Review of The Watch

As a long time fan of the Discworld books, I was intrigued to see this adaptation. It turns out that the only things that have survived from the books is the name of the city of Ankh-Morpork, the characters' names, and some (only a few) of their characteristics. Initially I was put off by some of the artistic choices, such as transferring Ankh-Morpork from a quasi medieval setting to an alt-reality steampunk one, changing the gender of Wonse and CMOT Dibbler, and having the Patrician played by a woman, but always addressed as if male. The production is chaotic and noisy (I sometimes had to switch subtitles on to follow the dialogue) but that all suits the story. By Episode 3 I was hooked, and although not much of said story follows that of the books, it is a satisfying romp, quirky and well acted by a top notch cast. I can only guess that the really low scores came from fans of Pratchett's books, which I can understand, but if you look past the use of his name as a pure marketing exploitation, the series is actually quite good fantasy fiction.