Haven’t we been through this already? Back in August of 2017, we watched and reviewed Adam Wingard’s horrible Netflix film adaptation of Death Note. He and Netflix received so much hate (not from us), that Wingard left Twitter due to the stress. And while we would never condone harassing anyone on social media, any criticism he received for such a lousy film is well deserved. Not the harassment. The criticism. Know the difference.
And now, Netflix is turning toward Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of Stranger Things, for a shot at redemption with a new live-action Death Note series.
But Wingard’s failure is equally one that Netflix must own, if not more so. Netflix has received plenty of criticism for not only what they have done to Death Note, Cowboy Bebop, another anime turned live-action, presumably One Piece (yes, that is also happening) but also for canceling popular shows before they come to a proper end, for instance.) And now, for some reason, Netflix wants to take another crack at Death Note.
For the second time, Netflix will try to bring about a live-action version of Death Note but this time with the help of Upside Down Pictures, a new label from the Duffer Brothers that will serve under Netflix. Upside Down Pictures will take on Death Note while also working on other projects, such as a Stranger Things spinoff and Stephen King’s The Talisman.
At this point, they might as well just write our names in a real Death Note already. We can’t live through another Netflix manga/anime turned live-action again. And even though the Duffer Bros have done some great work with Stranger Things, that does not mean they know how to handle a project like Death Note. And, even if they did, that certainly does not mean that Netflix’s executive hands won’t be overly-involved and completely botch and besmirch Death Note’s good name all over again. We are all probably better off just watching the anime on Netflix. At least they haven’t screwed that up.
No word on when we will see this new live-action series as it seems still very early on in production but hey, maybe we will get lucky and they will cast one of the guys from the Naked Brothers Band said no one ever.
