Terry Pratchett's "The Watch" - A diverse and inclusive steampunk BBC series inspired by the Discworld Novels

[Disc]

I haven't read it since I was a teenager but I remember loving it.

There's still bits of the book that stick out to me even years later. Most notably the ideas that huge, complicated interchanges are actually infernal sigils, but also stuff like the drunken conversation about watching The Sound of Music. And War was always a really unusual way to handle that character. Especially when they're all breaking down, and they start describing her laughter as gunfire and stuff like that. It's so cool.

 

[Lurk Jurk]

If you want to understand some of the raw horror from fans, I will try to simplify it.

Imagine a fantasy book series that, stories and concepts and whatever aside, went out of its way to offer sympathetic and progressive narratives regarding gender, religion, sexuality, race, and identity, in a time when doing so was neither trendy nor popular in the literature sphere.

Imagine it having done all this without dipping into dumbass proto-SJW dogma and maintaining a constant theme of "everyone is human*, for better and for worse, no matter what they look like and what they identify as" and never putting anyone on a plinth nor damning them as uniquely flawed, thus ensuring the stories never age into cringy irrelevence once such faddy demagoguery comes in and out of fashion.

Now imagine literally all of this unceremoniously thrown in the shredder, with the most generic corporate-woke schlock of currentyear shoved in its place against all logic and sanity, because those involved with the production for all their claimed progressiveness and inclusivity didnt give two shits about anything other than burying everything in wokewashing sludge that serves only to beef up their diversity credentials, and will be forgotten forever within weeks of the show finishing

*for want of a better word

I recall there being a non-binary-ish dwarf in Discworld who wasn't a member of the Watch (she was the owner of a club or something) and it made sense for dwarves since both men and women have beards and they're all referred to as "he" by default and you can't tell the difference between them. Though in some books lady dwarves adopted human gender norms and would wear leather skirts or put bows in their beards. It was all pretty clever and amusing.

So instead of exploring these interesting dynamics they just put a dude in a dress and didn't even make him a dwarf. Brilliant. I hope Captain Carrot is at least still a did-it-before-Elf joke of a tall ass human raised by dwarves who didn't realize he wasn't a dwarf until someone told him.

 

[Homer Simpson]

Did they specifically wait for him to die to do this? God the bbc horrible.

 

[Tragi-Chan]

This story may be of interest. It looks like the estate of Pratchett is as pissed off as the fans are. The story is about a new deal to create adaptations, but if you know about the Watch TV series, a lot of the quotes feel like a dig at it. I just hope The Watch doesn’t close the door for adaptations of the Watch books, they’d make great TV series if done right.

 

[deeman]

they’d make great TV series if done right.

Agreed, the Hitchhiker's guide had a really funny (but a bit dated today) BBC adaptation, and the Disney movie wasnt half bad. And both Adams and Pratchett had the same style of writing. So if that works Pratchett's books would do as well.

 

[Kurtis Trent]

I really don't know how to feel about Good Omens adaptation... Even ignoring woke shit like God being a woman, they-pronouns demons and shipping pandering, it's still visually boring. I also don't like how they placed it in modern times instead of the 90s. Just feels like a missed opportunity. Not to mention cheap looking costumes and ugly special effects (the most generic looking boring CGI satan, fucking really???)
Still...some joke were funny

 

[Judge Holden]

For anybody under the hopeful impression that this had been shitcanned in response to the universally extreme negative reaction to the first pictures and story details.....im sorry

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/new-photo-terry-pratchett-watch-adaptation/

 

[Dom Cruise]

You ever stop and think about how... lame modern culture is?

Just look at that photo and how fucking... lame it is, no life, no energy, no excitement.

Compare it to to older BBC productions like Red Dwarf or even 2000s era Doctor Who is a lot more interesting than... that.

