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Saturday 24 July 2021

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

I understand that this Latin phrase can be found in Juvenal’s Satires (Satire VI) and is usually translated as ‘Who will guard the guards themselves?’ although it can also be translated as ‘Who watches the watchers?’ or ‘Who will watch the watchers?’.

Taking Sir Charles James Napier's reputed example of using 'Perccavi' (literally translated as 'I have sinned') in his despatch to the British government after forces under his command had seized control of the province of Sindh, I am using 'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?' to ask 'Who is watching THE WATCH?'.

I came to the late Sir Terry Pratchett’s DISCWORLD stories only recently, but I have enjoyed them, and when I saw that the BBC had made BBC America’s THE WATCH available on iPlayer, I decided to give it a go.

The development of this series began back in 2012, but it was not until late 2018 that a contract for an eight-episode series was signed. It premiered in the United States in January this year, and it was recently made available on iPlayer.

So far, I have watched the first four episodes, and after some initial reluctance, I am gradually beginning to enjoy it. The plot of the series seems to be based on an amalgamation of two of Terry Pratchett’s books, NIGHT WATCH and GUARDS! GUARDS!

Unlike the books, where Ankh-Morpork seems to be depicted as a mixture of medieval, early industrial, steampunk, and magical fantasy, the Ankh-Morpork shown in THE WATCH is much more modern-looking and has a very punk atmosphere. It has been criticised by quite a few people for deviating so far from the original, and I must admit that I would have preferred something more akin to my vision of what the city and the members of the City Watch looked like … but once I had set that aside, I began to enjoy the programme.

16 comments:

  1. I have watched the first episode on iplayer. I have never read the books, though my son has and enjoyed them.
    It looks a little grimy, and dystopian with a punk style om the female character Corporal Angua von Uberwald.
    I'll watch some more to see how it develops

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    1. Khusru,

      I rather liked the grimy, dystopian look of the setting. I’ve certainly enjoyed the first four episodes, and I’m looking forward to seeing the rest.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  2. I've never read his books so came to the series with no baggage. However I didn't finish the first episode and it just didn't grab me at all and I found the story hard to follow. A shame as the trailer promised so much.

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    1. Steve J.,

      The series gets better as the story unfolds, and I’d suggest trying to finish watching to the end of the first episode.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete
  3. Your opening phrase reminds me of a WWI song my Grandfather used to play when I was a kid...."Who takes care of the caretaker's daughter, while the caretaker is busy taking care?" While i am a sci-Fi buff (still have a paperback from 1955) I was never a fan of Pratchett, leaning more toward the hard-core SCIENCE-Fiction!

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    1. Dick Bryant,

      I remember singing a song with similar double-entendre lyrics!

      Pratchett’s books are often more of parodies of both the fantasy genre and the modern world, and I doubt that they would appeal to committed hardcore Sci-Fi and fantasy fans.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  4. I enjoyed the books, found the series unwatchable and unrelated to the books

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    1. Sam,

      I also enjoyed the books, but put my expectations aside and tried to watch the series without preconceptions. That said, I can fully understand why you might have found the series unwatchable … and from what I can gather, you are not alone from feeling like that.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  5. I've not seen this series but may give it a try. However, there have been a number of attempts at Discworld TV shows (I think mostly by ITV?) and I've not thought too highly of the ones I've seen.

    Back in the day I got a lot of the Discworld series in paperback but they were favourites of my elder son and mostly left the house when he did. Recently - over the last three years - Kindle versions of individual Discworld books have been put on sale for brief periods and so far I've picked up 26 (out of 41). A lot have been Amazon deals of the day - sometimes combined with Bookbub sales - and you have to keep a carful watch if you're not to miss them. At some time I'll have to bite the bullet and pay the regular prices to fill in the gaps in my collection!

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    1. Mike Hall,

      I haven’t seen the previous TV adaptations of Terry Pratchett’s books, but I think that they stuck closer to the originals than THE WATCH does, which is why I suspect the Pratchett purists tend to dislike it so much.

      THE WATCH. Is very much ‘based on’ the stories written by Terry Pratchett, using some of the names of characters from the books, but with the latter differing quite considerably from their literary persona. The least different is Carrot Ironfoundersson, Sam Vimes (before he got married) sort of rings true with the way I envisaged him, but Lord Vetinari is a woman(?) and seems to lack the level of detached menace I expected.

