The Watch - Discworld TV series - new

I've known that they were diverging wildly from the source material for a bit but even so, seeing those pics hit me hard. I feel like someone invited me to the greatest BBQ joint on earth...

... and when I got there it was a greengrocers. "Try out fantastic new burger! It's an apple!" Except I like fruit and I don't know whether I'd even like this. Although let's be honest, I'm not going to try. I will make no bones about hoping it crashes and burns. If they wanted to do something riffing off the City Watch, fine, cool. But don't put the name on it unless you're going to show some faith. Don't mess with my emotional investment on this.

Also... I don't know how far I can go on criticising this without breaking forum rules, but the choices reek of social political agenda and what's more, in doing so have trampled upon characters who actually had some big things to say about the underrepresented already. How many Fantasy shows and dramas have a middle aged fat woman who has zero athletic ability and isn't a looker but is nevertheless a force to be reckoned with because she's brave, charming, smart, and above all kind?

And this is as far as I can go without going full Malcolm Tucker turning it all the way up to 11.
 
Wuhhhh.
iu
 
The Big Peat said:
But don't put the name on it unless you're going to show some faith. Don't mess with my emotional investment on this.

How many Fantasy shows and dramas have a middle aged fat woman who has zero athletic ability and isn't a looker but is nevertheless a force to be reckoned with because she's brave, charming, smart, and above all kind?

And this is as far as I can go without going full Malcolm Tucker turning it all the way up to 11.
Click to expand...

Author sells 80 million books and has one of the most loyal followings... ignore his source material completely... yea... okay...

Sybil is one of my favourite characters ever (the rest mostly reserved by Pratchett's many others). I loved the fact that she darned Vimes's socks because she heard that wives did that - then Vimes wore them even though she couldn't do it. He had the knack for giving every one of them their own souls. I don't gush about authors, but damn if he wasn't a genius.

I know what you mean though. I've had several quite irate rants about this every since it first started disappointing me.

Edit: And I can only really picture her with a frying pan (while Vimes carries the dragon like a sawn-off).
 
In all honesty, I don't understand why Rhianna Pratchett allowed BBC America to be the ones to adapt this. But I guess she didn't have the benefit of seeing the travesty they perpetrated on Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently yet.
 
Vince W said:
In all honesty, I don't understand why Rhianna Pratchett allowed BBC America to be the ones to adapt this. But I guess she didn't have the benefit of seeing the travesty they perpetrated on Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently yet.
Click to expand...

Didn't she distance herself from the project at some stage?
Chances are what we see now might be vastly different from what was proposed early on when contracts were signed. Many of the changes we see might well be little and often changes that quickly warped the source material. Actors who sign on who don't quite fit the role, but fit the budget and other tick boxes; sets that aren't quite up to scratch, but they are what they can afford; costume designs recycling old material etc....
That said for a divergence of this scale I'd say somewhere along the lines there had to be specific intent to change it and/or a simple lack of faith/respect for the source material. I'd also like to say it could also be a media culture in the American system. Which is not to say that the British media adaptations are any better for authenticity; but the American media system does seem to take exceptional liberties.
 
Good Omens should be an example of what we can expect. Good Omens is quintessentially a British story but was tarted up to appeal to an American audience. I hated Anathema Device in the adaptation. Terrible in every respect. Given that this is being done by BBC America we shouldn't be surprised that they would make changes that reflect their cultural hegemony.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ctg
Vince W said:
In all honesty, I don't understand why Rhianna Pratchett allowed BBC America to be the ones to adapt this. But I guess she didn't have the benefit of seeing the travesty they perpetrated on Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently yet.
Click to expand...

I have never understood why already rich creators sell off their works to be mauled like this. If you're a new author or whatever then yes, take the payday and be happy about it, you have zero bargaining power. Established and globally recognised names don't have that necessity though.

Perhaps even sadder if this deal was made after he passed or was incapacitated by alzheimer's disease. It's like spitting on his memory.
 
Vince W said:
Too right. Pratchett had the good sense to have his hard drive destroyed. I wish someone would do the same to this travesty in the works.
Click to expand...

I loved that it was done by a steamroller, although it didn't sit right with me. They were big hard drives and I'm fairly sure I read somewhere he'd started working with a laptop years earlier that would have taken the smaller 2.5inch drives. Suppose they could have been from an external backup but they were awfully dusty for that.

Since I'm assuming his estate manager continued to manage the IP after his death (possibly leading to this watch fiasco), I wouldn't be surprised if it was purely ceremonial and the unfinished works are sat in a drawer somewhere.

Edit: But go on, call me paranoid :)
 
I'm afraid I don't watch adaptations any more. I gave up after the first series of GoT, ditto 2 episodes into Good Omens, I watched through the Peter Jackson LotR once, the first part of his Hobbit and didn't even bother with the other two, one episode of the TV series of the Dresden Chronicles: the list goes on. These days, if I see an announcement about a book/series that I know and love, I just lie down and wait for the urge to watch it goes away.

The problem as I see it is that adapters/directors/producers can't resist the idea that they know better than the authors did about what people enjoy in a story. This is a good example - the Discworld books have sold over 80 million copies - but the people responsible for this farrago think they can improve on TP. Really?

Faugh...:mad:
 
Overread said:
I don't think its political correctness. It's a director and creative team who wanted to make a detective/police show set against a fantasy world in America with a confusing technological period. They just happened to swipe the Discworld title in order to get the producers to sign off on the budget in the hopes that the big name on the title would ensure a big audience.
Click to expand...

This. Totally.
 
But surely every serious Discworld fan would rather hide in a corner with a bucket over his head and his ears stuffed than watching this travesty? Excluding possible masochists who dare watch the first episode.
I doubt the rest of the world/viewers are interested in a series about a 'group of misfit cops in a fantasy world.'
 
Kerrybuchanan said:
This has entirely ruined my day. I love the Watch series and this is just.... Words cannot express...
Click to expand...
Yep, just how I felt. I didn't know a series was even being contemplated, so to have hopes raised and them immediately see those images... *hightails it to the drinks cupboard*
 
I'm going to watch the first episode with the full expectation that it will be utterly $π¡+€. And then I'll probably cry while declaring some kind of fatwa on the people who've done this
 
Overread said:
Didn't she distance herself from the project at some stage?
Chances are what we see now might be vastly different from what was proposed early on when contracts were signed. Many of the changes we see might well be little and often changes that quickly warped the source material. Actors who sign on who don't quite fit the role, but fit the budget and other tick boxes; sets that aren't quite up to scratch, but they are what they can afford; costume designs recycling old material etc....
That said for a divergence of this scale I'd say somewhere along the lines there had to be specific intent to change it and/or a simple lack of faith/respect for the source material. I'd also like to say it could also be a media culture in the American system. Which is not to say that the British media adaptations are any better for authenticity; but the American media system does seem to take exceptional liberties.
Click to expand...
Yes she did...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1172096652603248641

And apparently this is 'Inspired by the Discworld novels'. Not 'Based on...', and certainly not 'Adapted from...' So that's all right then...:rolleyes:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
D YOUR HALLOWEEN READING & WATCHING? Book Discussion 14
Toby Frost Toby Watches The X-Files X-Files 24
chongjasmine Really enjoy watching 3D animations Anime and Animation 2
therapist Anyone watching White Lotus? General TV Discussion 0
chongjasmine Just watched first two episodes of S1 WOT! General TV Discussion 2

Similar threads


Back
Top