The Watch - Discworld TV series - new

Jo Zebedee said:
If I watch it it won’t be in an expectation of seeing Discworld
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Same - the shame is the whole idea of a steam-punk crime drama I'm very eager to watch. I just dislike that they've shackled it to an IP that isn't really that at all. Then again it doesn't seem like the source material has been used for anything but a vague sense of character design and naming.
 
The good news is that BBC America has only the rights to the Watch series - and Rhianna Pratchett and Narrativia have promised 'absolutely faithful' adaptations of some of the other books.

Am I being vindictive if I'm hoping that the audience figures for 'The Watch' are so bad that the networks pull it after two episodes?
 
pyan said:
The good news is that BBC America has only the rights to the Watch series - and Rhianna Pratchett and Narrativia have promised 'absolutely faithful' adaptations of some of the other books.

Am I being vindictive if I'm hoping that the audience figures for 'The Watch' are so bad that the networks pull it after two episodes?
Click to expand...
I won't be watching this given the direction it seems to be taking. So fingers crossed, eh.
 
Coming into the debate late but...

Let's give it a chance. Afterall, the previous adaptions of Discworld have tried, and flopped IMO.

Maybe this fresh look at the potential of the stories, whilst not attempting to faithfully reproduce the environment will work. If only because the budget can be spent concentrating on the plot/storyline and not the building of fantasmagorical sets.
 
pyan said:
The good news is that BBC America has only the rights to the Watch series - and Rhianna Pratchett and Narrativia have promised 'absolutely faithful' adaptations of some of the other books.

Am I being vindictive if I'm hoping that the audience figures for 'The Watch' are so bad that the networks pull it after two episodes?
Click to expand...

Maybe just a little ;)

But then I have thoughts in that direction too.

Bluntly, I find this immoral. Pratchett has been very clear only Rhianna should be allowed to continue Discworld. She clearly isn't happy with what's happening - my guess is that major changes to the idea happened post-contract - so this is against the author's wishes, and seems to be a cash grab where someone else uses his name to advertise their ideas. Legal, but not moral.

I wouldn't even mind if they'd created something new while wearing their influences incredibly blatantly. I don't care that The Matrix is clearly super-heavily based on The Invisibles which in turn has a super clear riff on Moorcock. That sort of theft is part and parcel of writing. This shouldn't be.
 
pyan said:
Am I being vindictive if I'm hoping that the audience figures for 'The Watch' are so bad that the networks pull it after two episodes?
Click to expand...

I'm conflicted.
On the one hand this is NOT Discworld and the more studios get the message that bad adaptations lose them money and that more faithful ones generate money - the more chance we have of more adaptations in the future being better quality in terms of sticking to the source material.

On the other its labelled itself as "steam punk* and I really want that genre to do well. It's such an overlooked and yet rich genre. It's got buckets of potential both for very serious wordy and well structured dramas - all the way to huge armies of steam tanks blasting each other in a Rambo style act

*even though it doesn't seem to have any, you know, steam as yet....
 
I'm more concerned about the BBC America thing.

Although I get that the investment arm of the BBC and not the TVL is probably funding the thing, surely it behoves the BBC to invest in productions here rather than there. Or is this some sneaky plan to hive the BBC off to an American corporate via the back stage door.
 
And Cheery looks like an elf...

Edit: I also don't like how hard they've clearly tried to make them look 'cool'.
 
From what I know BBC America is wholly commercial and only [in theory] earns money for the BBC in the UK.
A show like The Watch looks like it would be unaffordable unless it had a lot of external backers. I'd expect it to premier in the US and then be broadcast [in the same week] in the UK. If they didn't try to do things like that, we'd be back to watching shows with the production values of Red Dwarf [love the show but not the special effects - except the Scutters - Genius!].
 
It seems fans are not the only ones who are, disgruntled
https://twitter.com/x/status/1292573726194704385

Must be worrying for the show producers for her to be saying such things publicly when the series has still got until next year to be released. If they don't manage it right it might get such a huge amount of hate against it that it collapses and they pull it before it even hits the screens. Though I'd wager they've enough invested now that any return would be more welcome than a straight cancellation. Though we might see them rein in the "Discworld" references in marketing.
 
The more I see of this, the less I'm looking forward to it.
 
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