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Neil Gaiman Short Stories We Need to See on TV
Neil Gaiman fans, rejoice! We have exciting news to tide us over to March, when that long-gestating Starz adaptation of American Gods begins shooting: Neil Gaiman’s Likely Stories, a four-part TV series adapting some of Gaiman’s shorter fiction is scheduled to start filming in November to air on Sky Arts, a UK satellite channel.
We don’t know all the details yet, but the possibilities for adaptation are plentiful. Gaiman has published four collections of short stories—the limited edition Angels and Visitations, Smoke and Mirrors, Fragile Things, and Trigger Warning—all of them filled to the brim with his signature blend of humor, fantasy, heart, and a touch of the macabre. While we don’t yet know what stories will be brought to the small screen, we’ve got four favorites we hope are in the running.
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“October in the Chair” (from Fragile Things)
If you were to ask me to sum up Neil Gaiman with only one of his stories, this would be my pick. A meeting attended by all the months of the year is a clever premise on its own, with each personified to fit its mood (April is a bit erratic, November is morose, January is uptight). But that they meet to tell stories makes it all the more the quintessential Gaiman tale. Naturally, the story begins with October’s turn to lead the meeting, but the scene would make a wonderful setup for the miniseries: there are enough of Gaiman stories for every month to have its turn.
The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains: A Tale of Travel and Darkness with Pictures of All Kinds
Neil Gaiman
Hardcover
$21.99
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The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains
I dare anyone who thinks they don’t like short stories—believing they’re not as developed, don’t have a full plot arc, can’t get you invested in the characters—to pick up this revenge tale and not be enthralled from start to finish. Gaiman gives you a hero’s journey in under 30 pages, doling out bits and pieces of an unnamed narrator’s quest to find one Calum McInnes and take him to the titular cave. Suspense, tension, and a tiny cast make it a perfect fit for TV.
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The Sleeper and the Spindle
Not just a retelling of a fairy tale, this brief vignette reimagines two of them. Snow White and Sleeping Beauty get smashed together when a young queen, on the verge of marriage, embarks on a journey to solve the mystery of the sleeping kingdom. In the process, Gaiman gives us a couple of badass heroines (though not necessarily the ones you’d expect) and a story that mingles the familiar and unfamiliar in a way that could appeal to any audience.
“The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch”
One of Gaiman’s most full-bodied, yet enigmatic, short stories, “The Facts in the Case of the Departure of Miss Finch” has a little bit of everything you could want from an episode of television: there is mystery. There is a circus. There are awkward British people. There is the real possibility of death. I would also watch an episode devoted to Miss Finch’s—or whatever her name really was—life after her disappearance.
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“A Study in Emerald” (from Fragile Things)
Of course, it’s not like anybody’s into Sherlock Holmes right now or anything, but … maybe this take on the consulting detective would resurrect his popularity. Why? Maybe because of the Lovecraftian Cthulu pastiche, or the loving nods to the inconsistencies of John Watson’s background, or the effective parody of “A Study in Scarlet,” or the twist you didn’t quite figure out despite all the clues Gaiman dropped for you. To quote the unnamed narrator, “I am woolgathering. Forgive me.” Maybe we should just agree that a Hugo Award-winning ode to Arthur Conan Doyle should be given screen time immediately.