Folks had every right to be skeptical when the FX network announced that the Coen brothers and former Bones' writer Noah Hawley would be adapting Fargo into a TV series. Yes, the fact that the filmmaking siblings were lending their name to the endeavor suggested that this wouldn't be a cheap cash-in or a con job. But you can still lose something vital when you transition from the big screen to the small one. A TV series based on a movie might expand on the original's themes and storyline. Or it might end up being something similar to the original attempt to adapt Fargo for TV back in 1997 (with a pre-Sopranos Edie Falco as Marge Gunderson!), which never made it past the pilot stage.

Murder, Snow and Minnesota Nice: The Return of 'Fargo'

Thankfully, Hawley's take on crime and punishment in the Land of  10,000 Lakes has every indication of being a critical and popular slam dunk after its first week, but it does remind you that the history of movie-to-TV adaptations is littered with runaway hits, halfway interesting also-rans and a few outright stinkers. So we've singled out 20 attempts to turn a two-hour film into a two-seasons-or-longer series and ranked them worst to best. Some of these are shining examples of serial storytelling at its best — and others will make you feel like you can't change the channel quick enough. By David Fear