Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Quick Thoughts On The DELIRIUM Pilot


I watched the Delirium pilot on Hulu a couple days ago. The TV show, which was rejected by Fox, is based on Lauren Oliver's Delirium trilogy. I'm a huge fan of Oliver's writing, so I had high expectations. But honestly, I can see why Fox passed on the show. 

Highlights: I liked Emma Roberts as Lena. Jeanine Mason likewise made for a great Hana - she brought the fiery personality, but kept Hana's reluctance to truly rebel. Julian Fineman's addition to the story was actually kind of interesting, although I don't think his character had too much to do. The setting isn't quite what I imagined, but I enjoyed the way everything looked. It was an interesting mix of futuristic and familiar, which works well for the story. 

Lowlights: The pilot episode is the entire first novel, with a little bit of the sequel as well. That's around 500 pages of development shoved into a limited amount of minutes, so it's understandable that quite a lot is lost. While Oliver's novel builds relationships and makes readers care about the characters, the pilot rushes everything. The conclusion is supposed to be heartbreaking (and it is in the novel), but in the pilot, there is no emotion, no grief, nothing. The pacing is too fast, and while I think Roberts and Kagasoff could potentially bring Lena and Alex to life, they couldn't make the romance believable in only one episode. Also, there are some roles that are switched / changed / lost, and I'm not sure how well that would work out in the long run. As a whole, emotion was severely lacking in the pilot, which is unfortunate since Delirium is a story about love. 

Final Thoughts: While I was underwhelmed, I wouldn't mind seeing more of the show (if only to see if there was improvement). Better yet, I'd love to see a completely redone pilot episode that fixes the problems. The source material is excellent, and in the right hands, Oliver's books could make for an interesting TV show. 

Did you watch the Delirium pilot? What are your thoughts? 

14 comments:

  1. I agree with all of this! i was so excited for this pilot since last year when they announced it. I had such high hopes for it but I can see why it wouldn't be picked up. I really didn't like that they put the first book into one episode. It makes me wonder what the series would be about then - just Lena? Well anyways, I think this would be an amazing show if they would redo the pilot like you said and took it slow so the audience can really understand!

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    1. I'm a little perplexed as to why they would put the entire first novel into the pilot - I know that TV shows / films always veer off course from the source material, but that type of move leaves so little for them to do in future episodes! I think the only reason I enjoyed it as little as I did was because I read the novels (I'd imagine non-readers would have been confused at the quick pacing).

      It would definitely be great if they redid the pilot! *fingers crossed*

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    2. Absolutely agreed. I could not believe they put the entirety of that first book in episode 1! If they broke it into at least half a season, you'd get a much better sense of the world and characters...

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    3. "If they broke it into at least half a season, you'd get a much better sense of the world and characters..." - Exactly! I wonder why they even chose to use the entire novel for the pilot? Seems like such a strange choice.

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  2. I was going to check out the pilot as well. I can't believe they have 500 pages of story in the first episode?! Wow. Talk about crazy pacing?! That's a shame, because I think there is a lot of potential here. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!

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    1. It's insane. The entire first book? It's the pilot episode. Such a shame, because they had to change a bit, leave out so much development, and so everything seemed rushed.

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  3. Aw, I'm sorry this pilot was disappointing. Yeah. Not for me, lol :) I did love the book. But will never in a million years read book two or three :p Sigh. So yeah, not watching this pilot :) But glad you kind of liked it a little? Great post. <3

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    1. I enjoyed some aspects, but it was weak. I think Oliver's novels are difficult to translate to film/TV.

      Aw, you'll never check out the 2nd and 3rd books? The first one is definitely my favorite, but the sequel is rather good too.

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  4. I had a lot of the same feelings. The fact that they crammed the entire book and parts of book two into the first episode was just absurd. The show would have been over in three episodes! The love story in the book is so beautiful and well developed, in the show it was insta-love at it's worst. I felt nothing at the end of the show, which I sobbed over in the book.

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    1. Absurd is a good word for it. I still cannot understand what they were thinking! Such a fantastic novel, great source material...and they didn't even take advantage of it!

      The only emotion I felt at the end of the pilot was boredom. Which is such a shame, because it's meant to be completely heartbreaking!

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  5. I watched the pilot and I was shocked that they put the entire first book into the pilot. Also they made some changes with the end of the pilot. In the book things are much more dramatic and it affects Lena strongly in Panedemonium. The changes made me wonder just what they were planning for the rest of the series. Was the majority of it going to be in the wild? It is almost like they were planning a mini-series instead of a full season.

    I did see a lot of potential with the characters if the pilot hadn't been rushed. I did like Darren Kagasoff as Alex but they put the romance together too quickly.

    I think nonreaders would not have been invested in the story at all. If there is a second chance, I hope a lot of changes are made.

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    1. There was potential, but they didn't make it work at all. I wonder if they were going to focus more on the wild...it's so crazy they wasted all of those pages in book 1 by trying to cram it all in one episode.

      The romance was weak. Maybe with more episodes developing the relationship it could have worked, but not as it appeared in the pilot. So disappointing!

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