There isn’t anything in life that isn’t subjective. Your opinion of something may be different than mine. And hey, that’s okay. But, I love romance and I can’t stop watching it and reading it. I grew up on Jackie Collins books – sneaking them from my Mom and reading them. I will die on the hill that writers like her and Danielle Steel deserve so much more respect than they are given.
While I will tell you that I have respect for Gammatime – as I really feel that they are doing everything that they can to up the vertical game. However, The Player is a travesty and The Player is an adaptation of notes found in Collins unpublished works. The adaptation is in partnership with her estate. And its only saving grace is that Shay Dinneen is in it. But even that is not enough to save it.
And I will die on the hill that he can save anything.
I will be the first to admit that Collins books are long, but I will also be the first to say that should not be a hinderance to adapting anything. I don’t know how long that these notes were, but I can tell you that I think that she’s looking down on us all and wondering what happened.
Taking a book that is hundreds of pages long, making it into thirty or so episodes and leaving it with plot holes, romance that is almost non-existent, and characters that are cringeworthy – that’s a travesty. Taking an authors notes and making them into a story that is not fully fleshed out, is an abomination. There is no way that Collins would have thought that this adaptation was up to standards.
I think that when we’re looking at adapting an authors work, we have to set the expectation that there will be changes. I expect that. But what I don’t expect is that an adaptation cuts everything that made a story – well a story. I have to believe that whatever the notes laid out was something better than this.
The issue with this adaptation is three fold – bad casting, bad script, and bad appreciation for the Collins material. Collins has a loyal following for reasons – her characters are dramatic, enticing, and dangerous. Could we not have had her kids finish the book? I think that what happened here – and I could be wrong here – is we have a script writer that wouldn’t know romance or Collins works if it slapped him in the face and handed him a script that would fit with her legacy.
Yes, you can tell I hated the 30 or so minutes of my life that I wasted on this show. Bryan Dick was not the writer for this. You can look at his IMDB and realize that. Romance is not something he’s versed in writing and Collins isn’t where you break your romance cherry.
Gammatime did something innovative by the partnering with an estate. But what they should have done is taken actual finished works and made them into series. Yes, series. thirty or so episode verticals that are released weekly, until the book is complete. Or you know what would be smarter – they buy books that haven’t been out yet and put them into the space. Hell, there is even hiring writers to write books based on the stories they want to tell.
Gammatime is really trying here. They are headed by former Miramax boss, Artisan Entertainment founder and producer of Oscar-winning fare, Bill Block. He’s produced some Oscar winning stuff and I would believe that he would know that he’s got a hit or a miss on his hands. There is Alex Montalvo, who worked at Quibi (glaring red flag, we know) and he should know that this content was subpar. This is the kind of thing that never should have been green lit.
In this writers opinion, what The Player tried to do was overshadow the subpar script and stack it with vertical actors that will draw in an audience. Normally, I like Eli Jane. She’s a talented actress, but she had no chemistry with her co-stars here. I couldn’t watch her character without thinking this must be what watching paint dry feels like.
Avia Colette is newer here – with this being the third project under her belt. However, again, we’re dealing with no chemistry with her fellow actors here. Her character of Louisa was painfully innocent when it seemed like she was supposed to be a kid that hated her stepmom, was rebelling, and was Daddy’s little girl.
Derek Grauer, who played Wesley, was the husband, father, and investor. He was obvi some criminal, but what he also was – well he wasn’t believable. He’s not a bad actor – I liked him in The Girl They Left Behind, but here – I was like why is he even here?
The real draw for anyone wanting to watch this project would be Shay Dinneen – who we’d put on a vertical actors “a-list” and we’d watch anything about. He’s got a loyal, cult following because of the roles that he’s chosen and the charisma that he has. Not to mention his TikTok. But this may be the first vertical I have seen of his that under utilizes his talent. I didn’t believe that he was the gigilo/chef/playboy that he was playing.
In other words – save yourself time. The Player was one of the most painfully boring, bad, and waste of time verticals I have ever watched.
I want my time back and for the disrespect of Jackie Collins to never happen again.
