The Great Firefly Lane Debate: Book vs. Show

I saw Firefly Lane first late last year when it first came on Netflix – as I generally like to watch shows/movies based on popular books. It seems like if someone wanted a book enough to buy the rights and make a show, it must be pretty good.

So, last year I watched the show, and I read the book last week. Which is better? The answer was pretty straightforward, at least to me. The book wins hands down, and I will tell you why in a bit.

About Firefly Lane

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all—beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface, they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully is steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end, they’ve become inseparable.

Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.

~ Synopsis from GoodReads

Thoughts on the Show

Starring Katherine Heigl, Sarah Chalke, and Ben Lawson, this is a mini-series of about ten episodes.

Katherine plays Tully Hart – the magnetic career-driven girl, and Sarah plays Kate – the homely foil.

I liked the first few episodes of the show, which focus on their teenage years. The teen Kate and Tully (played by Roan Curtis and Ali Skovbye, respectively) are fabulous, and I was gunning for their friendship.

Alas! They grow up and are replaced by a tired-looking Heigl and Chalke all too soon. The story also gets incredibly clichéd, veering into rom-com territory. The 80s costumes get too ridiculous, and the acting was beyond hammy.

By the seventh episode, I was exhausted with all the soap-style drama and could not just deal with the weird cheap-looking costumes and lighting.

This series was a DNF.

Thoughts on the Book

I found the book miles better than the show.

For one, it sticks to a more straightforward storyline. Kristin Hannah paints a rich picture of friendship, love, loss, joy, sorrow, highs, and lows – just snapshots from a typical person’s life. The show segued into all sorts of side plots (to make it to ten episodes, I think). The book knows this is a simple friendship story, is happy with the premise, and nails it perfectly.

The book is on the corny side, no doubt, but if you are in the mood for a woman’s fiction kind of book with relatable characters and have some nostalgia about life in the 70s and 80s, this book would work for you. In short, read the book, skip the series.