How would you feel? Creative Hijacking

First, mea culpa for not posting in a while. Life has been crazy, as in five hours of sleep is the norm, and the rest of the time I barely have time to blink.  It's slowing a bit, thank heavens, and I actually got about six hours of snooze last night! Progress!

I've been thinking about this post for a while. As I've said before, I'm a fan of the first four, maybe five, Craig Johnson LONGMIRE mysteries.  The character, Sheriff Walt Longmire, is a man of infinite patience, deadly aim, sharp intellect, and great melancholy. In short, he's a man I'd like to meet.  The mysteries are good - the first three are really a trilogy - and character-driven. My cuppa, for sure.

Couldn't wait for the A&E series to start. Despite the fact Katee Sackhoff looks nothing like the dark-haired Italian deputy,Vic, I was willing to go along with the casting. But the stories...whoa there, pardner.  Not a one bore a resemblance to any of the novels. A series has to have more than five or six stories, sure, but couldn't they have used some of them? Then lo and behold, last Sunday's episode centered around some white teen-agers who raped a developmentally disabled Cheyenne girl. At last, I thought, a plot line I recognize! It was going to be fun to see how they dramatized it.

Only they didn't. Not the novel plot, that is.  Didn't like it. Then I realized how they've changed Longmire's character, and that what's bothering me the most. He's churlish now, almost juvenile in his pettiness. Downright mean to his daughter. The real Longmire would never snap at Cady. Never.

And then there's the new plot line involving Longmire's dead wife. Everyone who has read the novels know she passed away from cancer, leaving a huge hole in her husband's life. It seems A&E has decided she was murdered, and Longmire kept it from their daughter. Bleeech. My mouth tastes bad and my head hurts. Why mess with the character and the basics of the books? 

I realize when you sell your book to a production company, you pretty much give them carte blanche, unless you're Nora Roberts.  But really, did A&E have to mess with what was a really good mystery series so drastically?  I feel for Craig Johnson, but maybe he's fine with all that sc**wing around with his creative work.  Me, I'd be hiring lawyers and going to war.

Nobody messes with my peeps. And my characters are my peeps, make no doubt about it.