I kept watching and decided that I am starting to enjoy it. But it is in no way related to the discworld books. I'm still waiting for the real Sam Vimes, and he's not going to show in this program.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld is insanely smart and funny, with a fairly easy to imagine cheerfully dirty lightly steam punk aesthetic. The Discworld books are beloved for a reason, and Sam Vimes and the Watch make up one of the most iconic cast of characters in all fictiondom. There are zero reasons to think that a reasonably faithful adaptation would be too difficult to make or that it wouldn't be a huge success. But the makers of BBC's The Watch didn't trust the brilliance of the books and took it upon themselves to make story, character, and stylistic changes. It is nearly unrecognizable and nearly unwatchable. I understand that tv and books are different media and require different approaches but it feels like the creators of this project didn't actually like the Discworld books. This is a betrayal of the Discworld fandom and of the writing of Terry Pratchett.
Terry Pratchett's Discworld is insanely smart and funny, with a fairly easy to imagine cheerfully dirty lightly steam punk aesthetic. The Discworld books are beloved for a reason, and Sam Vimes and the Watch make up one of the most iconic cast of characters in all fictiondom. There are zero reasons to think that a reasonably faithful adaptation would be too difficult to make or that it wouldn't be a huge success. But the makers of BBC's The Watch didn't trust the brilliance of the books and took it upon themselves to make story, character, and stylistic changes. It is nearly unrecognizable and nearly unwatchable. I understand that tv and books are different media and require different approaches but it feels like the creators of this project didn't actually like the Discworld books. This is a betrayal of the Discworld fandom and of the writing of Terry Pratchett.