My thoughts on the Delirium Pilot

I read Delirium by Lauren Oliver in early 2012, and though I really enjoyed it, for some reason I never thought to continue with the series.

Last year it was announced that a TV series of the book was going to be created, starring Emma Roberts as the protagonist, Lena Haloway. Though I really loved the first book, I've heard many times that the rest of the series isn't as great, so I thought that the adaption from page to screen would take the already fantastic concept of Delirium, and improve it even more. Alas, that did not happen and the pilot was passed by Fox.

Last week it was made public that the Delirium pilot would be available to watch online for a limited number of days. Out of curiosity I thought I'd give it a shot. I don't remember much of the book as I read it a very long time ago, but I remember the general plot. I had loved the concept of the world Lauren Oliver had created and I was thrilled to see it translate to screen.


I think that the main issue with Delirium was that it was very rushed, most likely due to the fact that the 45 minute long pilot covers the entirety of the first book. Though the plot of Delirium is quite simple and isn't exactly the most action-packed, I felt like more time had to be spent on world building. Only a couple of minutes were spent explaining this dystopian society, and that was it. Alot more time should have been spent on outlining how the society came to be the way it is, and discussing what deliria nervosa is and how it means to be infected.

Another big issue with the entire book being compressed in 45 minutes, is that there was not enough time to develop any real chemistry between Lena and Alex. It all seemed too much like insta-love for me.

I had many other issues with the pilot but they all came down to the same thing: the script. It was not great. In fact, it was horrible. Basically the screenwriters did all they could do stuff a bunch of cheesy one-liners and typical YA cliches into as possible.

Though there were several issues with the Pilot I feel that with a little bit of script re-writing, this could have been a fairly successful TV series. I do feel though that this show would have been more successful in the hands of the CW team, who are much better equipped to handle this project. But even in it's state, I would have loved to see more episodes just so see how Fox would handle it.

After watching the pilot I feel like giving the series a second chance though. I really did love the first book and it's concept. I might just give the series another shot.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, the pilot was uploaded to the WIGS YouTube channel, and you can watch it for free here:

Did you watch the pilot? What were your thoughts?