T.V. Series Review – The Rook

 One morning at work I heard a co-worker talking about this new TV series he was watching called “The Rook”. I popped my head out of my office and inquired about it and lo and behold… it was based off what is one of my favorite weird, British humor fantasy books by Daniel O’Malley. I nearly stroked out on the spot from sheer excitement.

Since that day I’ve been quite faithfully tuning in every Sunday (or Monday if I’m busy) to watch and now that the first season has come to an end, I thought I’d give a brief rundown and comparison to the book.

It starts out much the same as the book – Myfanwy (pronounced Miffany) wakes up in the rain surrounded by bodies and with no memories. Her pre-memory loss self knew this betrayal was going to happen and left letters explaining her life and giving her the option to return to the life she knew or start a brand new one. She chooses to go back, which means she’s re-assuming her role as Rook in the supernatural intelligence agency known as the Checquy. Here’s where things begin to differ.

• The other members of the Checquy have the same names (and roles if I remember correctly) but some of them have quite different abilities. I mean, Conrad was a VAMPIRE in the book for goodness sake! 
• Myfanwy is having a love affair with Gestalt rather than being utterly repelled by them. And I say “them” because Gestalt is a single mind controlling four bodies. Interesting.
• The whole TV show lacks the excessive flair of supernatural events that the book had, and honestly, I think that was mostly a good thing for the TV series. I think the show would have executed it rather poorly and what was done worked well for TV.
• The show is also much, much more serious than the book which on the regular made me actually laugh out loud.
• The baddies in the show are EVA (supernatural folk) traffickers selling them to the highest bidder while in the book the bad guys are evil Belgians called “Grafters” who are doing much more sinister, supernatural things.
• There’s an American EVA agent involved in things in the show and honestly, I don’t recall her being in the first book, and certainly not in the same role she played in the show.

I think you can begin to grasp how vastly different the show was from the book. That being said, I greatly enjoyed it for what it was and definitely plan to watch the second season if there is one and I dearly hope there is because the last episode was a total “HECK YEAH” moment. It wasn’t perfect and it wasn’t the best show I’ve watched in my entire life, but I rarely watch entire seasons in such a regular manner so that definitely counts for something!!!