A few weeks ago I heard they were turning popular YA duology, Tiny Pretty Things into a Netflix show. I’m a huge TV critic (in my small social circle that is) and I’m usually quite brutal, so I knew I would end up watching it which is why I had to read the book first. So I picked it up, lit some candles, snuggled into my blankets and read both books in two days in quick succession. For anyone looking at reading the book you might want to skip the next paragraph, for anyone looking at watching the TV show without reading the book go ahead and read the spoilers because nothing is the same.

Tiny Pretty Things focuses on the lives of Bette, Gigi and June who attend America’s premier ballet school to train in classical ballet. At the end of their high school careers there is a chance for two ballerinas to be selected with the ballet company associated with the school and basically be set with a career for the rest of their lives. With hundreds of pretty girls all over all competing to be the best dancers this series is about girl drama as everyone struggles to be at the top. Bette struggles with being in the shadow of her older sister a fantastic prima ballerina and in turn hates anyone who gives her competition, enough to bully them. June struggles with horrific anorexia and bulimia with an unsupportive mother and daddy issues (non sexual actual DNA based daddy issues). Gigi the kindhearted California transfer who just wants to dance and have a boyfriend finds herself bullied by mean messages and glass filled pointe shoes finds herself having to adapt and become meaner to survive especially because she is an African American girl in a world of white ballerinas. Basically this series is a helping of teenage drama with lovely aspects of classical ballet.

The TV show had next to none of the above.

Firstly other than Bette and June there were no other characters from the book. I mean the producers of the show might as well have changed both girls names and then not have to have written ‘Based on the book by…’ in the credits. The third protagonist had been changed completely. There was no more Gigi, but instead another African American girl named Neveah. I mean what’s the point of that? So safe for me to say I was already a bit annoyed when I started watching.

But at any rate I was willing to look past it. The book was a three star read for me, it was a good read to pass the time, but I probably won’t pick it up again. I feel like both the authors however had managed to capture the essence of the budding ballet world, in terms of racism and sexism and how the entire process is for the dancers. So when the book sort of pegs the villainy on different races and religions rather than the white girl being the villain as was in the book I was confused. If they had wanted to depict the racist and religious intolerances and homophobia that people face in the ballet community the best thing would have been to follow the book. Instead by introducing a new Muslim character and starting by pinning him as the villain then as the jilted lover and sort of a weirdo and by making sure Neveah was originally paired with him is so controversial. I am all for love is love. Anyone should be able to love anyone. But when in the original the African American girl is paired off with the white straight boy, which in itself is ground breaking for the book, then why change it and have her paired up first with one outcast and then a bisexual bulimic boy. To me these pairings which would have been fine if this was a totally new series, but since this was based on the book it felt like a purposeful undermining of that pairing. Controversial.

Instead of depicting stunning classical ballets (The Nutcracker and Swan Lake as classical ballets and Giselle as a romantic ballet) which should have formed the focus of Bette, June and Neveah’s rivalry, there was now an entirely new choreography based on Jack The Ripper. I didn’t sign on to watch that. I wanted to watch the beautiful originals especially because the actors were trained in ballet. I wanted to see original costumes and the Odile coda that Bette would perform. Instead I got some lame ballet called Ripper where the costumes were shorts and a jacket. It was such a huge let down. They had a cast full of dancers and they were under utilised, completely. There was so much scope for good dancing and it was completely wasted.

The book went from Young Adult to an adaption that was very clearly adult. There was so much sex and nudity. I understand that even in the book sex was a clear part of the young adult relationships. That’s fine. But it wasn’t explicit. There was a lot of nudity and explicit sex in this, a friend of mine who is watching it now asked if it was soft porn. Sex amongst high schoolers today has become norm, there’s no question. But these are still 16 years old or younger kids who are discovering their bodies, to expect them be having sex every night when they are in a highly competitive dance school looking at performing, dancing and studying and trying to maintain a certain physique is unrealistic. I mean if you’re having sex all night and dancing seven days a week without sleeping I can assure you, you’ll probably be doing ballets like Ripper instead of Giselle or Swan Lake. Hmmm maybe that does make the show accurate.

One of the things I was disappointed by was the relationship between the girls. I personally, am not a fan of girls hating on girls, sisters killing sisters (I’m looking at you Three Dark Crowns) and girls fighting over guys. Not my style. But when I look at reality, where not all boys are expected to be friends with each other I find the idea of all girls being supportive BFF’s highly unrealistic. I prefer girls supporting other girls, but that’s not always the case. They can hate each other, be best friends, compete with each other and be supportive like Meredith and Christina from Greys Anatomy or be competitors who despise each other. So for me it was fine in this one off to read about girls who hated each other and were competitive enough to drag each other to the depths of hell so they could get on top. I found the bullying a bit sociopathic, but it was an interesting view for me on what people are willing to do to get to the top. The show erased this almost completely. Sue the girls flung some mean comments at each other, but hey, I fling sarcastic comments bordering on hurtful to everyone on a daily basis, so big whoop. There were scenes between the girls of very unrealistic hand holding and giggling as they decided to take a completely third party down. That’s not what I signed on for at all. It was like they tried to pacify the ‘Girls support girls’ trope and they failed because they did neither. Try harder Netflix.

There was a lot of focus on the older administration of the Ballet School and other adults. Bette’s older sister barely has a role but now has a crucial part to play in the story. The choreographer of Ripper was a sexual predator who cheated on his girlfriend and tried groping every pretty student he could find. The director of the school was running a scam pimping out the girls of the school to rapists at a beach club. I can’t put into words my astonishment at all this additional nonsense.

I mean, sexual harassment and sexual offences awareness is EXTREMELY important. It does play a minor role in the books, but suddenly takes center stage in a number of ways in the show. The protagonists are sidelined completely to make room for all this sexual drama. I’ll be honest I didn’t want to watch a story about sexual predators, murderers and rapists. All I wanted, was to watch a group of girls be bitchy and some fantastic dancing. This show didn’t provide either. It was an over-sexed drama regarding a group of adults manipulating some girls. Eating disorders which was an integral part of the book were sidelined. A few scenes of a young boy vomiting and making notes of calories with no solutions and no side effects is just saying ‘HEY LOOK BULIMIA’ rather than ‘Eating disorders are scary and can have severe ramifications.’ In the book, my stomach turned at the Bulimia. While watching the show I didn’t care, because of the sad depiction.

At the end of the day this was bad TV and my advice would be to not watch it. If you’re in the mood for something gossipy read Tiny Pretty Things. If you want to watch ballet watch Misty Copeland videos or Nadia Osipova, it’s a far better use of time!