A series based on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels.
Set in a fictional city where crime has been legalised, The Watch is a genre-busting comedy drama series that follows a group of misfit cops as they rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe. Uniquely anarchic and thrillingly entertaining, the character-driven comedy follows several of Sir Terry Pratchett's best-loved creations on a riotous and emotional odyssey.
I stayed with this show and decided it ain't half bad. I don't watch it as a Terry Pratchet adaption. It works! Any presumption is gone and it is fairly decent. It's got faults sure but I'm glad I watched it and would watch another season.
How can you watch it but not watch it as a Terry Pratchett adaptation? It's based in a universe he wrote 41 books about. I wish I could do that, but I... just... can't.
by g371 posted 4 years ago
This is your last breath
Hello, I'm Deeeeeeeath
by vapdne posted 4 years ago
I stayed with this show and decided it ain't half bad. I don't watch it as a Terry Pratchet adaption. It works! Any presumption is gone and it is fairly decent. It's got faults sure but I'm glad I watched it and would watch another season.
by mrverene posted 4 years ago
I need an hourglass theremin immediately.
by g371 posted 4 years ago
Yeas, orc lines are great and imo they gave the sword role to the right actor.
by mrverene posted 4 years ago
The Pratchett books are in my ever-expanding backlog of things I'll get to one day, assuming my consciousness is uploaded to something with a several thousand year lifespan, so this is my first exposure to him. Not having any particular investment in it I almost stopped watching mid-pilot. It struck me as cheesy and trying too hard to be funny but I stuck it through and the plot/world got me interested enough to continue. The show's definitely grown on me since, though apart from the orc chatter I don't find it particularly funny.
by g371 posted 4 years ago
Probably that tweaking part is not so easy and I assume that they also calculate price/performance - what is written in 1 paragraph in the book maybe is a month of CGI and a nice bill that comes with it.
by Ed_C_NC posted 4 years ago
I agree with the other assessments. I'm another one who has not only read the entire Discworld series several times, but even took the considerable effort to find out the proper reading order.
I like this show. Mostly. It has it's moments, and a LOT of time and thought has gone into a lot of details.
But it's NOT Pratchett. lt's an OK "Inspired by".
It's yet another example of a magnificently written story, genuinely loved by huge numbers, re-written by a screenwriter who had the ego to think they could improve on someone else's story and make it better than that which had the massive book sales and awards. And an example of a producer who let them.
I also don't understand why producers use screen writers to rewrite the core of the story, instead of just to clean up and tweak up from a written to a visual story.
by vapdne posted 4 years ago
I started reading Pratchet in about 1994 so there were about 15 Discworld novels already out by then. Plus his Nomes books and maybe some others. By this time I'd read and re-read all of Douglas Adams Hitchhikers novels and both his Dirk Gently books about three times each!
I didn't like the Hitchhikers film, I mention this as it's been brought up already. Not because of any intense love of the books which by the time I saw the film I hadn't read in over 10 years but because it wasn't funny. No other reason.
Anyway, back to Pratchet. So I started reading the Nomes books on the recommendation of a girlfriend but only got through the first one and then a chap I knew lent me one of the discworld novels. Can't remember which, it wasn't the first I know that and over subsequent years up to about 2000 I guess I read about a dozen all out of order. I was bored of him by then and although I tried re-reading them in order (I always like to keep my books) at the start of our first lockdown I gave up after book 5. I'd rather be stuck on a desert island with just a couple of Cormac McCarthy novels than the entirety of Pratchets work. Unless I needed fuel.
To The Series (eventually). Now I know I read Guards! Guards! at some point but can't remember anything much. I started watching this not expecting a lot (I live in an area of the UK which is currently under the strictest lockdown controls, Kent, so I'm *ucked for work (again) or any kind of social life) and I think its okay. I'll watch it to the end no doubt. Reasonably funny, could do with a better budget but its alright. Nothing I particularly like or don't like. Probably headed for a 3.5/5.
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How can you watch it but not watch it as a Terry Pratchett adaptation? It's based in a universe he wrote 41 books about. I wish I could do that, but I... just... can't.
This is your last breath
Hello, I'm Deeeeeeeath
I like this show. Mostly. It has it's moments, and a LOT of time and thought has gone into a lot of details.
But it's NOT Pratchett. lt's an OK "Inspired by".
It's yet another example of a magnificently written story, genuinely loved by huge numbers, re-written by a screenwriter who had the ego to think they could improve on someone else's story and make it better than that which had the massive book sales and awards. And an example of a producer who let them.
I also don't understand why producers use screen writers to rewrite the core of the story, instead of just to clean up and tweak up from a written to a visual story.
I didn't like the Hitchhikers film, I mention this as it's been brought up already. Not because of any intense love of the books which by the time I saw the film I hadn't read in over 10 years but because it wasn't funny. No other reason.
Anyway, back to Pratchet. So I started reading the Nomes books on the recommendation of a girlfriend but only got through the first one and then a chap I knew lent me one of the discworld novels. Can't remember which, it wasn't the first I know that and over subsequent years up to about 2000 I guess I read about a dozen all out of order. I was bored of him by then and although I tried re-reading them in order (I always like to keep my books) at the start of our first lockdown I gave up after book 5. I'd rather be stuck on a desert island with just a couple of Cormac McCarthy novels than the entirety of Pratchets work. Unless I needed fuel.
To The Series (eventually). Now I know I read Guards! Guards! at some point but can't remember anything much. I started watching this not expecting a lot (I live in an area of the UK which is currently under the strictest lockdown controls, Kent, so I'm *ucked for work (again) or any kind of social life) and I think its okay. I'll watch it to the end no doubt. Reasonably funny, could do with a better budget but its alright. Nothing I particularly like or don't like. Probably headed for a 3.5/5.
https://narrativia.com/