, some great shows still prevailed, including one of my favorite limited series of all time.
Patrick Melrose novels by Edward St Aubyn
The show Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is a five-part miniseries based on the five semi-autobiographical short stories (Never Mind, Bad News, Mother’s Milk, Some Hope, and At Last) by British author Edward St. Aubyn. Each episode follows a different novel, and in total, they span over decades.
By turns harrowing and hilarious, this ambitious novel cycle dissects the English upper class. Edward St. Aubyn offers his reader the often darkly funny and self-loathing world of privilege as we follow Patrick Melrose’s story of abuse, addiction, and recovery from the age of five into early middle age.
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory in 1856–a battleground between anti- and pro-slavery forces–when legendary abolitionist John Brown arrives. When an argument between Brown and Henry’s master turns violent, Henry is forced to leave town–along with Brown, who believes Henry to be a girl and his good luck charm.
Over the ensuing months, Henry, whom Brown nicknames Little Onion, conceals his true identity to stay alive. Eventually Brown sweeps him into the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859–one of the great catalysts for the Civil War. An absorbing mixture of history and imagination, and told with McBride’s meticulous eye for detail and character, The Good Lord Bird is both a rousing adventure and a moving exploration of identity and survival.
If you have Showtime or are considering using a trial, this show is a must. No, if, and, or buts. (Yes, this is the aforementioned title that remains one of my favorite limited series of all time.)
Assortment of 1800s Gothic Literature by various authors
- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
- Prometheus (a.k.a. Frankenstein) by Mary Shelley
- Dracula by Bram Stoker
- Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
- The Misfortune of Virtue by Marquis de Sade
Showtime’s Penny Dreadful uses popular characters created in the 1800s now in the public domain. These characters get new-ish origins stories on the backdrop of Victorian London in this psychological thriller. Penny dreadfuls were cheap, entertaining British literature (similar to zines) and the phrase is a pejorative term similar to “pulp fiction” (but of the 1800s). The story of Sweeney Todd was popularized by penny dreadful circulation. After the success of Penny Dreadful, Showtime created a 2020 spin-off series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, which features a similar tone but the characters and magical folklore are influenced by 1930s Los Angeles.
House of Lies: How Management Consultants Steal Your Watch and Then Tell You the Time by Martin Kihn
Once upon a time in Corporate America there was a group of men and women who were paid huge fees to tell organizations what they were doing wrong and how to improve themselves. These men and women promised everything and delivered nothing, said they were experts when they were not, sometimes ruined careers, and at best, only wasted time, energy, and huge sums of money. They called themselves Management Consultants….
Welcome to the world of Martin Kihn, a former standup comic and Emmy(R) Award-nominated television writer who decided to “go straight” and earn his MBA at a prestigious Ivy League university. In HOUSE OF LIES, he brazenly chronicles his first two years as a newly-minted management consultant: featuring his struggles with erroneous advice, absurd arrogance, and bloody power struggles. Hey, it’s all in a day’s work– and it pays really well!
Secret Diary of a Call Girl by Anonymous
Belle couldn’t find a job after University. Her impressive degree was not paying her rent or buying her food. But after a fantastic threesome with a very rich couple who gave her a ton of money, Belle realized that she could earn more than anyone she knew–by becoming a call girl. The rest is history. Belle became a 20-something London working girl–and had the audacity to write about it–anonymously.
The shockingly candid and explicit diary she put on the Internet became a London sensation. She shares her entire journey inside the world of high-priced escorts, including fascinating and explicit insights about her job and her clients, her various boyfriends, and a taboo lifestyle that has to be read to be believed. The witty observations, shocking revelations, and hilarious scenarios deliver like the very best fiction and make for a titillating reading experience unlike any other.
(featured image: Showtime)
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