ARRIVAL OF A TRAIN TO THE SPOILER STATION
Article by Guillermo Tato
A good series is a journey that we do not want to end.
At least in my case, the best trips, the ones I enjoy the most, are the ones I do by train. And that's how I imagine what it is to enjoy a series. The pleasure is not only in reaching your destination, but in the process that takes you to it. Even sometimes, with luck, even the company that touches you may be the one that makes the trip more profitable. You sit, contemplate the different landscapes that are happening along the miles that pass. You comment them with the person sitting next to you and the stops are happening. New people get on the train, others may get off, but you all share a common goal.
Throughout our lives we have made many trips like these. In series that have marked us in one way or another. Because somehow the series have something in common with life itself. When you go to see a movie you know there will be an end. But not with a series. The series die of old, others of overdose to the second season and some by a shot in the back. That's why we feel closer to the series, because they are like us. Mortals And because they never know if they will reach their destination. Not even if they have one.
The same feeling we have with a good novel in our hands. Because despite being a finite space like a movie, its twists and its different chapters make it infinite. Eternal in the vast universe that unfolds in our imagination. The story advances at the pace we impose, savoring with greater or lesser intensity each of the words that help us to invoke in our reality a fiction that keeps us trapped. We stop the train in some chapters, repeat a page several times, recreating each time with more detail in our head that moment that has left us astonished.
UNDERTAKE KNOWLEDGE TRAVEL
Sometimes the pleasure of the trip is not to explore the unknown, but to visit places that have spoken to us many times. So many that we practically know them by heart. It is, then, that the series are beginning to look with great force to the literary world in order to make adaptations. Both worlds, both trips, make more sense when they hold hands. When the trip we have made in our imagination we are ready to relive it in another way. It is not necessary to mention Game of Thrones as the great reference. The great adaptation that we all considered impossible and that has become a worldwide phenomenon on a scale never before imagined by the lover of fantastic literature. But in addition we have had other cases of adaptations very successful as they have been The Man in the High Castle (adaptation of the novel by Philip K. Dick), The Handmaid's Tale (novel by Margaret Atwood) or American Gods (novel by Neil Gaiman).
Within this panorama we are presented with a 2019 loaded with trips that some of us have already experienced in the novels, but which we are looking forward to doing again in its television adaptation. And there is no doubt that the star, responsible for leaving the void left by Game of Thrones after its end, will be that of the wonderful literary universe of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Lord of the rings. As with the Peter Jackson trilogy, Amazon's proposal seems like a leap into the void. But the fact of setting it in the Second Age and the huge budget with which they are working (about 125 million dollars per season), makes expectations fly high. If there is a rich literary universe, full of mythology and worth visiting again and again, this is undoubtedly the best option that awaits us. Cross our fingers.
But the fantasy will not end there, since there is another adaptation that will directly attack our love for the nostalgia of the noventera fantasy. We are talking about the mythical saga of Robert Jordan, The wheel of time. If you started to be fascinated by the genre with The Lord of the rings, The Chronicles of the Dragonlance or the novels of R. A. Salvatore, the proposal to adapt this saga will have reached your heart. Also thanks to Amazon we can relive an exciting saga of books, full of magic, epic and endearing characters that will make us travel to our most endearing youth. "The Wheel of time turns and the ages come and go and leave behind memories that become a legend. The legend is blurred, becomes myth, and even the myth has been forgotten long before the era that saw it born again return. In an era called the third by some, one was to come, one was long gone, a wind began to blow. The wind was not the beginning, because there are no beginnings or endings in the eternal rotation of the Wheel of Time. But that was a beginning. "When we see this title on screen more than one will cry. I the first one. And we will remember Robert Jordan, who unfortunately will not be able to witness the wonderful adventure that has originated.
To conclude the hype mode of the literary adaptations that come to us, we have the marvelous Good omens, unique literary combo between Neil Gaiman and one of the authors that we miss the most, our beloved Terry Pratchett. A comedy (how could it be otherwise) about the eternal struggle of good and evil that Amazon produces in the form of a miniseries and that has a luxury cast: David Tennant, Michael Sheen and Benedict Cumberbatch. In this case the wait will be shorter, since it opens on May 31. By the way, when will we see the Discworld in series? Television producers, please listen to our plea.
HAVE A GOOD TRAVEL GUIDE
In all self-respecting trips it is important to be well prepared. The suitcase must contain the essentials to survive and clean teeth. The bills prepared. And a book always at hand, that's for sure. But those who know how to travel really always carry a reliable guide at all. Not only to enjoy more of what we are going to visit, but, sometimes, to be able to remember it with the same affection of the first time. A guide that tells you which are the most interesting places, that tells you about their history, that helps you understand the world you are heading to.
That is precisely what we have to do with the series, before or after enjoying them. Having a solvent guide at hand will help us to savor each episode better, to capture details that would otherwise go unnoticed. For example, the great book Cult Series of Toni de la Torre in which we can find one hundred of the really essential series. OR Inside Black Mirror, by Jason Arnapp, where we will discover valuable details about one of the most groundbreaking (and successful) series of the last decade. Or even Life according to Sheldon, also by Toni de la Torre, with which we will delve into the peculiar psychology of the most representative character of The Big Bang Theory, the longest running comedy of television. So you know, the next time you're going to face a series, do it as if you were traveling: prepare yourselves thoroughly if you want to truly enjoy.
And now, if you allow me, I'll go back to the beginning. I'm going to get a new ticket for another trip. I'm going to start a new series. I promise not to do spoilers.
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