In a story that already addresses poignant and challenging topics such as class, race, abortion, and transracial adoption in a nuanced and empathetic way, the TV adaptation flirts with becoming a pile-on of themes, treating each scene more like an opportunity to illustrate marginalization and micro-aggressions than a chance to develop its characters. Instead, the show introduces the topic of sexuality to the narrative by way of Izzy-she is bullied at school when a print-out of Ellen’s 1997 cover of TIME in which she came out is posted in her locker, leading her sexuality to be questioned by her classmates and parents alike. I am happy that Reese and Lauren saw the opening to explore that through Kerry.”Īnother significant change is that the TV adaptation mostly glosses over Izzy’s playful mischief-making in the book, cutting an incident wherein she enlists Moody and Pearl to help her jam all the classroom door locks with toothpicks to create anarchy in the school and get back at a mean teacher. So, I thought of her as a white woman, but I didn’t mark her racially. I didn’t want to pretend like I knew what that was like. But I didn’t feel like I was the right person to write a black woman’s experience. Like, of course the Asian woman will side with the Asian mother. I knew that I wanted to look at race, but I knew that there was going to be this Asian American baby, and I felt like making her an Asian American woman, which was a perspective I knew I could write, would be a little too neat. Times: “In the initial drafts of the book, I wanted to make Mia a woman of color. Mia scolds Pearl, explaining that they “aren’t like the Richardsons, the cops are not on side.” In the book, Lexie Richardson takes advantage of Pearl by having her write her college admission essay for her in the show, Lexie appropriates Pearl’s experience of discrimination for her essay, allowing the incident to take on broader significance, as well as creating a rift between Lexie and Brian, her boyfriend.Īuthor Celeste Ng told the L.A. This adds an additional dimension to many of the plots and interactions in the story-it shapes the tone of Elena’s invitation to Mia to serve as the Richardsons' “house manager," while allowing the writers to add scenes that strike more contemporary political chords, such as one scene in which Pearl and Moody get in trouble for trespassing. The TV adaptation is largely faithful to the book, but the most apparent difference between the works is the casting of black actors in the roles of Mia and Pearl, whose race is not specified in the book. While Pearl grows increasingly entranced by what she sees as the Richardsons’ idyllic, stable family life, Izzy, the black sheep of this picture-perfect, all-American family, begins to idolize the unpredictable Mia and assist with her art. Meanwhile, Mia comes on as the Richardsons' part-time “house manager” to keep an eye on her daughter during playtime. The lives of Elena, her husband Bill (Joshua Jackson), and their four children Lexie (Jade Pettyjohn), Trip (Jordan Elsass), Moody (Gavin Lewis), and Izzy (Megan Stott) entangle with the Warrens as Pearl befriends the children. In a self-righteous act of charity, Elena Richardson (Witherspoon), an upper-class perfectionist who believes every disaster can be averted by proper planning, rents out a family property to nomadic artist Mia Warren (Washington) and her daughter Pearl (Lexi Underwood). The show tells the story of two families, the Richardsons and the Warrens, whose lives converge in 1997 in the pristine and orderly suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio. 10 Exciting Book-to-Movie Adaptations for 2020.
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