Terry Pratchett's "The Watch" - A diverse and inclusive steampunk BBC series inspired by the Discworld Novels

[Judge Holden]

Guess what Discworld fans, your tired and problematic old white-male penned books have FINALLY gotten a progressive update for currentyear television!

BBC America has revealed first-look images from new series The Watch. Comprised of eight episodes, The Watch began filming in Cape Town, South Africa in September and is part of BBC America’s 2020 slate that includes the Emmy®-nominated Killing Eve, Jodie Whittaker’s second season of Doctor Who and Seven Worlds, One Planet, presented by Sir David Attenborough.

Set in a fictional city where crime has been legalized, The Watch is a genre-busting series that follows a group of misfit cops as they rise up from decades of helplessness to save their corrupt city from catastrophe. Uniquely anarchic and thrillingly entertaining, the character-driven drama follows several of Terry Pratchett’s best-loved creations from his “Discworld” novels on a riotous and emotional odyssey. The cast includes Game of Thrones’ Richard Dormer as Captain Sam Vimes, Adam Hugill as Constable Carrot, Jo Eaton-Kent as Constable Cheery, Marama Corlett as Corporal Angua, Lara Rossi as Lady Sybil Ramkin and Sam Adewunmi as Carcer Dun.

Dormer stars as Sam Vimes, Captain of The Watch, disempowered by a broken society that’s reduced his department’s jurisdiction to almost nothing. Jo Eaton-Kent is Constable Cheery, the ingenious non-binary forensics expert, ostracized by their kin and finding a new home and identity. Adam Hugill plays Constable Carrot, the idealistic new recruit, raised by dwarfs, but really a human abandoned at birth. Marama Corlett is the mysterious Corporal Angua who is tasked with Carrot’s training and keeping the rookie alive. 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.

BBC America previously announced that Brian Kelly (Outlander) and Emma Sullivan (Doctor Who) have joined Craig Viveiros (Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None) as directors for the series. The show’s lead writer is Simon Allen (The Musketeers). The Watch is set to premiere in 2020.

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And I know yall are just desperate to see the first pictures of this stunning and brave new series, and so your cuddly uncle holden will share them with you right now and I will even tell you just what characters have been adapted and given woke improvements for this series

- Karen Hair Angua and Richard Spencer hair Carrot, the latter of whom will no doubt have to face up to his toxic masculinity and cultural appropriation -

- The new Carcer who has been changed from a fucking white male into a persecuted man of color trying to clear his name of crimes he did not commit -

- the aforementioned Karengua and the most stunning and brave choice yet, a beardless explicitly non binary Cheery, now a dwarf I have just been informed she is infact not a dwarf in this, just a troon....of color with a stunning and brave nose ring, because beards have unfortunate connotations in currentyear -

- and I have saved the very best for last, sybil vimes reimagined from an icky old white woman into a thin woman of color with dyed red hair who is the vigilante badass responsible for fighting crime in the city -

No need to thank me for sharing this wonderful new addition to progressive cinematic canon with you. Now let us celebrate with the traditional kiwifarms ritual of uncontrollable screaming and sobbing for the next twelve hours.

EDIT: I have just learned of a brand new excitingly brave casting choice...

- meet the brand new and improved CMOT Dibbler -

 

[HollaGemini]

Why must they do this.
The Nothing exists.

 

[Judge Holden]

Why must they do this.
The Nothing exists.

Oh yeah, and vetinari is now a lady, and has been pitched as "elvis crossed with dracula"

 

[Dom Cruise]

Now granted I've only read the first Discworld novel but I thought it was a medieval style world? I'm pretty confused by the looks of those photos, to say nothing of the woke elements.

Overall this sounds like a fucking nightmare.

 

[Ellesse_warrior]

This just made me so sad. The watch centred discworld books are my favourites. Pratchett had is own commentary on society, its unfair to his legacy to force in your face wokeness upon it.

 

[knightlautrec]

I knew this was going to happen. I knew it. Jesus christ. Hogfather and Going Postal managed to not be an utter shit show and FINALLY we get a Vimes (arguably the most popular books of Discworld) related show and they utterly fuck it up changing to right some perceived wrongs of Prachett by making it chock full of 'inclusive' on the nose casting. And the thing is, there ARE non-whites in Discworld but they chose the WRONG characters.

The Ramkins are a STUPIDLY old aristocratic family and I'm supposed to believe they were what? From Klatch? And not native to Ankh-Morpork? (AKA fantasy London) Also, ironic they make young Sybil not only black, they take away all her character by making her THIN and small. I'm supposed to believe this woman is the end product of generations of buxom Ramkin women famed for their hardiness and make do strength and family rallying? A domestic force to be reckoned with in the face of war and hardship? Yeah, fuck off.

And what the actual fuck did they do to Cheery? The actual fuck. She still has her beard that is dwarven PRIDE. But she did braid and wear the female uniform and 'out' herself as female which set her apart. And that creature playing her is what? A troon? A dude? Fucking insulting. They could have gotten a woman because jesus christ, she is one.

