#idk i'm probably biased bc i love prodigal son and haven't read the book but yeah i agree with ur take!

[coldasyou]

the only thing I see similar about I hunt killers & prodigal son is the serial killer dad and the police officer father figure?

jazz, the protag of I hunt killers is:

- not rich as far as I can see

- has no parents

- lives with his grandma, who is apparently crazy

- has no sister

- has a girlfriend and a best friend

- has never actually worked for the police in any capacity and usually works against them.

malcolm in comparison is:

- well off

- has a mother

- has a sister

- was a fbi consultant before he worked with the nypd and was specifically asked to consult on the copycat case, unlike jazz who forced himself into it?

(i can't say much about the gf and the best friend thing because i haven't watched the show often enough to know everything but as far as ik at first malcolm has no gf at all)

also I'm pretty sure at first no one knows malcolm is martins kid while in comparison everyone knows who jazz is, also prodigal son takes place in new york city, i hunt killers takes place in a small town called Lobo's Nod.

also correct me if im wrong but I don't think malcolm helped martin with anything to do with the whole serial killer thing? jazz did, he actively helped him organize his trophies, and often went with him to the crime scene after his father committed a murder. and as far as I can tell jazz never turned his father in, the stand in for Gil, G. Williams found his father all on his own.

anyway, that's just my take on it lol.

oh interesting! I've only read a bit of the first I hunt killers books so I can't really say for myself how similar they are beyond the basic premise of "the son of a serial killer helps catch killers in some way." I read the case file thing and they listed a lot of similarities, some I thought were kinda reaches and a lot were based on the original pilot script rather than the episode that actually aired. I think the thing that makes it a bit complicated is warner brothers (which produced prodigal son) also was planning on making I hunt killers a tv series in like 2012 but decided not to bc they thought the protagonist was too young so I get why the author might think prodigal son was warner brothers attempting to go around that issue and make their own show.

and yeah malcolm didn't really help martin beyond the camping trip thing but he didn't know the purpose of that and didn't help martin during it. malcolm has a girlfriend in later season one but she's more a plot device (sorry eve ily) to get malcolm more info about the girl in the box rather than an actual girlfriend he grows close with.