MovieChat Forums > The Son (2017) Discussion > Anyone watching this? Have you read the...

Anyone watching this? Have you read the book?

posted 7 years ago by whynotwriteme (7114)
3 replies | jump to latest

I read the book about 3 years ago. I enjoyed it. The series is pretty good so far. I preferred the book's 1849 segments and the show's 1915 segments. I feel that the son Pete is presented much more sympathetically in the show. In the book he just came across as pathetically governed by emotion and lack of self control.

SPOILER ALERT: The highlight of the show so far has to be Eli's fantasy of scalping that annoying fat businessman in the restaurant while shouting "Coward!" in Comanche.

[–] filmtenk (765) 7 years ago

Yes that scalping segment was shocking and hilarious. Elie is such an animal!

[–] Sandoz (2021) 7 years ago

I wasn't aware there was a novel until I began watching the show. The show has held my interest so far, but I don't know if the conceit of telling two stories in different time periods is gonna fly when/if the show returns for a second season.

And I have to add that I didn't like at all the day-dreaming scene where Eli imagined himself scalping the businessman. While it did provide a moment of macabre humor, I found it to be a jarring moment that didn't fit in with the overall storytelling style of the show that was (until then) grounded in reality.

[–] congamondram (3) 7 years ago

Yes, the scalping segment was quite a shock. Eli lived with the Comanches in his youth, and his fantasy imagining of what he'd actually like to do to the arrogant businessman provided some bizarre humor. And it was quite in keeping with the sublimated savagery in his persona. Not long ago, he'd cut off the ear of the Mexican (Cesar) while interrogating him over the destruction of his oil-rig. The Comanches would have been proud of him.