This is disappointing. Discworld is my absolute favourite. Utterly A-log but I usually give no fucks when a famous person dies but when Terry Prachett passed I genuinely cried. And even now I get really sad about it. This, LotR and Wheel of Time. At least I'll always have the books.

 

[Judge Holden]

This just made me so sad. The watch centred discworld books are my favourites. Pratchett had is own commentary on society, its unfair to his legacy to force in your face wokeness upon it.

Worse. Pratchett had his own extremely progressive commentary on society and told extremely progressive stories about shit the media wouldnt touch with a bargepole......which have been chucked out the fucking window and replaced with generic "topical woke" horseshit.

The Ramkins are a STUPIDLY old aristocratic family and I'm supposed to believe they were what? From Klatch? And not native to Ankh-Morpork? (AKA fantasy London) Also, ironic they make young Sybil not only black, they take away all her character by making her THIN and small. I'm supposed to believe this woman is the end product of generations of buxom Ramkin women famed for their hardiness and make do strength and family rallying? A domestic force to be reckoned with in the face of war and hardship? Yeah, fuck off.

Thin, small, black, and is being pitched as a vigillante superhero of ankh morpork.

And what the actual fuck did they do to Cheery? The actual fuck. She still has her beard that is dwarven PRIDE. But she did braid and wear the female uniform and 'out' herself as female which set her apart. And that creature playing her is what? A troon? A dude? Fucking insulting. They could have gotten a woman because jesus christ, she is one.

Yeah....she apparently aint even a fucking dwarf. She is literally just a human troon in this who was "cast out for being non binary"

 

[knightlautrec]

Oh yeah, and vetinari is now a lady, and has been pitched as "elvis crossed with dracula"

Burn this fucking thing to the ground. Fuck this. Fuck this entire show. I feel genuine anger.

 

[Judge Holden]

Burn this fucking thing to the ground. Fuck this. Fuck this entire show. I feel genuine anger.

Ya know I dont want to say it....so many franchises and stories have been turned to absolute shit by the woke trend...but this might unironically the worst case of this I have ever seen

They took something so fucking progressive in themes, characters, stories, and concepts both for its day and for now....and turned it in to this

EDIT: and now CMOT dibbler is a fucking midget in a wheelchair oh my actual god I am laughing in so much horror right now

 

[not william stenchever]

Being a world bearing cosmic space turtle it is hard to commit suicide. Can someone put me and my elephants out of our misery?

 

[knightlautrec]

Thin, small, black, and is being pitched as a vigillante superhero of ankh morpork.

Stop it, woke writers. Just because you make a woman character be all 'she kicks butt like a MAN!' Doesn't make her a good character. That isn't characterisation. Sybil was perfect in the books. She was a fierce, smart woman who had a love of dragons and her family and duty. She was courageous (ready with a crossbolt or a sick dragon) but also understood her place as an aristocrat was to lead and she ideally wanted to be a good wife to Sam. Even taking steps back so he could do Duke duties without her clout overshadowing it. She understood his obsessive need to find justice and knew how important he was as the guardian of the law of the city. Sybil and Vimes marriage is one to aspire to imo. A good match of give and take. To reduce all she is to just 'hurrdurr vigilant lady Batman' is just...awful.

I hope they never get their hands on the Witches. They'll ruin Granny and Nanny with this agenda shit that every woman has to be a man with boobs and not organically women with their own strengths. Granny Weatherwax is a force because she's old and she's wily and she's sceptical of it all. Not because she goes around punching people.

Ya know I dont want to say it....so many franchises and stories have been turned to absolute shit by the woke trend...but this might unironically the worst case of this I have ever seen

They took something so fucking progressive in themes, characters, stories, and concepts both for its day and for now....and turned it in to this

EDIT: and now CMOT dibbler is a fucking midget in a wheelchair oh my actual god I am laughing in so much horror right now
View attachment 1102160

I'm out. Heading out on the next asteroid to Heaven.

 

[Goodbye Horses]

I hope everyone involved in this dies of ass cancer.

 

[JohnDoe]

What the absolute fuck? Putting the wokeness aside ( a big ask) none of this is remotely close to Prachett's work in tone or chronology. Carrot is introduced a book before Angua, Carcer doesn't show up until four books later as part of a time travel plot, and as the aforementioned goes, Sybil is totally fucked in this adaptation.

And the casting - holy fuck; Carrot is tall? and has red hair, so I guess I'll put that in the win column. Angua looks like a chubby 14 year old that just had her cellphone taken away, as opposed to the blond Valkyrie she is, Cheery is....from the Dungeon Dimensions now? And Carcer is supposed to have a twisted presumptive innocence look, like a child with his hand in a cookie car, a completely off his rocker glint in the eye - this just looks like they gave a surly chimp a greatcoat. Poor Lady Sybil, as well - I mean they've completely fucked the theme of her and Vimes, who are rejuvenated from decades of 'I'm too old for this shit' policing and general crazy dragon-ladyness by the birth of child; arcs which celebrate family and the value of children. (I just figured out why SJWs destroyed that pro-family arc.)

