And not just like, a little bit of magic, either - Ankh-Morpork is populated by wizards, trolls, werewolves, dwarves, and more.

So the Watch has precious little to do, and their leader Sam Vine (Dormer) is generally seen as something of a joke.Īnd also, magic exists. This small, generally useless police force is meant to hold things down in Ankh-Morpork, a place where most crime isn't actually illegal, and even the assassins and thieves have official guild representation, which means they're immune from pesky things like jail time. Instead, Game of Thrones star Richard Dormer leads an unlikely gang of useless misfits known as the City Watch. The story is sort of loosely inspired by Pratchett's characters, but its plot is certainly not anything you'll find in the novels. (Or at least something they'll need a minute to get used to.) But for those who are Pratchett purists, this may be upsetting news. The Watch looks as though it means to attempt to convey the tone and spirit of Pratchett's work, rather than strictly adhere to the beats of his books, and in the world of television adaptations, that may not be the worst idea ever. On some level, this makes sense, as the Discworld series is comprised of over 40 novels and they're all pretty complicated and more than a bit weird. (Though that doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing - and your mileage may vary on how you feel about it.) (It's a whole thing, just go with it.)īad news: The series is what can be only called 'loosely inspired' by those same books. There is good news and there is bad news for Terry Pratchettfans in 2021. Good news, new sci-fi drama The Watch is coming to BBC America in January, and it's based on the author's beloved Discworld series of novels, a complex and messy tale of the eponymous Discworld, a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle.

Discworld the watch series