The Watch TV series

[Harpo]

BBC AMERICA GREENLIGHTS ORIGINAL SCRIPTED SERIES THE WATCH

 

[Vince W]

I was about to post this very thing.

 

[Narkalui]

Finally

 

[The Big Peat]

Huh. Well, no pressure there.

I see Rhianna is involved, which makes me feel a tad less skeptical.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Any ideas on where it might be possible to see.

 

[Narkalui]

BBC 1 I'd guess...

 

[Vince W]

I imagine a streaming service of some sort will also be involved.

 

[Narkalui]

Netflix probably

 

[Vince W]

Good Omens is going to be on Amazon Prime, so I wouldn't count them out.

 

[REBerg]

This premiered with double episodes Jan. 3 on BBC America. Streaming rights have apparently been secured by AMC.

Weird show, so, of course, I like it.

 

[REBerg]

Somewhere, in a distant secondhand dimension.
The opening screen of episode one says it all.

 

[Pyan]

Ratings don't seem to be particularly good - it's running at 4.4/10 on IMDb, just 12% audience score at Rotten Tomatoes, and there are some other rather negative reviews out there.

The Watch Review: BBC America's Discworld Series Is All Style, No Substance
The Watch muddles Terry Pratchett’s Discworld with ‘edgy’ humor

The general view seems to be that if it had been pitched as a completely new series, it may have been okay - but Pterry it ain't, and Rhianna was wise to distance herself from it.

 

[REBerg]

I guess it just requires a peculiar sense of humor, which I possess in abundance.

 

[pogopossum]

It's on BBC America in the US, which I no longer subscribe to. Three episodes so far.

I admit that I have a perverse interest in it. Probably not sufficient to pay a subscription fee. Wait for a library DVD?

Neil Gaiman, a friend and colleague of Pratchett's, but not a shrinking violet re perverse characters, compared the series to "Batman if he's now a news reporter in a yellow trenchcoat with a pet bat"

From a friend of Pratchett's.
"---The Watch is a show "influenced by the stories of Terry Pratchett" with characters with the same names as those in the beloved Watch Series of Discworld the set design is punk heavy graffitied and almost no mention of the wider discworld. The actors work hard under the heavy mascara makeup and some good performances are seen (again given the strangely distorted scripts)

If you can divorce this show from any connection to the books it can be enjoyable on its own terms as something set on a parallel universe on a different world from those of Pratchet's creations I think it can be interesting to watch.

The Pratchett family has distanced themselves from the production saying all input from the family production group had ended with Terry’s death."

 

[REBerg]

If you can divorce this show from any connection to the books it can be enjoyable on its own terms as something set on a parallel universe on a different world from those of Pratchet's creations I think it can be interesting to watch.

No marriage, no divorce necessary.
I'm grateful to print for spawning visual versions, but I've never felt a need for comparison. Each medium can stand or fall on its own merits.

 

[RLBeers]

The ratings likely reflect the wide divide between this series and the books. It never fails to amaze that the producers of TV series based on a book or books seem to believe they know better than the reading audience that made the author buckets of cash.

 

[.matthew.]

No marriage, no divorce necessary.
I'm grateful to print for spawning visual versions, but I've never felt a need for comparison. Each medium can stand or fall on its own merits.

I think the issue with this one in particular is that they now have the IP, meaning we'll never see a good adaptation of one of the best series.

Either that or how they've made a horrible trash show based on a beloved series.

Or maybe how they used the name and IP and did something completely different with it? Like why get it in the first place? They could have written this exact show, changed the names, and nobody would have thought it had anything to do with Pratchett, including copyright lawyers

But I do agree in part, it has no connection to the books and I won't think less of the books because of it.

 

[Khuratokh]

I tried to keep an open mind, but they changed a number of things that made it painful to watch.

4 changes in particular.

Here Angua the werewolf's backstory is that she was cast out for being a werewolf.
Meanwhile in the books, every single member of her rich and powerful family is one.

Carrot, while looking more like his book counterpart than anyone else here, is a teensy bit too short and wiry, but they keep in his adoptive Dwarvish parents.
The show having now firmly established Dwarves as a species, they introduce us to Cheery Littlebottom, the transgender Dwarf, who is taller and bulkier than Carrot. Just as Carrot is about to comment on the obvious discrepancy, Cheery says: "Dwarves come in all sizes". See, that doesn't just change things from the books, that doesn't work thematically, as it renders Carrot's struggle within Dwarf society utterly pointless.

And then there's Lady Sybil Ramkin, in the books she's a force of nature, built like a Wagnerian valkyrie. Always looking for the best in people and one of the few on a first-name basis with patrician Vetinari. Dedicated to the welfare of swamp- dragons.
In the show she's a wafer thin, cynical, vigilante.
It's at that point I realised that this "edgy" reimagening is less progressive than the 35 year old book it was based on.

Oh, and Death cracks jokes now.

 

[Alex The G and T]

REgarding characetization:

Vimes is over the top as some sort of Popeye/Mad Max mashup. Fun, for this show; but rather too much to be the Pterry character.
Carrot fits
I actually like how Angua looks and acts.
Detritus, I never pictured him quite so mountainous.
The Androgynous Vetenari pisses me off. I had him pegged as a more Julius Caesar sort.The "M" hairdo on Ziggy Stardust-sans-makeup look doesn't work for me on any level.

And, yes DEATH is far too personable and fails to speak in ALL CAPS; more like a hollow reverb.

 

[.matthew.]

I agree with everything you said... except...

Oh, and Death cracks jokes now.

Because of one of my favourite Death moments...

"I believe in reincarnation," [Bjorn] said.
I KNOW.
"I tried to live a good life. Does that help?"
THAT’S NOT UP TO ME. Death coughed. OF COURSE... SINCE YOU BELIEVE IN REINCARNATION... YOU’LL BE BJORN AGAIN.