The Watch, BBC adaptation.
Discussion
The Watch is a fantasy police procedural television programme inspired by the Ankh-Morpork City Watch from the Discworld series of fantasy novels by Terry Pratchett. The series, developed by BBC Studios for BBC America, premiered on 3 January 2021.
Watched the 1st episode of this last night on iplayer, full series available from the start of July.
From production photos I knew it wasn't going to be good and as Terry's daughter distanced herself from it, stating "shares no DNA with my father’s Watch”
If you have read the books you will know the names and what books have been butchered to make the series but that is about all, the actors playing the roles are nothing like what you imagined and main characters are missing. It really was as poor as I thought it would be.
if you haven't then you might like it.
I hoping the next adaptations to be done, Maurice and his educated rodents, Wee free men and Mort fair better.
Watched the 1st episode of this last night on iplayer, full series available from the start of July.
From production photos I knew it wasn't going to be good and as Terry's daughter distanced herself from it, stating "shares no DNA with my father’s Watch”
If you have read the books you will know the names and what books have been butchered to make the series but that is about all, the actors playing the roles are nothing like what you imagined and main characters are missing. It really was as poor as I thought it would be.
if you haven't then you might like it.
I hoping the next adaptations to be done, Maurice and his educated rodents, Wee free men and Mort fair better.
I saw that they had been plugging this in the ad's on BBC1. I hadn't realised it was inspired by TP until I was watching it.
It's a bit odd. The names are the same but that is about it, Sam and Lady Sybil are too young, I thought Angua was an elf or something not how I pictured her at all. No Colon, no Nobbs. Carrot was ok but not big enough and they should have run the I'm a Dwarf story a bit longer.
The guy/girl in the basement was awful (should have been an Igor) not someone doing a bad Noel Fielding from the IT Crowd impression. Edit - I just looked up who this was and I think it's supposed to be Cheery the Dwarf. Weird bit of casting.
That said, it's a long time since I read the books and I actually quite enjoyed it as a 'based on' rather than a direct adaptation. It looked pretty good, the effects were nice and as long as you were not expecting a hardcore fantasy world then it seem consistent. The sound was terrible, a lot of dialogue I thought was really mumbled and muddy.
It's a bit odd. The names are the same but that is about it, Sam and Lady Sybil are too young, I thought Angua was an elf or something not how I pictured her at all. No Colon, no Nobbs. Carrot was ok but not big enough and they should have run the I'm a Dwarf story a bit longer.
The guy/girl in the basement was awful (should have been an Igor) not someone doing a bad Noel Fielding from the IT Crowd impression. Edit - I just looked up who this was and I think it's supposed to be Cheery the Dwarf. Weird bit of casting.
That said, it's a long time since I read the books and I actually quite enjoyed it as a 'based on' rather than a direct adaptation. It looked pretty good, the effects were nice and as long as you were not expecting a hardcore fantasy world then it seem consistent. The sound was terrible, a lot of dialogue I thought was really mumbled and muddy.
Didn't realise it was out yet. From initial pictures I was somewhat put off by Sybil being a young fit woman which is completely different from her character in the books.
I'm glad to see Neil Gaimen is involved in the second series of Good Omens, and apparently they'd fleshed out ideas for a second book years ago, so hopefully that will be good, but all the attempts at televising Pratchett's Discworld books have been pretty rubbish IMO
I'm glad to see Neil Gaimen is involved in the second series of Good Omens, and apparently they'd fleshed out ideas for a second book years ago, so hopefully that will be good, but all the attempts at televising Pratchett's Discworld books have been pretty rubbish IMO
t. If you like the originals you won't like this and if you didn't like them this won't convince you. 
Not really planning on watching it myself.pquinn said:
If you like the originals you won't like this and if you didn't like them this won't convince you.
This is largely it.Watched the first episode last night and it's a huge miss. I'd have been all over a detective show set in a punk-fantasy universe, but the way they've tried to shoe-horn in the Discworld canon and twist it round has just failed on all counts.
Here be spoilers, if anybody cares...
Recasting Cheery as a human transvestite completely misses the point of her story and why a woman wanting to dress as a woman holds up a mirror to the absurdity of traditional gender roles
The Sybil-Vimes dynamic simply doesn't work when Sybil is a balls-out, action heroine
The liberal spraying around of Discworld themes with no context grated hugely. The imp in the camera. One Man One Vote. The Mended Drum. Dibbler. The clacks. These are treasured topics layered with history and complexity, and throwing them in then moving on in a matter of seconds will alienate existing fans whilst leaving new viewers oblivious.
The good...Carrot was about right. Needed to be bigger. Vimes actually I thought was OK, as the original Vimes from Guards! Guards! I like the casting of Vetinari as a woman and Tilda Swinton was a good choice.
I'll give the second episode a try, just because. Maybe I'm too optimistic but I'm hoping it can find its feet and become its own show rather than leaning on Discworld all the time.
Ok, confession time. I really quite enjoyed this once I got over my 'it's nothing like the book' problem.
They all came into their own and made the characters work. I thinks setting it in discworld was a lazy shortcut of worldbuilding and a bit weird as they never really leveraged it anyway. It annoyed the hardcore and alienated others because of the backstory that was missed out (like Cheery).
I'd be pleased if it got a second series.
They all came into their own and made the characters work. I thinks setting it in discworld was a lazy shortcut of worldbuilding and a bit weird as they never really leveraged it anyway. It annoyed the hardcore and alienated others because of the backstory that was missed out (like Cheery).
I'd be pleased if it got a second series.
Me too. The shoe-horning in of Discworld classic tropes (e.g. the Vimes 'boots' theory) was still annoying - but overall it was a decent watch (no pun intended). As said, it's a shame they claimed "inspired by..." at all, as without that baggage it would have simply been a good creative take on the fantasy-punk genre.
The thing is, much of the DW doesn’t need “wok’ing”. PTerry nailed much of what he aimed for absolutely perfectly. He did it all without it being forced and within the confines of his story structure.
I apologise to nobody for regarding PTerry as our best since Shakespeare.
Why mess with Lady S? He wrote her to be a satirical observation & representation of so many aspects of a certain type of British lady. And she was absolutely bad ass anyway. A female Vetinari works, that’s all nailing the character. If they have someone who went for the Tilda Swanton vibe, then that can absolutely work.
As for Samual Vimes…well, he is either Sam Vimes or if you want him younger then he is John Keel.
Vimes is sacrosanct to me though. The greatest character in British literary history. Yep, take that literati!
Now where’s my bloody cow?!
I apologise to nobody for regarding PTerry as our best since Shakespeare.
Why mess with Lady S? He wrote her to be a satirical observation & representation of so many aspects of a certain type of British lady. And she was absolutely bad ass anyway. A female Vetinari works, that’s all nailing the character. If they have someone who went for the Tilda Swanton vibe, then that can absolutely work.
As for Samual Vimes…well, he is either Sam Vimes or if you want him younger then he is John Keel.
Vimes is sacrosanct to me though. The greatest character in British literary history. Yep, take that literati!
Now where’s my bloody cow?!
Sybil had magnificent gravitas. Vetinari treats her with the most respect he shows anybody as he knows that she is no threat to him, has no interest in being a threat and yet is arguably the most powerful woman in the city. Arguably the most powerful woman out to St Lat and Lancre. She is both feminine, almost deferential to Sam and yet also has the most natural authority of all the characters except Weatherwax. How he writes her is genius.
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