Neverwhere--The Series?

[Doomtrain]

I just finished Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (fabulous book) and I was poking around and, well, it looks like the BBC made it into a miniseries. And I love BBC stuff. Has anyone seen it and is it worth buying? It’s due out in the States in August.

[Einmon]

Haven’t seen it myself (though I plan to as I loved the book), but
Neil Gaiman himself says this:

Well, Episode 1 is kind of the lowest ebb of the BBC Neverwhere. Much of the fault for that was mine: I wrote an episode 1 for an hour-long episode, and then we had to cut it to half an hour.

Having said that, I liked the original edit of episode 1, and really didn’t like what the BBC and various other people edited it into – it felt like selected highlights. On the other hand, I’m very fond of bits of episodes 2 and 3, really like episodes 4 and 5, and was disappointed by the way the very end of episode 6 was cut and edited. Which was the main reason I wrote Neverwhere the novel. It was the “this is what I meant”.

[Doomtrain]

Hmm, interesting. I’ll lurk and see what else people have to say.

[photopat]

Actually it was written as a series first, then Gaiman expanded it into the book. I saw nearly the whole thing one night on PBS (I came in a little late and missed the very beginning). I thought it was enjoyable.

[slortar]

I have it all on VCD that I downloaded…it’s pretty good, in my opinion. Once I got used to the general British-ness of everything it was spot on what I was picturing when I read the book. The two thugs pursuing the main character were excellent…the casting director really deserves a high five for that.

I was surprised they could cover everything in 6 30 minute episodes without seeming rushed. The shoe-string budget also seems to work in the show’s favor as well. And the main character has a really cool accent.

Two thumbs up. I made an evening out of it with several friends and everybody had pretty much the same opinion as me.

[Archergal]

I liked the book (gotta like a book with a character named the Marquis of Carabas!), and I’d love to see the series.

No idea where to find it though.

[GrandfatherTrout]

As it happens, a Region 1 DVD collection of the series is about to be released in the States. You can order it now from the producers and you’ll get it a month before it goes onto the general shelves—which would be at the end of this month. Like, in a week or so. How cool is that?

I loved the book, too, and despite Gaiman’s misgivings about how the show turned out I’m really (really!) looking forward to seeing the DVDs.