‘The Hunting Wives’ and the differences between the book and the series
Netflix’s penchant for murder mysteries just added a highly anticipated adaptation to the queue, The Hunting Wives. And with its release, fans have found their guilty pleasure of the week. Camped on a tightrope walk of soapy, sultry, and strikingly salacious, the Netflix series tells the story of Boston expat Sophie O’Neill, who moves to East Texas to start anew, only to find herself deep in a pit hole of deception, danger, desire, and desperation.
The Netflix drama is based on May Cobb’s best-selling novel. Although it’s a fictional story, The Hunting Wives reportedly draws from Cobb’s own upbringing in Texas, overlapping with an anecdote she had heard from her mother. For the longest time, critics have raised objections about adaptation inaccuracies, giving streaming borrowings a hard time in Hollywood. Think The Witcher.
While The Hunting Wives draws a lot from Cobb’s book, it turns out the Netflix series does take a few liberties to ensure even the readers have a thing or two to be surprised about. But in here, there’s no inherent drama or lamentation. In fact, according to Katie Lowes’s conversation with US Weekly in June, Cobb was reportedly on the set with them throughout.
She even highlighted Cobb’s “stamp of approval,” revealing the great lengths of discussion creator Rebecca Cutter and the writer had. “She was on set and was really elated to see her characters come to life and really loved the direction that Rebecca went in with the characters and changes,” Lowes explained. Although everyone hopes the discrepancies are not that alarming that it’s hard to recognise, for those wondering what the differences are, here’s the answer.
The Hunting Wives book vs series
Sophie’s arc
Boston transplant Sophie O’Neill from the Netflix series is actually a former magazine editor from Chicago. Strikingly, The Hunting Wives also downplays her reliance on alcohol until the finale. While she confesses to running someone over while drinking and driving in the show, the revelation comes back to square one when she runs Kyle over, but is not consumed by liquid courage.
Brad’s age
In Cobb’s pages, the controversial affairs between housewives and high school boys grab attention. But the Netflix series ensures the boys are of the age of consent and are legally 18. For those out of the loop, the spotlight is on Brad’s illicit romance with Margo.
Abby’s pregnancy and the abortion storyline
The Hunting Wives on Netflix shapes up with Abby’s death, a young girl murdered in the woods near Margo’s house. But in the books, Abby was pregnant when she died. Cobb’s book also had a pregnancy and abortion, just like the eight-episode series. However, Abby was pregnant with Brad’s baby in the novel, which sparked the chain reaction of murder.
In the show, till a point, the seeds are sown that Abby was pregnant and had an abortion. However, the finale reveals that it was Margo who underwent an abortion following her pregnancy with Brad’s baby.
The killer plot twist
In Cobb’s novel, Jill was after Abby’s life and lured her using Margo’s gun. Meanwhile, the show makes Jill the false alarm who ends up dead in the wake of a bloody confrontation with Margo and Callie. It’s Sophie who realises in the end that something doesn’t add up about Jill being the murderer, which leads her to tail Margo.
Margo’s arc and the doom of death
On the pages, Jill was the killer who also murdered Margo for her illicit affair with Brad. However, the show upped the ante by letting Margo not only live, but by making her the killer instead.
Similarly, in the book, Sophie was on the brink of death when she was sleuthing Abby’s murder. Callie and the authorities finally took Jill in. But the show racks up the body count with Jill and Starr’s deaths, along with Pastor Pete’s simultaneous plot of crimes. Even Pete was a suspect, just like Sophie. However, he was not responsible for the deaths, only the kidnappings.
Sophie’s revelation
A two-month time warp unveils Sophie’s split from Graham following her cheating on him in Cobb’s version. However, the show banks on Sophie revealing the truth to Graham, leading to both parting ways. It’s the twofold burden that pushes her drinking habits, resulting in Margo’s brother’s pursuit and the fear of feeling threatened.
Despite efforts to mitigate, the situation gets out of hand in the show, with Sophie’s apprehension getting the best of her. Now with blood on her hands, The Hunting Wives concludes with Margo ringing Kyle and Sophie breathing on the other end.