For anyone familiar with Octavia Butler’s classic 1979 novel, it’s nothing short of unbelievable that it took so long for Kindred to find its way to the screen. After all, the book is so perfectly fit for a film or TV adaptation that it almost seems to have been conceived with a future screenplay in mind. However, not even the most devoted of Butler’s fans would’ve imagined that, when the time came, Kindred would be adapted not into a movie or a miniseries, but into an ongoing series. Created by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, the first season of Kindred has recently dropped on Hulu, starring Mallori Johnson as Dana James, a young writer that finds herself trapped between contemporary LA and a 19th-century plantation in which some of her ancestors are being kept as slaves — or so she believes.
With a total of eight episodes, all of which are available to stream, Kindred Season 1 covers about a third of Butler’s original work — a novel of about 250 to 300 pages, depending on the edition. Thus, it is no wonder that Jacobs-Jenkins had to stretch a few passages out and change a thing or two to make the story more format-friendly. But not all changes to the show’s source material have to do with stretching it out. From the time period in which part of the story takes place to the introduction of entirely new characters, Kindred the TV series has a lot in common with Kindred the book, but there’s also a fair share of brand-new details and storylines for viewers to enjoy. Whether it’s been a while since you last read Butler’s novel and can’t remember for certain if a character or subplot was part of the original story, or whether you’ve never read the book and is just curious about the changes made, here are the main differences between the televised and the literary versions of Kindred.
From the 1970s to the 2010s
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Kevin’s Relationship With Dana
Another character from the book that underwent a slight career change is Kevin Franklin (Micah Stock). In Butler’s version, Kevin is also a writer that has recently published a book and can finally quit his job at an auto parts warehouse. In the series, he’s a waiter with a music background. However, this is not the main change that was done to his character.
In the show, Kevin meets Dana while she’s having dinner with her aunt and uncle at the restaurant where he works. He gives her a ride home after what turns out to be a nightmarish family get-together, and the two later match on Tinder and go out on a date. It is only by accident that he is with Dana when she travels to the past and ends up being taken with her. Meanwhile, in the book, Kevin is Dana’s husband of years, and he’s well aware of everything that is going on, even trying to forge free papers for his wife, when he first makes the trip. He also travels with Dana just once before getting trapped in the past, unlike his TV counterpart, that jumps back twice.
Dana’s Conflict With Her Family
In the book as in the TV series, both Dana and Kevin are said to have lost their parents at a very young age. While Kevin’s main family tie is with his sister, Dana has a close relationship with her aunt and uncle, though that doesn’t always work out for her. Whether on the page or on the screen, Denise (Eisa Davis) and Alan (Charles Parnell) disapprove of their niece’s career choices, but, in Butler’s work, there is also another reason for conflict between Dana and her family.
While, in the show, Dana is criticized by her aunt and uncle for selling the family home in New York and moving to Los Angeles seemingly out of the blue, in the book, Dana’s uncle disapproves of her marriage with Kevin precisely because he doesn’t want a white man inheriting their family’s property. Meanwhile, Dana’s aunt approves of their union, but just because she hopes they will one day have a lighter skin baby.
The Fate of Dana’s Mother Olivia
But if you’re both a show-watcher and a book reader, the last thing on your mind about Dana’s family is why she doesn’t get along with her aunt and uncle. It is not unusual for TV series based on pre-existing properties to add new characters to the story’s universe, whether to stretch out the plot or to create new conflict. However, Jacobs-Jenkins has gone a step further and brought one character back from the dead: Dana’s mother, Olivia (Sheria Irving). Ever since she was two, Dana was told that her mother and father had perished in a terrible car crash, but this isn’t exactly the truth. It turns out that the body of Dana’s mother was never found, and that she was actually pulled back in time much like her daughter would be 24 years later. In her first trip to the past, when Rufus is still a baby, Dana catches a glimpse of a woman that looks suspiciously familiar, but it is only after the fire at the farmhouse that she is properly introduced to Olivia, a free Black woman that acts as a medic for the slaves at the Weylin farm.
In the show, Olivia is integral to Dana’s misadventures in the past, teaching her daughter how to return home on her own and serving as the link between her and little Alice (Abigail Shannon), an orphaned free girl that is tragically destined to birth Rufus’ children and Dana’s forbears. In the book, however, Olivia is completely absent, and Alice lives with her own mother on the outskirts of the plantation. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top Five podcast, Jacobs-Jenkins stated that he had created Olivia based on Butler’s scrapped ideas for the novel.
Sarah’s Vengeance Against Margaret
Margaret Leaves the Farm
Margaret Weylin is, without a shadow of a doubt, a horrible human being, but if there’s a time in which viewers almost feel sorry for her is whenever she interacts with her husband. Tom is constantly berating his wife, beating her, and undermining her already fragile relationship with her son. In the show, this culminates with Margaret leaving the plantation for Baltimore after a visit from her sister, May (Shannon Lucio), taking her son with her. In the book, Margaret never gets to leave Tom. She remains on the farm until her old age.
Dana’s Nosy Neighbors
While Dana is dragged back to the past whenever Rufus Weylin believes his life to be under threat, her only way of getting back home is to be in mortal danger herself. Thus, it is no wonder that, whenever she wakes up in her LA house, she’s usually screaming for dear life. In the book, this is not a problem until the very end (or the very beginning, depending on your perspective), when a gruesome accident lands Dana in the hospital, and the police are called to investigate a possible case of domestic violence. In the show, however, Dana can’t come back from one traumatic journey without being harassed by a couple of neighbors that suspect Kevin of beating her. Despite seeming initially caring and genuinely concerned, Hermione (Brooke Bloom) and Carlo (Louis Cancelmi) soon prove to be just a nuisance, spying inside Dana’s home and calling the police on her.
Denise Finds Out About Dana’s Trips to the Past
Kindred’s final episode has Dana returning to 2016 seemingly alone, with Kevin stranded in the past. After dealing with her neighbors and the police, she receives a visit from her aunt, who had previously tried to commit her to a psychiatric hospital due to her time travel talk. This time, however, Denise believes Dana when she brings up Rufus’ name. The two women go looking for the family’s Bible, in which the names of all James’ ancestors have been registered, to find out who else Dana might be connected to in the past. At the same time, Denise receives a call from her husband telling her that the police have located Olivia. Dana has brought her mother back with her. In the book, not only is Denise never reunited with her sister, she also never finds out about her niece’s trips to the 19th century or the trauma she has endured.
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