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March 28, 2024, 11:18:57 AM

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The Watch (Discworld TV series)

Started by Hemulen, March 02, 2018, 11:44:13 AM

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Hemulen

http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/discworld/55673/discworld-tv-show-in-the-works

So this was first mooted a few years back, before Sir Terry popped his mighty clogs. I believe the idea is that it will be a police procedural series centred around the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, with standalone mysteries each week rather than a direct adaptation of the novels, which I think is absolutely the right approach. Discworld is a setting brimming with potential but I don't think it's ever been adapted particularly well, on TV or radio. Maybe they'll get it right this time?

Mister Six

Ooh. I've always been doubtful about Discworld adaptations because so much of the humour is in the prose rather than the dialogue, so an original series - provided it's made by people who actually "get" the world, its tone and Pratchett's humour - could be great.

Of course, that's a pretty big caveat. I watched the Hogfather adaptation and bits of Going Postal and found them generally a bit too cartoony (especially Hogfather). Hopefully they'll recognise that the best Discworld books - especially the Vines ones - are still grounded in the real world.

Hopefully, also, the series will be composed of three two-part stories, because an hour doesn't seem like a lot of time to build up a good mystery. Also, unlike, say, Sherlock, the Watch has a reasonably large cast (at the very least Vimes, Colon, Nobby and Carrot - maybe Angua and Detritus too if they want to mix up the order of the books a bit) so filling the running time shouldn't be a problem.

Two original stories that begin with Carrot arriving on the Watch and climax with an adaptation of Guards! Guards! would be good, I reckon. Allow stuff like Vimes's rising through the ranks to build gradually rather than go in full tilt with the world as established.

Hemulen

Quote from: Mister Six on March 02, 2018, 01:02:54 PM
provided it's made by people who actually "get" the world, its tone and Pratchett's humour - could be great.

It's being co-produced with Narativia - a company Pratchett founded with his daughter and business manager specifically to handle adaptations of his work, so fingers crossed it's in safe hands. They're currently working on the forthcoming Good Omens adaptation so we'll see how that goes...

I agree that 2/3 parters would make sense (assuming they're going with 60 minute episodes), and ending on a loose adaptation of Guards! Guards! would be perfect. It definitely makes sense to play the long game with Vimes, as there's so much character growth you could do if you let it play out over multiple series.

mothman

I've never had a good idea of wbat the world of Discworld is meant to look like. On the one hand, my default assumption was that it was a sort of faux-mediaeval standard fantasy setting. Possibly Tudor at a stretch. Yet as stories set in Ankh-Morpork have progressed, the culture has come to resemble first a Georgian setting, and then by the time of the steam train one, maybe even Victorian. Maybe a sort of Tudor-Georgian hybrid would be the way to go?

shh

Yes as said above the best character in Discworld is basically Terry himself as the narrator, so the adaptations suffer unless handled creatively. I suppose for the BBC having a 'Fantasy Cop show' is just completing the collection, we've already got the London one, the northern one, the desert island one, the french one, etc. How else can they ring the changes.

Mind you they announced His Dark Materials years ago now and I've seen not a sausage of that.

Mister Six

Quote from: mothman on March 02, 2018, 03:11:38 PM
I've never had a good idea of wbat the world of Discworld is meant to look like. On the one hand, my default assumption was that it was a sort of faux-mediaeval standard fantasy setting. Possibly Tudor at a stretch. Yet as stories set in Ankh-Morpork have progressed, the culture has come to resemble first a Georgian setting, and then by the time of the steam train one, maybe even Victorian. Maybe a sort of Tudor-Georgian hybrid would be the way to go?

The BBC adaptations of Hogfather, Going Postal and Colour of Magic all went for a sort of melange of styles, leaning towards Georgian and Victorian. Probably helped that they were able to pilfer the old wardrobes for costumes.

mothman

BBC? Weren't they Sky? I think maybe that's one of the reasons I found them unsatisfactory: Victorian and even late Georgian isn't really consistent with the series' earlier stylings.

St_Eddie

Quote from: mothman on March 02, 2018, 11:12:36 PM
BBC? Weren't they Sky?

Yes, they were definitely produced by Sky.  I rather enjoyed them but then again, I've never read any of Prachett's books, so I'm probably not the best judge of whether they were good adaptations or not.

Mister Six

Quote from: mothman on March 02, 2018, 11:12:36 PM
BBC? Weren't they Sky? I think maybe that's one of the reasons I found them unsatisfactory: Victorian and even late Georgian isn't really consistent with the series' earlier stylings.

Oh yeah, Sky.

I dunno, the Discworld's always been a mish-mash. You've got medieval barbarians like Cohen, ancient Egyptians in Djelibeybi... early Ankh-Morpork definitely gave off a Renaissance-era vibe to me, but of course the industrial revolution kicked in around halfway through the books' run, and so a more Victorian style might make sense then.

Ferris

I am very defensive of the Pratchett oeuvre because it was when I first came to know myself as a nerd (at the game of 8 or so). A real awakening.

Can we not just leave them in print form only?

mothman

I'd agree, it's not something anyone is screaming out for. And it's the BBC so they'll only fuck it up.

Phil_A

Blimey, this has been in pre-production so long I'd assumed the project was long dead. Still not a lot of information to go on yet.

king_tubby


Mister Six

I dunno, that seems like solid casting for Vimes (or Vines, as one of the quotes has it). Not gone in-depth on the cast but my only concern is Cheery. Partly because the actor doesn't appear to be a dwarf, and partly because - if the character is supposed to be a dwarf - the non-binary thing doesn't really make much sense since dwarves are supposed to look pretty much identical until you get under the plate armour anyway (or is that the joke? If they're doing something clever with that concept then fair fucks). Thematically an ostracised non-binary person would fit with the Watch in any case.

