Station Eleven Part III – TV Ruins Everything

Just to recap, Station Eleven is one of my favourite books of all time. Maybe even top 5. So imagine my excitement at discovering that a TV miniseries was in the works!!! YAAAYYY!!

Ahem. This did not go as anticipated.

Many spoilers follow, for both the book and the TV miniseries.

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Many, many spoilers.

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You’ve been duly warned that there will be spoilers.

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I’ll just summarize this hot mess with the comparative table below. Opinions may vary.

The Book	The TV Show
Kirsten meets Jeevan briefly, never to encounter him again.	Jeevan basically substitutes for Kirsten’s brother and serves to make the number of coincidences more ridiculous. Either way (brother or Jeevan), Kirsten ends up on her own at a very young age.
Children are called “children”, have little interest in the “before times”, and are raised by actual or adopted parents to be as well adjusted as possible in the only world they know. Rightly so.	Children are called “post-pans” (barf), seduced into a cult by the pied piper aka the Prophet, and invade “safe” communities wearing land mine necklaces for literally no reason.
Dieter sadly dies by accident during a botched attempt to kidnap him as ransom to return one of the Prophet’s “followers” who ran away to join the Symphony.	Gil is blown to smithereens by a cult-raised post-pan wearing land mine jewelry
Air Gradia flight 452 self-quarantines and remains parked and locked on the runway for the next 20 years as a reminder to survivors of what was lost.	An Air Gradia passenger survives a month locked in a plane full of dead people, escapes, and is promptly shot by the airport people who fear contamination. Then the plane is set on fire.
Kirsten avoids killing people wherever possible, and ends up killing one person in defense of herself and her friends.	Kirsten tries to kill the Prophet because he …. is weird? Not really sure. (The book Prophet will be shown to deserve it. Not sure WTF with the TV Prophet, who lives.)
People live in hope and mostly in peace.	People live in fear in a Walking Dead universe.
After 20 years, there is no power. Electricity no longer works, and gasoline has gone stale, as it would do.	After 20 years, there are still lights. And bombs. And, seemingly, batteries.
The Station Eleven graphic novel is what connects the key characters in their damaged but hopeful world.	The Station Eleven comic drives people to hallucinations and cultism.
The airport is a safe, prospering community.	The airport is a prison.
Clark curates a beautiful, thoughtful Museum of Civilization to preserve artifacts that no longer have relevance but represent a hopeful return to better times.	The prophet blows up the museum with a remote-detonated bomb in a world where somehow batteries still work and people know how to build remote-detonated bombs.
The prophet and his mother leave the airport because they are crazies.	The prophet and his mother are forced from the airport because the airport people are crazies.
Frank takes his own life so that his brother Jeevan has a chance at survival.	Frank is stabbed to death by a person who just happens to break into their apartment after 40 days and Jeevan in turn beats the intruder to death.
In year 20, people are cautious and protective, but hopeful.	In year 20, people are terrified, paranoid, and bomb-crazy.

To purge myself of the memory of the TV miniseries disaster, I reread the book for the third time. I’m not wrong, the book is wonderful and hopeful and nuanced and intricate.

Miniseries? What miniseries.?