      I will no doubt buy the whole DISCWORLD series for my Kindle at some point, and thanks to you, I’ll look out for them coming up as deals of the day.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  6. Hi Bob -
    As something of a T. Pratchett fan, and the Night Watch novels are among my favorites (especially 'Night Watch' itself), I might well have looked forward to the TV series (which doesn't seem to have hit this part of the world yet). That the makers appear to have merged two novels is a bit disturbing, I feel, unless the first half of the series deals with 'Guards, Guards, and the other with 'Night Watch'.

    But even then, why 'Night Watch'. That is probably the best yarn of all, but it takes place a considerable time after 'Guards, Guards'. I would have thought 'Men At Arms' would have been the companion story, if they couldn't stretch a single novel into 6 or 8 episodes...

    Cheers,
    Ion

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    1. Archduke Piccolo (Ion),

      I received the following comment from Andrew Freeman about the series, and I think that it is well worth sharing with you and other people who have commented on this blog post:

      'Inevitably an adaption of much loved books will have characters and incidents that don’t match with how you imagine them. I was prepared to ignore that but I am afraid this production didn’t work for me at all.

      As it said it the opening credits “Inspired by the works of…”; not even “based on …”

      A few of the characters are slightly similar to the characters in the books, others just share a name. Some plot point are loosely the same, others very different, omitted, entirely new, or totally reordered.

      The whole thing seemed structured in what I think of as “pop video culture” made of five minute chunks each of which was trying to be a mini action movie, mixed with American Sitcom humour.

      I think it lost most of the whimsy, wry humour and subtlety which is what makes the books appealing to me.

      There was talk of a second series, but that won’t be something I would bother to view.

      Each to his own, but thumbs down from me.

      Andrew Freeman
      '

      I suspect that this will probably mirror many of your own reactions to seeing the series ... should you ever be able to do so. (I am not sure if the BBC iPlayer is available in New Zealand, and whether or not anything made by BBC America will be licenced to be shown there.)

      As you will gather, I didn't think that it was too bad ... and it is certainly better than some of the very worthy (and often very boring) adaptations that I have seen of other author's works. As Andrew stated in his comment, it is very much 'inspired by' rather than 'based on', and I have viewed it in that way.

      All the best,

      Bob

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    2. Hi Bob -
      As one who, years ago, made something of a study of story adaptations from one medium to another, I am conscious that in many respects the adaptation is an entirely different story, however similar. Quite often what 'works' in one medium won't in another. Possibly Pratchett's novels just won't 'translate' without a great deal of ... 'editing', shall we say.

      Tery Pratchett's novels are stories about stories as much as anything, but there is also a lot of word play that does not appear in the dialogue. That would probably disappear in a visual medium - unless there is a voice-over. Would that work? Maybe, if the voice was Sam Vimes, and the 'Watch' stories were given a 'Noir' treatment. Come to think of it, I reckon Humphrey Bogart would have made a fine Sam Vimes...

      Cheers,
      Ion.

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    3. Archduke Piccolo (Ion),

      I once read an article by an author who sold the film rights of a novel for a large amount of money, and then complained about the way the script writers had butchered his work to fit it into a two-hour format.

      John Le Carre redrafted the story of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY and worked with the scriptwriters so that the essence of the story remained when it was filmed. He even had a bit part as an extra. That way, he managed to ensure that the film stayed as true as possible to the book and retained a lot of the original dialogue.

      I suspect that.THE WATCH would have been a better series if Terry Pratchett has still been alive … but if it encourages a new tranche of people to read his books, then it will have done something positive.

      In the TV series, Sam Vines has an Ulster accent … and once I got use to it, it seemed to fit the character. Mind you, I agree that Humphrey Bogart would have been an excellent Vimes, especially if he based his characterisation on the one he used for Charlie Allnutt in THE AFRICAN QUEEN.

      All the best,

      Bob

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  7. Having been a decade or so since I read the books in question, I think my memories were vague enough for me not to bring much baggage….seen two episodes, and happy with it so far. Bob, thanks for highlighting it. I would have missed this series without your prompt.

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    1. Martin S.,

      I’m pleased that you’ve enjoyed the first two episodes … and from what I’ve seen so far, they get better as the series progresses.

      All the best,

      Bob

      Delete

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