How utterly predictable that we would get a raft of reviews, mostly written long before the actual show even screened from what I can see, bemoaning the gall of the producers in departing even so much as by a hair's breadth from every jot and tittle of the text of the "beloved" Discworld series. The worst of it is that these complaints are not even based on the books at all but on how the reviewers imagine the books to be. There's even a review praising past BBC adaptations despite the fact that they were all produced by Sky!
Sam Vimes isn't Sam Vimes? Really? Which Sam Vimes isn't he? In the books the character goes through a long redemptive arc which means that he is an entirely different character more or less every time we see him. Lord Vetinari can't be a woman? Whyever not? I've long suspected that Terry Pratchett himself was holding open the possibility that she was all along.
What counts is only whether this is a good watch (see what I did there?) in itself. Forget the books. Forget other adaptations (which you've conveniently forgotten that you also criticised at the time for failure to follow the plot or portray your favourite character as you imagine them to be). If this landed, unheralded, free of preconceptions, would it be worth the screen time? For me, being a bear of sufficient brain to treat the show on its own terms despite having read the books and seen the other TV versions, the answer was a very firm yes. Visually it's a treat with the very best of cute but deadly dragons as a bonus. Richard Dormer's hammed up Vimes is never dull and Lara Rossi's kick-ass Lady Sybil is great fun. And the first episode ends on a proper old-school cliffhanger. I was much entertained and I don't know that you can ask for much more from 40 minutes of TV.
Sam Vimes isn't Sam Vimes? Really? Which Sam Vimes isn't he? In the books the character goes through a long redemptive arc which means that he is an entirely different character more or less every time we see him. Lord Vetinari can't be a woman? Whyever not? I've long suspected that Terry Pratchett himself was holding open the possibility that she was all along.
What counts is only whether this is a good watch (see what I did there?) in itself. Forget the books. Forget other adaptations (which you've conveniently forgotten that you also criticised at the time for failure to follow the plot or portray your favourite character as you imagine them to be). If this landed, unheralded, free of preconceptions, would it be worth the screen time? For me, being a bear of sufficient brain to treat the show on its own terms despite having read the books and seen the other TV versions, the answer was a very firm yes. Visually it's a treat with the very best of cute but deadly dragons as a bonus. Richard Dormer's hammed up Vimes is never dull and Lara Rossi's kick-ass Lady Sybil is great fun. And the first episode ends on a proper old-school cliffhanger. I was much entertained and I don't know that you can ask for much more from 40 minutes of TV.