Three Bags Full or The Sheep Detectives - Book vs Movie

 On paper, a sheep-detective mystery set in rural Ireland sounds like the most charming thing you've ever heard. It is not a cozy mystery. We want to be very clear about that upfront, because the marketing was not, and we went in completely unprepared.

This week Michelle and Laura read Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann and watched the Amazon/MGM adaptation The Sheep Detectives, which is in theaters now. The argument we're still having is this: when a film improves on its source material so thoroughly that it barely resembles the book, is that an adaptation win or did they just make a completely different movie? We did not agree. We are inviting you to pick a side.

The book debate is really a genre debate. Three Bags Full markets itself as cozy mystery. It is not. It's closer to Animal Farm if Animal Farm had a sheep theology subplot and spent 70% of its runtime on pasture politics before remembering it was supposed to solve a crime. It's dark, it's slow, and it's genuinely original in a way that does not make it easier to read. If you love dark European philosophical allegory dressed up as detective fiction, this is your book. If you expected cozy, it is not. The marketing was wrong, and we are not over it.

The film is a different story. Literally a different story. The Sheep Detectives takes the same dead shepherd and the same flock and goes somewhere warmer, funnier, and significantly more watchable. It also assembled a cast that makes no logical sense for a sheep mystery and is completely correct for it: Hugh Jackman, Emma Thompson, Patrick Stewart, Bryan Cranston, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Brett Goldstein as Two Sheep. Laura recognized Brett Goldstein's voice immediately and said "that's Brett Goldstein" out loud every single time he spoke. This is a full episode within the episode. She regrets nothing.

The film got us in ways the book didn't. The book makes you sad about humanity. The film makes you cry about sheep, which is somehow worse and also better. There is one scene involving the concept of becoming clouds that you should be warned about. We were warned. We still weren't ready.

We voted for the film. One bookmark out of five for the book, for originality and for finishing it. Three popcorn buckets out of five for the film. The sheep deserved better than the book gave them, and the movie finally gave them their moment.

Katya sat this one out. Given what the book put us through, we're calling it a gift.

Come listen, come tell us we're wrong about the book, and find everything at https://linktr.ee/chapteronesceneone.