many-bees replied to your post “So I'm new to the les mis fandom, sorry if this is a really obvious...”
I don't think an adaptation necessarily has to say something new to be good. It could just be an earnest attempt to translate the original work to a different medium. Like the Takahiro Arai manga doesn't say anything different from any other adaptation, but it's still amazing because it's presenting these old story and ideas in a new way, with gorgeous art and visuals and symbolism.
“it's presenting these old story and ideas in a new way, with gorgeous art and visuals and symbolism.”
That’s what it’s doing new! That’s exactly why it’s a good adaptation. I didn’t mean that you had to actually say something different (though you can), I meant that the reason why you adapt something is to bring your personal artistry to the original material.
Like remember Dallas Les Mis? That was a modern adaptation of the musical with a diverse cast and totally unique set and costume design. That was an AMAZING adaptation. A bad adaptation of the musical would period accurate and have just completely different lyrics set to the same tunes that already exist. And the new lyrics would just say pretty much what the original lyrics were saying just....different word choices. What would be the point in that right?
I think that’s what BBC was doing. It was just another cinematic adaptation in a LONG history of cinematic adaptations. And if you want your adaptation to stand out among the rest, you HAVE to do something new. If you want to consume the original work, read the brick. I don’t want to watch an exact play by play of the 1400 page novel, I want to see filmmakers use their medium to the fullest extent.