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5.5/10
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A group of misfit cops rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe.A group of misfit cops rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe.A group of misfit cops rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe.
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Summary
Reviewers say 'The Watch' elicits mixed reactions, with Discworld fans expressing disappointment over deviations from the books, including character and gender changes. Newcomers, however, find the series enjoyable and praise its unique approach. Debates center on faithfulness to the source material, the impact of creative changes, and the series' entertainment value, highlighting a divide between traditionalists and those open to new interpretations.
Featured reviews
Nothing of this show is remotely true to the original work of Terry Pratchett. Well, maybe Carrot's hair colour, but even his character gets a bad treatment of getting a changed background and impact.
It is really sad to see what happened to this. Its like the creators only read the summaries, usually find at the back of the books, and mangled them into a story. Nothing fits to the true work, as characters appearing later in the watch series are not only present at the start, but with their character arcs completed.
It also is not funny, or humorous, or insightful, or sarcatic, or ironic, or satire. Its just bland, bad and poor. Every Terry Pratchett fan should save themself from exposure to this and stay as far away from it as possiple.
PS You may think about comments about race- and genderchanging of characters. Yes. That happens. It does neither add nor detract on how awful the show is. Dont even think about "wokeness" when the base concept is just disgusting. Even the acting is sub-par, but the worst is just the writing.
It is really sad to see what happened to this. Its like the creators only read the summaries, usually find at the back of the books, and mangled them into a story. Nothing fits to the true work, as characters appearing later in the watch series are not only present at the start, but with their character arcs completed.
It also is not funny, or humorous, or insightful, or sarcatic, or ironic, or satire. Its just bland, bad and poor. Every Terry Pratchett fan should save themself from exposure to this and stay as far away from it as possiple.
PS You may think about comments about race- and genderchanging of characters. Yes. That happens. It does neither add nor detract on how awful the show is. Dont even think about "wokeness" when the base concept is just disgusting. Even the acting is sub-par, but the worst is just the writing.
They somehow took one of the funniest series of books and handed it to a writer and director who don't have a sense of humour. The tone is off. The cast try their best but the pacing and tone are nothing like Pratchett and nothing like his books. So we're left with a series which is an object of interest to fans of Pratchett and fans of comedy sci-fi, but in the end it is a misfire. It fails to even be fun, coherent storytelling.
I just watched the two episode debut of The Watch on BBC America and I have to ask why? Why did the BBC decide to go so far away from the source material, Sky did a very reasonable job with Going Postal, hell, even The Hogfather (a Christmas time favourite in our home) and The Colour of Magic where infinitely better executed. I had some hope after hearing Richard Dormer was cast as Vimes, I loved him in Fortitude, but everything here seems wrong. The setting doesn't feel like Discworld, their vision of Ankh-Morpork doesn't fit the theme or style of the books (slowly developed and fleshed out over multiple volumes). The casting is off, not just the removal for key characters (Sgt. Colon and Nobby Nobbs) but the unfortunate idea of casting Lord Vetinari as a completely unthreatening afterthought is baffling, Charle Dance and Jeremy Irons are both still alive and have played the part so much better. There are just too many things wrong with this programme, if you want the real Watch, read the books, if you want to watch Pratchett done well, watch Going Postal.
Get the rights for the Disc world books about the Watch , then decide that Terry Pratchett's version was rubbish and you could do it better !! Why ?? Take the names and storylines from various books , completely change the personalities & background stories and get Richard Dormer to Chanel his Alex Higgins as Vimes !! Avoid !!
I had no idea what I was watching and I'm a huge fan of the books. From the very first second it was confusing and horrible. All the characters were botched, storyline botched, script botched, editing botched. I liked the idea that Ankh Morpork was some sort of neo-punk medieval city, but that's all I liked because from the very first second, I was confused about what was happening (and this is from someone who has actually read the books several times).
This is a hard pass for any Pratchett fans as this will only make you angry. And I'm afraid that anyone else will have absolutely no clue what the hell is happening.
This is a hard pass for any Pratchett fans as this will only make you angry. And I'm afraid that anyone else will have absolutely no clue what the hell is happening.
Did you know
- TriviaAfter the release of the trailer Rhianna Pratchett, daughter of Discworld author Terry Pratchett, commented on Twitter: "Look, I think it's fairly obvious that The Watch shares no DNA with my father's Watch. This is neither criticism nor support. It is what it is." Fantasy author Neil Gaiman, who was a personal friend of Pratchett, added that fans like the source material "so if you do something else, you risk alienating the fans on a monumental scale. It's not Batman if he's now a news reporter in a yellow trenchcoat with a pet bat."
- ConnectionsFeatured in Sky News @Breakfast: Episode dated 3 July 2021 (2021)
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