The Watch stills

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=Tamar

Lieutenant
May 20, 2012
11,961
2,900
#3
"Also inspired in part by Good Omens the series" I think. Their "Vimes" has a neckcloth that resembles Crowley's necktie effect.
 

RathDarkblade

Moderator
City Watch
Mar 24, 2015
15,992
3,400
47
Melbourne, Victoria
#4
*reads* Right, right ... (I'm too tired to use quotes, so I'll just respond to this with italics).;)

...a fictional city where crime has been legalized...

(OK, that's THEIR version of Ankh-Morpork. Fine.)

... Constable Cheery ... ostracized by their kin (??? I presume they mean HER kin). ...finding a new home and identity. (What? What's wrong with Cheery's actual "coming out"?)

Marama Corlett is the mysterious Corporal Angua who is tasked with Carrot’s training and keeping the rookie alive. (She is? Where is Nobby, who really "trained" Carrot? Where is Sergeant Colon?):(

Lara Rossi plays the formidable Lady Sybil Ramkin, last scion of Ankh-Morpork’s nobility, who’s trying to fix the city’s wrongs with her chaotic vigilantism.

(Oh, puh-leaze. Last scion of the nobility? There are plenty of lords and ladies about in Ankh-Morpork. And ... ahem ... Lady Sybil's "chaotic vigilantism"??? That's not the Lady Sybil I know, thank you very much). :p

It sounds to me like someone read half of Guards! Guards! and half of Night Watch, and said something like, "Yeah, we don't need all the philosophising. Get rid of it. Our guards just kick ass and spout punchlines. Oh, and there are too many Watchmen - get rid of half of them. Too confusing."

Sigh ... it could've been great. :( I don't think I'll bother.
 

Ghost

Sergeant-at-Arms
Dec 6, 2012
6,034
3,175
45
Blackcountry
#7
the phrase hope for the best but prepare for the worst springs to mind.
it seems like the art directors have confused steampunk with cyberpunk and classed them as the same thing
or maybe the impressions of imp powered or magic seems too complex for someone who isn't familiar with Discworld and has been dumbed down to not complicate the environmental storyline and that is why the cyberpunk feel has been introduced to gloss over the fantasy aspects
 
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RathDarkblade

Moderator
City Watch
Mar 24, 2015
15,992
3,400
47
Melbourne, Victoria
#8
Thanks, Dug (and Rachel!) It makes much more sense now. :)

I'm still confused about Carcer's "goblin henchmen". It's funny, but I never pictured goblins looking like pillar boxes. Everything Pterry ever wrote about goblins, and all the illustrations, shows the opposite: less armour, more speed. ;) Rachel is right: those two guys look more like Deep-Down Grags (although considering that Deep-Downers are Dwarfs, I'd expect them to be shorter than Carcer).

Anyway, I only hope that people who watch The Watch (no wordplay intended) will then graduate to actually reading the books.

It seems like the art directors have confused steampunk with cyberpunk and classed them as the same thing.
I think I've heard of these terms: Steampunk is Victorian-era technology (lots of steam) along with a touch of magic, roughly 1880-1890; whereas Cyberpunk is much more modern, 1980s-ish style art. Am I right?

In any case, the timeline is all wrong, even for steampunk. The Discworld didn't get steam until "Raising Steam", by which time the Watch was very well-established, indeed.

If the writers are going for an earlier book - and by the look of things, they're going for (perhaps) G!G! or MAA - then A-M's technology should be much less developed, probably late medieval (or English Civil War at best).

Or maybe the impressions of imp-powered or magic seems too complex for someone who isn't familiar with Discworld and has been dumbed down to not complicate the environmental storyline and that is why the cyberpunk feel has been introduced to gloss over the fantasy aspects.
I hate it when people do that. :mad: How would they feel about dumbing down a so-called "classic" of literature, I wonder - like "A Tale of Two Cities", say, or "Gulliver's Travels"? Oh, wait - someone's already done that to "The Three Musketeers". Sigh. :( Although if you like TTM (as I do), you may try the 1993 version, which is much better. Anyway.

There's one piece of good news in all this: "The Amazing Maurice" is coming!! :)
 

Dotsie

Sergeant-at-Arms
Jul 28, 2008
9,068
2,850
#10
Ok I see it like this. You know how in real life people often have the same name, but not in fiction? In school one of my bezzie mates had the same first and middle names as me. That would never ever happen in fiction, unless it was a plot point.

So anyway, Nobby is on hols and some girl who looks like Sally but is actually called Angua, takes over the training. Won’t Carrot have a story to tell when the other Angua comes to town!

Lady Sybil has sadly passed away, but due to a poor tattoo decision incorporating his late wife’s name along with some saucy shenanigans, Vimes remarries a woman of the same name, who turns out to be Batwoman. In his grief, he has also started dressing like a scruff.

There. Fixed it for you.
 
Likes: =Tamar

Dotsie

Sergeant-at-Arms
Jul 28, 2008
9,068
2,850
#11
As for Cheery, I actually think this makes a lot of sense. There is a lot of backstory with the dwarves which is too complicated to explain to non-Discworlders, but everyone must have heard of the struggles that non-binary people go through. It maps across, if not directly.
 

raisindot

Sergeant-at-Arms
Oct 1, 2009
5,125
2,450
Boston, MA USA
#12
I love how they use the line "Uniquely anarchic and thrillingly entertaining" to describe a TV series that hasn't even been shot yet.

I also hate the casting of Richard Dormer as Vimes. In the photo in the story he looks like a hulking thug, which is the exact opposite of Vimes' character.
 

RathDarkblade

Moderator
City Watch
Mar 24, 2015
15,992
3,400
47
Melbourne, Victoria
#13
Yes, Richard Dormer looks like Bruce Willis with a mohawk and a beard. Um ...?

The Vimes we know was described as skinny - gangly as a youth - all knuckles and elbows. Definitely no beard. Mohawk is right out.

As for his personality (from the Discworld wiki): "On one side, there is Vimes, however rough and pessimistic he may seem, defender of law and order, and the other side is a Vimes who would kill for revenge and make his own law ... Vimes is far from being perfect, and he knows the fact better than anyone. In addition to former alcoholism, Vimes has many prejudices. He hates many kinds of people and many things, and he has quite good reasons to." (Which we all know, of course - I'm just condensing).

The wiki-article is here, and is quite interesting and fun. But what we've seen of Dormer - and admittedly, it's just one picture - looks so different as to be unrecognisable.

I don't mind if this mob makes the film, but why change the characters' appearance and backstory, and then associate them with Discworld?

And I certainly don't like the fact that this cyberpunk depiction might be some people's introduction to Discworld. There are only two ways that can go:

1. Either they would love it (and then hate the books because the books aren't cyberpunk);
2. Or they would hate it (and then never read the books).

Either way, it doesn't bode well ... :(
 

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