S01.E01: A Near Vimes Experience / S01.E02: Ook

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Captain Sam Vimes’ life in the City Watch is changed forever when a figures from his past returns to Ankh-Morpork.

Airing on BBC America on January 3, 2021.

[Aulty]

I watched the first two episodes.

This show is a real conundrum. It is both, terrible and not that bad; too far removed from the source material and at the same time, to close to it. The characters are refreshingly diverse and charismatic, but often not true to the originals (or completely missing).

I love most of the casting choices, especially Littlebottom, Vimes (edit: the costume is shite though), Lady Sibyll and Throat. Not keen on the librarian and the senior wizards weren't portly enough. Some people will critisize the cast as too woke or PC or whatever, but I think Sir Terry would have enjoyed some of the changes. I also quite liked the reimagination of the Mended Drum.

There is a decent show in there somewhere - I am not if it needed to be less fantasy and more human or if the sci-fi needed to be dialled up to the max. Anyhow, the show is a lot less painful than the trailer and previews.

Edited January 5, 2021 by Aulty

[Mr. Sparkle]

I liked it. I liked the first episode better. I like the world-building they're doing. I have no familiarity with the source material, so I'm not coming in with any expectations. Just reading the wikipedia article about Discworld shows an extremely rich history, so those who are fans will likely take umbrage with some of the depictions. 

Anyway, it's worth me watching another 6 episodes of this. 

Edited January 4, 2021 by Superclam

[AnimeMania]

I can't believe they killed Sergeant Detritus, I thought he was made of rock and the crossbow bolts would bounce right off. He was the one I was most looking forward to watching, everybody else looks pretty human, so less interesting. I am guessing that the budget demanded it. There seems to be a lot of inside jokes for people who are familiar with the source material, but they go by so fast, I don't see how you could enjoy them. Lots of posters and flyers to read. The story seems solid enough, but the world building is extremely light for people not familiar with the source material.

[kieyra]

Thanks to those of you taking the hit so far. As a Pratchett fan of decades, I can't quite make myself click play yet. Looking forward to more observations, though. 

[Kelda Feegle]

14 hours ago, Aulty said:

I watched the first two episodes.

This show is a real conundrum. It is both, terrible and not that bad; too far removed from the source material and at the same time, to close to it. The characters are refreshingly diverse and charismatic, but often not true to the originals (or completely missing).

I love most of the casting choices, especially Littlebottom, Vimes, Lady Sibyll and Throat. Not keen on the librarian and the senior wizards weren't portly enough. Some people will critisize the cast as too woke or PC or whatever, but I think Sir Terry would have enjoyed some of the changes. I also quite liked the reimagination of the Mended Drum.

There is a decent show in there somewhere - I am not if it needed to be less fantasy and more human or if the sci-fi needed to be dialled up to the max. Anyhow, the show is a lot less painful than the trailer and previews.

I completely agree about it being a conundrum but am the polar opposite in the regard to the casting choices. I am never going to not love Charles Dance or Jeremy Irons (to a lesser degree) as Vetinari, the new one is awful IMHO. It's not the gender swap it's the lack of presence. Sybill needs to be less gorgeous and stylish. Richard Dormer seems to be enjoying himself as Vimes tho and I am totally onboard with that.

It isn't as bad as I feared or as some of the pieces I have read about it. I will keep watching.

[tennisgurl]

I just...what IS this? I am a big fan of the Discworld books and I guess that it unfair to compare it so heavily to the books, but this is just so off from the novels, especially in tone, but also has enough aspects of the books that its impossible to pretend that its NOT supposed to be Discworld, that its really hard for me to separate the books from this show. Its so different from the source, it makes me wonder why they even bothered making this an adaptation instead of just its own story about a police force in a fantasy setting. The previous live action adaptations had their flaws, but they at least felt right. Even as its own thing, I am not really feeling it. Its trying WAY too hard to be cool and edgy.

[Netfoot]

Late to the party.

TP must be rotating in his grave.

Sorry to go so soon, but I have anywhere somewhere to be!

Edited January 25, 2021 by Netfoot

[John Potts]

OK, I'm a life long Pratchett fan (well, not quite life long - I remember the first book coming out) and so I had mixed feelings about this. I didn't mind the mix of stories (the Carcer plot from The Watch combined with the dragon plot from Guards! Guards!, mainly) or timelines (Carrot joins the Watch prior to Angua or Cheery) but the characterisations were completely out of line with their book counterparts. I didn't mind Vetinari being a woman (though I was unclear if she is meant to be one in Universe or not) but he (or she) is the scarily competent arch manipulator, not a slightly exasperated supervisor, Carrot is straightforward but absolutely self assured in what he does, Detritus is bolt and (IIRC) bullet proof and if that was meant to be Chancellor Ridicully it was absolutely nothing like him (they never name him, so maybe it was one of his many predecessors). Sybil Ramkin was pretty accurate, though.

But setting aside any divergences from the canon, it was... just OK. I'm not sure the plot is strong enough to carry a whole series and if it's meant to be the tale of how the Watch go from "dumping ground for misfits" to "backbone of the city" then they didn't seem to be nearly incompetent enough at the start; they've abandoned the possibility of making it a mystery of who's behind the dragon by showing Carcer controlling it from the start and I can't see people tuning in for the romance between Vimes and Lady Sybil. So all in all - I'll probably see out the series, but I can't see it getting another one.

[Ceindreadh]

This wasn't as bad as I'd thought it might be.

I'm not thinking of it as an adaption of any books, but more like I would a remake of a show I'd previously enjoyed, in which they take the character names and basic settings and then just do what they like with them. 

I'll probably stick it out, at least for this series. 

Still pissed that they killed off Detritus.  I know that trolls aren't invulnerable to projectile weapons, but they should have needed a hell of a lot more arrows to kill him.