What else is wrong with it?

I'm hoping Pratchett's daughter is going to keep a firm hand on thibgs., In any case.

king_tubby

Quote from: Mister Six on September 12, 2019, 03:22:04 PM
What else is wrong with it?

I'm hoping Pratchett's daughter is going to keep a firm hand on thibgs., In any case.

Lady Sybil is going to be a much younger than Vimes hot vigilante.

Angua is mentoring Carrott.

Pratchett's daughter has said she's not involved.

Mister Six

Oh, fuck.

Don't mind Angua mentoring Carrot - she's the dominant one in that relationship anyway.

Lady Sybil Ramkin as Batwoman is unbelievably daft though.

Phil_A

Urgh, I really want this to be not shit given how long it's been in coming, but that tone of that blurb just makes my heart sink. "A punk rock drama"? What the fuck does that mean in this context?

The top named writer is the hack that did the Musketeers and the pointless Das Boot remake, and none of the other names listed fill me with much confidence.

QuoteBarnett said, "The Watch will be a very BBC America show. As with Killing Eve, we don't go straight at an adaptation – we blur genres, undercut with humor, and hire the most genius writers and actors to create stories and characters that are both entertaining and very contemporary, that say something new.

Hmm yeah, that just sounds like he doesn't understand the source material at all.

olliebean

What, the books don't have enough humour in them already, they've got to be "undercut with humor"?

purlieu

Quote from: mothman on March 02, 2018, 03:11:38 PM
I've never had a good idea of wbat the world of Discworld is meant to look like. On the one hand, my default assumption was that it was a sort of faux-mediaeval standard fantasy setting. Possibly Tudor at a stretch. Yet as stories set in Ankh-Morpork have progressed, the culture has come to resemble first a Georgian setting, and then by the time of the steam train one, maybe even Victorian. Maybe a sort of Tudor-Georgian hybrid would be the way to go?
Well, part of the overall story (such as it is) is the development of the world, so there's going to be some changes over the course of it. Is there actually a timeline of the whole series? I've never looked.

Really, though, it's the sort of thing that needs a whole 41 series adaptation (or, at least, something long-running with books overlapping giving an overview of the whole world), complete with narration to throw in a lot of Pratchett's brilliance. A comedic fantasy soap opera, if anything. It's possible, but nobody is going to actually bother with such a large-scale production, so instead we're going to just end up with various short-term adaptations that don't really do the books justice.

mothman

You just can't do the writing justice in voiceovers, especially not the footnotes. Frances McDormand has two bloody Oscars and even she couldn't make a line like "They'd come here to spoon and, on one memorable occasion, fork" work.

Zetetic

Quote from: olliebean on September 13, 2019, 12:01:33 AM
What, the books don't have enough humour in them already, they've got to be "undercut with humor"?

Why would you want to weaken or undermine the books by any means? What is "undercut" meant to mean here?

Mister Six

Press release quotes are almost always absolute dogshit, so I'm not too fussed about that.

Inspector Norse

Quote from: Zetetic on September 13, 2019, 01:01:48 AM
Why would you want to weaken or undermine the books by any means? What is "undercut" meant to mean here?

They're going to give the characters amusing hairstyles.

king_tubby

So I've just seen some stills from this on Twitter.

Oooooooh boy. @dwmoook - can't copy the direct link currently.

Mister Six

Direct link here. Carrot looks good. Electricity questionable though. Is the hardnut looking fella supposed to be Vimes? If so, I'm not so sure of that.

https://twitter.com/dwmoook/status/1218065788143316992?s=09

Alberon

I know it's twitter, but 95% of the responses are either negative or extremely negative.

I thought the Sky adaptations largely got the look right so I'm a bit surprised it looks off here.

Mister Six

I suppose they're trying to put their own stamp on it, to differentiate from the Sky versions. As someone else said on Twitter, it just makes it look like a spin-off of Dishonored or something though.

Mister Six

Thinking about it, I wonder if the out-there design of the thing might make it seem a bit too alien for the layman. Cops in the kind of fantasy world familiar from Lord of the Rings, with wizards and trolls and such, is one thing; it's working with two familiar tropes that Sid and Doris Bonkers can immediately feel comfortable with.

Cops in a kind of cyberpunk-inflected parallel universe pseudo-fantasy world that looks like an AAA video game, though? Hm.

Catalogue Trousers

Latest casting details have Vetinari and Dibbler being gender-swapped for no good reason at all. It's hardly as if Discworld is short of strong female characters, is it? To me, this is feeling more and more like it might make those Sky TV co-productions look astoundingly good. Fuck's sake.

https://www.dailydot.com/parsec/discworld-watch-tv-vetinari-casting/?fbclid=IwAR2meZeUUCiYDCq0p-FTJZpTzX7nKJQaVe8Og3Dx8UF63yPsUzz1FU-Ec6k

Zetetic

Eh, most of those the casting choices seem that they might turn out more than alright, and gender doesn't seem terribly significant, particularly in the light of twiddling about with the aesthetic. Vetinari certainly doesn't seem essentially male to me.

Woman-Dibbler is the one that feels a bit odd to me, maybe, but that's probably my prejudices about a certain kind of male-grubbiness. But I struggle to imagine the character played in a non-irritating fashion in any case, and having said that Ruth Madeley doesn't seem a bad choice.