Hap has hit 40, a former conscientious objector who did time in Leavenworth rather than go to Vietnam. He set his crime/swamp-noir stories in the dying days of the ’80s where our heroes are not so much down on their luck, as pawned it, stole it back and pawned it again. Lansdale introduced us to Hap Collins and Leonard Pine in 1990's Savage Season. You can distil it down to two things, character and heart (possibly three if you throw in East Texas). Lansdale deftly weaves throughout his novels is transferred to the small screen perfectly.
Despite some rather large differences between the show and the source novels, that magical element that Joe R. I saw the TV show and then discovered the books. In the case of Hap and Leonard, I came at it ass about-face. However, when it is done right, adaptation is magical. Heavens, even The Omega Man hit more notes than poor old Will’s attempt. Throw in first-person narration, and more often than not, Richard Matheson's vision becomes Francis Lawrence's and Will Smith’s I am Legend, rather than a Vincent Price The Last Man On Earth. The dilution only continues when the moneymen ask why the hero has to die at the end or why the soaring city in the sky cannot be Vancouver in March.
Adaptation is someone taking that same joy of discovery and wonderment and the distilling it through the lens of many, many people. When you immerse yourself in a book, the only budget you have for the things running through your mind is the joint imagination of author and reader. Taking a work of fiction from the page to the screen must have one of the worst strike rates going.
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