Alex Garland's The Beach

Alex Garland's The Beach is a 2014 three part miniseries by HBO and based on the novel of the same name by Alex Garland who also wrote the series. It tells the story of Richard, a young American backpackers search for a secret island paradise untouched by tourism in Bangkok. It is the second adaptation of the Beach, the first being the 2000 film staring Leonardo DeCapiro, the miniseries won a Primtime Emmy for Outstanding Miniseries. It was directed by Danny Boyle, who also directed the original film.

Main Characters

 * Landon Liboiron as Richard - A young American college student on a backpacking holiday in Bangkok, Thailand. He learns of a secret island paradise and sets out to find with the help of two young French lovers, Francoise and Eitenne, once there they at first enjoy life however soon things turn sour and Richard is left uncertain of the beaches stability. Later leaving the beach he married Francoise and has two sons with her.
 * Richard Madden as Daffy (Master Duck) - A Scottish traveler who was one of the beaches three original founders. He gave Richard a map of the beach after meeting him in Bangkok, he then committed suicide by slashing his wrists shortly afterwards. He would later appear as a mental apparition to Richard later after his suicide.
 * Margot Lourdet as Francoise - A beautiful young French woman who is the girlfriend of Eitenne and the love interest of Richard. She and Eitenne joined Richard in looking for the beach after he showed them the map, later on she and Richard began to fall in love with each other and have sex whilst on a rice run. Later after leaving the beach she and Richard returned to America where they got married and have two sons.
 * Bill Skarsgård as Eitenne - A young French man who is the boyfriend of Francoise. He and Francoise met Richard whilst on holiday in Thailand, they accompanied Richard to the beach after being told of it by him.
 * Craig Lamar Taylor as Keaty - A Star Wars obsessed member of the beach. He was invited to the beach by Sal and Bugs after enjoying a jungle trek with them on the Burmese border.
 * Christopher Masterson as Jed - An Englishman who becomes closes friends with Richard and the communities watchman. He came to the beach uninvited after hearing a rumor about it whilst traveling in Vietnam, only Daffy was against his arrival.
 * Judy Greer as Sal - An American woman who is one of the three original founders of the community and its leader.

Other Characters

 * Ashley Zukerman as Bugs - Sal's boyfriend from South Africa who is one of the three founders of the community and its carpenter. He has a dislike of Richard for unknown reasons and often insults him,
 * Justin Berfield as Zeph -
 * Tyler James Williams as Sammy -
 * Yasmin Paige as Cassie - An English girl who works with Bugs in the carpentry detail.
 * TBA as Sanjay - A gay Indian man came who was invited to the beach along with his boyfriend Rupert by Sal and Bugs after meeting them in India.
 * Robert Sheehan as Rupert - A gay Englishman who is the boyfriend of Sanjay. He and his boyfriend came to the beach after meeting Sal and Bugs in India.
 * Karissa and Katie Strain as The Yugoslavian Girls - Two unnamed sisters from Sarajevo whose names are hard to spell out or even pronounce, and are thus dubbed as the Yugo Girls. Richard gets the impression that they are haughty and aloof, and never gets to know them very well.
 * Alexander, Gustaf and Sam Skarsgård as Karl, Sten and Christo (The Swedes) - Three Swedish men who are the communities fishermen since they were the only ones who are comfortable with swimming into the islands flooded caves. They came to the island uninvited after overhearing Sal and Bugs talking about whilst on a rice run, Sten is only one of them who is fluent in English with Christo having fair knowledge and Christo have being able to speak a few words. Later they are attacked by a shark with Sten being killed, Christo badly wounded and later being mercy killed and Karl going crazy and escaping to the mainland.

Difference from the Novel
Whilst more faithful to the novel then the film, the miniseries has several changes made:
 * Richard is American like in the 2000 film.
 * Jed appears in the miniseries, whilst in the original film he is absent completely.
 * Keaty is obsessed with Star Wars.
 * Francoise joins Richard and Jed on the rice where she and Richard reveal their feelings for each and have passionate sex, in the novel Richard never sleeps with Francoise despite the fact that he has feelings for her and which she probably reciprocated.
 * The characters Ella (who works for Unhygienix), Jean (the leader of the gardening detail), and Moshe (the head of the second fishing detail) do not appear in the miniseries.
 * There are two gay men in the miniseries, a Indian man named Sanjay and his boyfriend an Englishman named Rupert. They are were both invented for the series, they do not appear at all in the novel.
 * Sammy is African American, whilst in the novel he's Caucasian.
 * In the novel the two Yugoslavian girls are unrelated, in the miniseries they are twin sisters.
 * The year is the miniseries is set is 1999, four years after the novels setting.
 * There is an epilogue set 13 years later in America where Richard and Francoise got married and had two sons, in the novel Richard loses touch with Francoise after leaving the beach.

Trivia

 * This is the second adaptation of the Beach by Alex Garland, the first was the original 2000 film which was a box office flop.
 * The miniseries was directed by Danny Boyle who also directed the original 2000 film.
 * The miniseries was written by Alex Garland, who was also the author of the original novel.
 * Craig Lamar Taylor, Christopher Masterson and Justin Berfield had previously starred together on Fox's sitcom Malcolm in the Middle.
 * Ko Phi Phi Le the original film location of the 2000 film adaptation was reused for the miniseries.

Soundtrack

 * 1) Message in a Bottle - The Police
 * 2) Rockaway Beach - The Ramones
 * 3) Porcelain - Moby
 * 4) Echo Beach - Martha and the Muffins
 * 5) Lonely Soul - UNKLE
 * 6) Baba O'Riley - The Who
 * 7) You Get What You Give - New Radicals
 * 8) One Night in Bangkok - Murray Head

Episode 1: The Map

 * Francoise and Eitenne have sex. Nothing is seen, only moaning and groaning is heard.
 * Some women are seen sunbathing topless.

Episode 2: Paradise

 * Richard and Francoise have passionate sex with each other having confessing their love for one another. Their buttocks and Francoise's breasts are seen, there is also trusting and moaning and it is implied that Richard ejaculates inside Francoise.

Episode 3: Escape from the Beach

 * The two male American backpackers and a female German backpacker are killed by the cannabis farmers. Their naked bodies are brought to the beach community, their buttocks are seen and the German girls breasts are seen.

Episode 1: The Map

 * Daffy commits suicide by slashing his wrists, there is blood all over the floor.

Episode 3: Escape from the Beach

 * After going crazy, the beach community rip the two dead American and German backpackers bodies apart.