I know that when you read a good novel it creates pictures in your head that are way better than any TV company can manage but......they really do miss the mark in so many ways.
Setting the stories in a later time frame than the books for a start. "The Americans" managed to do a good job of recreating the 1980s, but the producers here haven't even attempted to place Banks in the 1990s, or even the first 5 years of the 21st century.
Banks himself is written wrong. In the books he cares deeply about the victims, gets emotionally involved with the case and beats himself up when he feels he's let them down. But he doesn't spend most of the story letting this emotion prevent him from doing his job, unlike on TV And his relationship with his team is wrong - there's no warmth, no humour and no evident teamwork.
It could have been done so much better. After all, the books are superb.......and maybe that's the problem. ITV cop shows are often guilty of getting lost in clichés (strained team relationships, maverick lead detective, idiot superior officer) and that seems to have happened here. But then, we do have to keep the advertisers happy, don't we?
Setting the stories in a later time frame than the books for a start. "The Americans" managed to do a good job of recreating the 1980s, but the producers here haven't even attempted to place Banks in the 1990s, or even the first 5 years of the 21st century.
Banks himself is written wrong. In the books he cares deeply about the victims, gets emotionally involved with the case and beats himself up when he feels he's let them down. But he doesn't spend most of the story letting this emotion prevent him from doing his job, unlike on TV And his relationship with his team is wrong - there's no warmth, no humour and no evident teamwork.
It could have been done so much better. After all, the books are superb.......and maybe that's the problem. ITV cop shows are often guilty of getting lost in clichés (strained team relationships, maverick lead detective, idiot superior officer) and that seems to have happened here. But then, we do have to keep the advertisers happy, don't we?