Here's the crux - Prachett wrote 30+ amazing Discworld books, with amazing characters, fantastic comedy, and heart-touching themes. If you want to try adapting those stories, go ahead, I'd love to see how you bring the stories to the screen. HOWEVER, if you want to bring your own stories to life, don't fucking Frankenstein somebody else's work into a walking abomination that is unrecognizable and has nothing in common with the original work except superficial names and such. Thats a blatant hijacking, and if you're straying so far from the source just make your own series!

Of course, the woke SJW crowd is incapable of actually creating anything of worth and can only parasitise existing properties with their toxic ideology.

 

[Judge Holden]

Being a world bearing cosmic space turtle it is hard to commit suicide. Can someone put me and my elephants out of our misery?

Not until you have witnessed all the new progressive casting choices

Head of Assassins Doctor Cruces, now a sinister flabby white woman!

Lupine Wonse, secretary to Vetinari, now a brave woman of color!....and a wizard for some reason

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

I've never read Discworld, or really anything by Terry Pratchett (yes I'm an uncultured swine), but Jesus Christ these photos are ugly. The set design, the costumes, the fucking actors are all hideous and don't even resemble the characters if the other posters' comments are anything to go by. This show is visually unattractive to someone unfamiliar with the books so it begs the question of who the hell this is even for. Hardcore fans are obviously upset while people who aren't fans are repulsed.

 

[JohnDoe]

Wait, they cast Hakeem Kae-Kazim as Captain John Keel? The entire plot of Night Watch, (where Carcer appears) is when Vimes accidentally travels back in time and takes John Keel's place! How is that supposed to work?

Execute everyone involved with Sir Terry's meteor sword.

 

[Revo]

I would just play the games adaption of Discworld on my pc instead of watching at this shitty live-action adaption of this book.

 

[Ellesse_warrior]

Some of you have pointed out things I'd completely forgotten. I'll probably re read the books, so if anything good is to come of this it's a better appreciation for Pratchett.

Feed everyone involved to the luggage!

 

[Judge Holden]

I've never read Discworld, or really anything by Terry Pratchett (yes I'm an uncultured swine), but Jesus Christ these photos are ugly. The set design, the costumes, the fucking actors are all hideous and don't even resemble the characters if the other posters' comments are anything to go by. This show is visually unattractive to someone unfamiliar with the books so it begs the question of who the hell this is even for. Hardcore fans are obviously upset while people who aren't fans are repulsed.

If you want to understand some of the raw horror from fans, I will try to simplify it.

Imagine a fantasy book series that, stories and concepts and whatever aside, went out of its way to offer sympathetic and progressive narratives regarding gender, religion, sexuality, race, and identity, in a time when doing so was neither trendy nor popular in the literature sphere.

Imagine it having done all this without dipping into dumbass proto-SJW dogma and maintaining a constant theme of "everyone is human*, for better and for worse, no matter what they look like and what they identify as" and never putting anyone on a plinth nor damning them as uniquely flawed, thus ensuring the stories never age into cringy irrelevence once such faddy demagoguery comes in and out of fashion.

Now imagine literally all of this unceremoniously thrown in the shredder, with the most generic corporate-woke schlock of currentyear shoved in its place against all logic and sanity, because those involved with the production for all their claimed progressiveness and inclusivity didnt give two shits about anything other than burying everything in wokewashing sludge that serves only to beef up their diversity credentials, and will be forgotten forever within weeks of the show finishing

*for want of a better word

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

If you want to understand some of the raw horror from fans, I will try to simplify it.

Imagine a fantasy book series that, stories and concepts and whatever aside, went out of its way to offer sympathetic and progressive narratives regarding gender, religion, sexuality, race, and identity, in a time when doing so was neither trendy nor popular in the literature sphere.

Imagine it having done all this without dipping into dumbass proto-SJW dogma and maintaining a constant theme of "everyone is human*, for better and for worse, no matter what they look like and what they identify as" and never putting anyone on a plinth nor damning them as uniquely flawed, thus ensuring the stories never age into cringy irrelevence once such faddy demagoguery comes in and out of fashion.

Now imagine literally all of this unceremoniously thrown in the shredder, with the most generic corporate-woke schlock of currentyear shoved in its place against all logic and sanity, because those involved with the production for all their claimed progressiveness and inclusivity didnt give two shits about anything other than burying everything in wokewashing sludge that serves only to beef up their diversity credentials, and will be forgotten forever within weeks of the show finishing

*for want of a better word

So what you're telling me is this book series succeeds in actually being progressive with its own diverse cast while also not being obnoxious about it whereas the show runs full tilt into the stupid woke shit.

That's just...incredible. Somehow they took a book series that is already pretty progressive and decide to make it more woke and thus shit on everything in the process. Like holy shit you could have made a great show promoting diversity like the books but oh no, those books aren't woke enough so lets just fuck it up.