I just finished watching the last of the eight episodes of One Hundred Years of Solitude on Netflix, based on the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is my favorite novel of all time, a work of surpassing genius. So was the TV show, if it hadn’t been based on this book.

Everything about the show was excellent – the acting, directing, sets, costumes, lighting, music , and editing were all fantastic. It looks just like the book looks in my mind. But it simply wasn’t faithful to the story. So much was left out and changed as to give the audience the entirely wrong impression of what Marquez was saying about post-colonialism, among many other things.

Once of the main themes of the novel is the circular turning of time, an abstraction which is hardly well-developed if you shift events around out of order.

The banana company was left out entirely, as was the government’s fruit company massacre. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg of obliterated subplots and relationships. I think it’s safe to say the last 20% of the novel was simply amputated and left to float down the river of shining stones.

If I didn’t know and love the book, I’d give this series 5 stars; since I sort of do, it’s a generous 3.5. Lo siento.