 

[Judge Holden]

https://twitter.com/rhipratchett/status/1292573726194704385

EDIT: oh.......oh nooooooooooo

From lead writer and executive producer Simon Allen, the modern and inclusive series is inspired by the characters created by Sir Terry Pratchett’s famous “Discworld” including the captain of The City Watch Sam Vimes (Richard Dormer), the last scion of nobility Lady Sybil Ramkin (Lara Rossi), the naïve but heroic Carrot (Adam Hughill), the mysterious Angua (Marama Corlett) and the ingenious forensics expert Cheery (Jo Eaton-Kent) together with The Watch’s own idiosyncratic depiction of Death.

NEW Photo: BBC America’s ‘The Watch’ Starring Richard Dormer and Lara Rossi | BBC America

In BBC America’s newest original series, The Watch, an unlikely group of misfits, The City Watch, find the guts to save the world, surprising...

www.bbcamerica.com

 

[Atatata]

You ever stop and think about how... lame modern culture is?

Just look at that photo and how fucking... lame it is, no life, no energy, no excitement.

Compare it to to older BBC productions like Red Dwarf or even 2000s era Doctor Who is a lot more interesting than... that.

It straight up looks like a Guardians of the Galaxy rip-off.

 

[Florence]

Where’s my Watch?

Is that my Watch?

It goes “The Watch is an inclusive genre-bending series.”

It is a woke hack job!

That’s not my Watch!

 

[Dom Cruise]

It straight up looks like a Guardians of the Galaxy rip-off.

I am... Grot!

 

[LazarusOwenhart]

This makes me irrationally angry. It's not that I have a problem with it as a series per se, but putting the Discworld name on it is going to poison the well for years to come.

 

[Emperor Julian]

Even carrot and vimes look a little off and they're the best cast. I've heard the Nobbs and Colon arnt even in it.

 

[Cyclonus]

How the fuck can they not have Nobby and Colon? Are they trying to piss fans off?

Maybe it's for the best. I've always wanted to see Tony Robinson play Nobby but going by this they'd probably cast Taylor Swift.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Agreed, the Hitchhiker's guide had a really funny (but a bit dated today) BBC adaptation, and the Disney movie wasnt half bad. And both Adams and Pratchett had the same style of writing. So if that works Pratchett's books would do as well.

Pratchett is way better though because he wasn't as full of himself as Adams.

I've read both the first Hitchhiker's book and the first Discworld book and I really didn't like the Hitchhiker's book much at all, but I really enjoyed the first Discworld novel.

 

[Wonderful Id]

Pratchett is way better though because he wasn't as full of himself as Adams.

I've read both the first Hitchhiker's book and the first Discworld book and I really didn't like the Hitchhiker's book much at all, but I really enjoyed the first Discworld novel.

Discworld is pure legend and the greatest book series ever

 

[Goodbye Horses]

For anybody under the hopeful impression that this had been shitcanned in response to the universally extreme negative reaction to the first pictures and story details.....im sorry
View attachment 1507970

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/new-photo-terry-pratchett-watch-adaptation/

That dude should be playing Foul Ole Ron, not Vimes. The rest of them should just fuck off back to Hollyoaks.

 

[Polyboros2]

Sir Pratchett made the right choice at the end.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

Even carrot and vimes look a little off and they're the best cast.

Oh the sweet irony. Of all characters, the ones coming out of this with their dignity intact are Nobby and Colon.

Sir Pratchett made the right choice at the end.

The thing that pisses me off: Pratchett was very liberal and his books are choke full of liberal values and witty comments on political issues of our time. But at no point does it feel like he's chastising anyone, at no point does he waggle his finger or get off on his moral superiority.
Pratchett has done what this show aims for, and he made it in the best way possible. The show feels like a giant fuck-you to the fans, an intentional disservice, to inject woke shit into a franchise that has always been liberal.

Then again, Jingo contains the wisdom that someone might be an asshole, even if he's from a foreign nation. The moment wokists get wind of that would be pretty iritating I guess.