The Watch on BBC America

The first season wraps with the 8th episode next Sunday, 2/14/2021, which is Valentine's Day.

This is intended as a general discussion thread with spoilers after this post.

I won't get to watch tonight's episode tonight, what with the Superbowl, but i expect to watch it during the week and catch the season finale next weekend.

The fact that the season is wrapping on Valentine's Day might just be telling. There's apparently a little thing between Carrot and Angua, but i don't expect any major developments there. Not because the writers feel any duty to stick to Terry's stories or character arcs, because they very obviously feel no such duty, but more because i think Sam and Sybil are due and even though it's going to air on V-Day in the States, i don't think they'll have 80% of The Watch suddenly pair up internally. Maybe both will couple, but if i were the type of person to bet on these kinds of things, i'd bet on Sam and Sybil only.

If there's one thing that i've really hated from this show, it's the way they discarded the character of Detritus out of hand. It would have been better for them to simply not have him in the show at all. I can sort of understand why Nobby and Fred haven't been in the story, so far at least, because the plot so far isn't the the kind of story that they would fit in. I'm holding out some slim hope that they might yet be revealed. After all, not being noticed is one of Nobby's defining skills. I think it could be great if it turns out that Fred has been running the Night Watch all along, with Nobby working under him.

The whole plot arc this season about Carcer is a little underwhelming, but it's been a decent vehicle for introducing the characters of the Watch, other Ankh-Morpork luminaries, and parts of the city itself in a general way. I think it's been a better approach than an episodic first season would likely have been but i'd rather see an episodic second season than a serial second season, UNLESS they can come up with a better serial concept for S2. And i am hoping for a second season regardless.

I like the changes to Cheery, Vetinari, and Lady Sybil. Particularly Lady Sybil, i actually like this Lady Sybil Rankin even better than Pratchett's version of her.

I would really LOVE to see this Sam Vimes doing the whole Where's My Cow? storyline, and i think the setup and execution could be done in a single episode.

I can't be the only former LOST fan watching this show, and i'd really like to read some other opinions...

His Royal Dorkness wrote:

I can't be the only former LOST fan watching this show, and i'd really like to read some other opinions...

If I had BBC-A I would be watching, as sure as the (Disc)world is flat.

The season finale was, imo, the best episode yet, even though it ended with a cliffhanger.

I think the cliffhanger in particular augurs well for a second season. I will definitely be watching season 2 as long as it's available without subscribing to some streaming service.

What is it? I have never heard of it.

It's a police procedural in a fantasy setting, with characters and setting based on Terry Pratchett's Discworld series of novels.

you lost me after procedural

I have never read the books, but I found the season to be enjoyable. Characters were certainly different. I did need to use closed captioning, though, I have issues with some British accents, etc.

You really don't need to be at all familiar with the books, though for me it helped because there were some fun Easter Eggs, and *I* liked some of the changes, in particular i thought the show version of both Cheery Littlebottom (the trans "dwarf") and Lady Sybil were far more fun and interesting than their book versions, no shade intended to the originals who i also loved, just not as much.