Joe Lansdale's Hap & Leonard Coming To TV?

[Keeth Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeth]

I've got the third episode waiting on the dvr ("Two Bear Mambo").

I don't believe it's one that I had read before. Looking at the list, I've read four that I remember: Savage Season, Mucho Mojo, Bad Chili, & Rumble Tumble.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Bad Chili is the one I read,I think.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

Good start to the new series. I keep waiting for this show to fulfill it's promise as it has bucketloads of that. Lansdale books are not that easy to get in Australia so I've only read a few, though loved the ones I read, but I've just found that Amazon has them now for Kindle. Is there a best Hap and Leonard to start on? I'd prefer not to read one that was covered in the first 2 seasons.

[Keeth Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeth]

I can't say which title would be best to start with as I buy them when I come across'em used and, so far, nothing in the show feels familiar to me other than their names.

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

I have always heard it is best to start with the first book and work your way forward. Seems the one I read was book 5. And I was lost for the first 2 chapters. But Lansdale did a good job of filling in some gaps.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

I started off with Vanilla Ride. I liked it a whole lot but it does bring the series into a new kind of focus and I can kind of see why it struggles a little despite having so many great elements. The book is cute as fuck. I mean it's a book for Men but it's also pretty damn campy. That tone... I'm not sure you can even do that tone in a tv series or a movie. Some of the dialogue between Hap and Leonard... to paraphrase Harrison Ford, Lansdale can write that shit but two grown men sure as hell can't say it.

Also like the other Lansdale stuff I've read it's all very straight ahead. There's not a lot of complexity here. The characters are great but I know as much about them one page after they are introduced as I do at the end of the book. And the stories are a sequence of events rather than a plot as such. That works beautifully in a campy, pulpy paperback but over 6 hours of telly you've got to start fishing around for more. I think the "more" the writers are bringing to the surface isn't gold.

All that said, I do dig this show and I think this season is the best so far assuming they can stick the landing.

[Keeth Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeth]

The cgi in the show is pretty awful but they did a great job at making the racism really ugly. Not sure how I feel about the sheriff with the swollen ball. It's kind of dumb. Seems like they should have dialed it back a little. The season finale is tonight...

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

Too bad. Last season felt like it was getting that Lansdale mojo cooking.

http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/hap-a...-by-sundancetv

[Newt Cox Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Newt Cox]

Well that sucks. Season 3 was the best one so far. I am kinda glad I hadn't read the first 3 books so I was surprised with each episode.

It was one of the few shows that everyone I introduced to it loved. My father loved it and it was the only show he watched live. My lady kept cable just so she could watch it. And two of my best friends loved the show so much they have went out and bought a bunch of the novels.

[Mark Tolch Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark Tolch]

I will say this, the show didn't touch the novels for awesomeness, though it was good in it's own right.

" Some of the dialogue between Hap and Leonard... to paraphrase Harrison Ford, Lansdale can write that shit but two grown men sure as hell can't say it. " says Dom, and this is a huge part of it.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

3 seasons on Netflix now. Started watching this last night, had a good time with the first episode so I'll probably dig in a bit deeper in the coming weeks.

[Dom D Spoon! Find all posts View Profile Close Dom D]

My girlfriend was bemoaning the lack of Banshee the other day so I suggested Hap and Leonard as the closest thing thing to Banshee this side of Warrior. I put on the third season first figuring there was no continuity and that the show got better as it went. Wrong on both counts. There's more continuity in the show than in the books. I think maybe I thought the show improved as it went was more a result of a lowering of expectations on my part than a pick up in quality. Though to be fair it's absolutely fine all the way through. It doesn't sparkle but then not many shows do. The rewatch was very much enjoyed start to finish. Or from end to start as I stupidly ordered it.

Such great casting for Hap and Leonard. The memory of those two is going to ruin any future adaptations.

Being more familiar with the books now than I was on the first watch the issues of the show are a bit more obvious. These books are too short for 6 episodes. None of the ways they are dragged out are much fun. In the first series for instance the climatic shootout starts mid way through episode 4. In the book you've only 20 odd pages to go at that point. The show still has over a hundred minutes... They shoulda done two books per season.

I haven't read books 2 and 3- most of the ones I've read being later in the series- but those seem to be very dour tales. Child murdering in one and a nazi town beating the shit out of hero in a hate crime in the other. Maybe Haps voice in the books makes those more fun than the show but I feel maybe they could also have skipped to some more playful books in the series.

All the same, when you are all out of Banshee this does scratch an itch.