BBC America’s The Watch Is Doing Something Interesting, If Only It Would Do It Better

Despite the popularity of the idea, books are difficult to adapt for television without major shifts in format. Building on existing IP is an easy sell for most studios because of the built-in fandom, and yet, that fandom is exactly the one that can be the most alienated from the adaptation when risks are taken. In the case of BBC America’s The Watch, what began as a TV series based on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series of fantasy novels ended up as “inspired by characters created by Terry Pratchett,” which is really just one step away from not having anything to do with Discworld at all (something Pratchett himself may prefer). As someone who hasn’t read the Discworld novels but does know the 1990s CD-ROM game, there is something vaguely familiar about The Watch’s sardonic British humor. But the show’s biggest change is not gender-swapping or eliminating characters from the books, it’s the choice to set the story not in a medieval world but in a punk rock dystopia.

The eight-episode first season focuses on the misfits of The City Watch, a police organization in a city ruled by crime guilds. The guilds are regulated, though—the assassins are allowed to kill a certain number of citizens a year (and must leave receipts on the bodies), while people can schedule muggings or other thief-related activity as those guilds also fill their quotas. It leaves The Watch as a toothless organization, run by a roughshod drunk named Sam Vimes (Richard Dormer). Vimes, who is still paying emotional penance for betraying a guild member decades before, drags himself through scenes, dramatically stumbling and hitting rock bottom again and again and again. Dormer is eating all of the scenery around him with his portrayal, but it works with The Watch’s lighter and more cartoonish moments (where it’s really at its best).

Vimes teams up with Angua (Marama Corlett),a no-nonsense werewolf; Carrot (Adam Hugill), a law-abiding human who was raised by dwarves; Cheery (Jo Eaton-Kent), a glam alchemist; and the only real adult in the group, Lady Sybil Ramkin (stand-out Lara Rossi). There’s also a talking magical sword (Matt Berry), an incarnation of death (Wendell Pierce), and a man made of stone (Ralph Ineson). Plus, a wizard who turns people into couches, a miniature dragon and an assassin named “The Duke of Stab” (“Sex Party Dead” was a close second mention here, but truly the best assassin name is “Bad Steph,” formerly just known as Steph). I haven’t even mentioned the trolls who are the spiritual cousins of Holy Grail’s socialist-awakened mud farmers! All of this comes together to weave a complicated and not altogether easy to follow story about … resistance?

There are two interesting things that The Watch is doing, though. One, its Cyberpunk-y setting actually feels unique among sci-fi series, particularly in its costuming. Gender means very little—almost everyone has heavy eyeliner, piercings, dramatic hair styles and color, leather accessories, and thick-heeled boots. There’s something sort of organically queer about this world without it needing to explicitly state it. There are some glam rock influences that are particularly fun, although they juxtapose oddly with a ruling class that look ported from old episodes of Doctor Who (there are a lot of Whovian influences, including a great deal of very low-budget CG), not to mention the wizards whose garb seems leftover from the original Discworld setting and don’t make much sense here.