BBC America Greenlights "CSI: Ankh-Morpork"

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Re: BBC America Greenlights "CSI: Ankh-Morpork"

Post by Gandalf »

madd0ct0r wrote: 2020-10-15 05:27am Nah, she's been calling them out on twitter for ages.

I guess one reason im not as angry as everyone else is that I thought the previous discworld adaptions, while faithful, were stodgy and boring. I hope this is better, as well as different.
Indeed. From what little I've read of the series, making a "faithful" adaptation that's also enjoyable would be pretty difficult.
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Re: BBC America Greenlights "CSI: Ankh-Morpork"

Post by Majin Gojira »

Gandalf wrote: 2020-10-15 06:15amIndeed. From what little I've read of the series, making a "faithful" adaptation that's also enjoyable would be pretty difficult.
A lot of the humor of Discworld, for me at least, comes from the asides and background details rather than the events themselves.

...

And now I'm picturing a Discworld film/TV show with Family Guy style cut-away gags.

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Re: BBC America Greenlights "CSI: Ankh-Morpork"

Post by Crazedwraith »

Majin Gojira wrote: 2020-10-15 04:31pm
Gandalf wrote: 2020-10-15 06:15amIndeed. From what little I've read of the series, making a "faithful" adaptation that's also enjoyable would be pretty difficult.
A lot of the humor of Discworld, for me at least, comes from the asides and background details rather than the events themselves.
This is true and why play adaptions include a footnotes chorus so that material isn't lost.

Good omens is a similar style and they managed pretty well by having God narrate it. (Though tbf Good Omens is probably evidence you can adapt too faithfully, but overall it was well received I think.)
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Re: BBC America Greenlights "CSI: Ankh-Morpork"

Post by Batman »

The 'Hogfather' adaption was awesome, and while 'The Colour of Magic' was not that had more to do with the quality of the source material (the first two Discworld book were pretty blergh) than the stuff being nigh impossible to adapt faithfully
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Re: BBC America Greenlights "CSI: Ankh-Morpork"

Post by Elheru Aran »

Yeah, Color of Magic was pretty barebones and it showed, but it had a certain charm in its own right-- that classic cheesy shoestring-80s-BBC-video budget chic. The other productions they did were much better-- Hogfather and Going Postal, not sure if they had another.
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Re: BBC America Greenlights "CSI: Ankh-Morpork"

Post by Crossroads Inc. »

Hogfather is amazing, and I am not at all ashamed to say, I actually prefer the MOVIE to the book. The pacing works and feels so much more fluid, and there are two key moments with DEATH as the Hogfather that got swapped around that I think add a lot more weight and emotion to those moments.
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Re: BBC America Greenlights "CSI: Ankh-Morpork"

Post by madd0ct0r »

I don't think I watched to the end of hogfather. I did for going postal, but not going to watch it again.

I just didn't think it was very good TV. Very laboured scripts with characters without their inner monologue or time reduced to snark. Trying to be funny while self conscious in a slightly glossy unreal world.

Good omens was better, but still felt like an effort at times. Of two friends who hadn't read it, one loved the TV show, the other stopped watching after two episodes.
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Re: BBC America Greenlights "CSI: Ankh-Morpork"

Post by The Grim Squeaker »

Crossroads Inc. wrote: 2020-10-15 11:40pm Hogfather is amazing, and I am not at all ashamed to say, I actually prefer the MOVIE to the book. The pacing works and feels so much more fluid, and there are two key moments with DEATH as the Hogfather that got swapped around that I think add a lot more weight and emotion to those moments.
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That said, I really liked the "old" tv movies. They could have been better (actors were great, but nothing as amazing "born for this role" as, say, GOT & Tywin. Except for DEATH's voice).

The Watch though - I saw 1 episode and dropped. Same issue as I had with foundation - it has very little to do with the core it's adapting, and it's too similar to be different. Instead it just baulderizes and loses the good stuff while the stuff that doesn't work feels bad.
NVM weaknesses in the micro (the incredibly cliche+bad opening of Vimes and Carver hanging off a cliff).
NVM the fact that they managed to lose a lot of the most progressive elements (Dwarves: Carrot vs race, Cheery, etc'), in favor of doing it in a way that's more "obvious" and "woke" but doesn't feel like it makes sense or consistency.
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