The Watch at least, watching it as a fan of Terry Pratchett’s massively best-selling
Discworld novels, on which it’s (very) loosely based is a bit like listening to two songs running at the exact same time. There’s the surface-level tune, i.e., all the things that’ve been lifted directly from Pratchett’s long-running satirical fantasy series: the names, the plot points, the orangutan librarian. And then there’s the far weirder show that’s lurking
underneath all the stuff ostensibly meant to lure the Pratchett fans in: a grungy effort that, for some reason, aspires to be the most punk-rock cop show ever made, complete with flashing neon lights, Pixies needle drops, and a liberal dosage of raised middle fingers.
The Watch
. The series debuts on Sunday, January 3, 2021.]
To bestselling fantasy author Terry Pratchett, there was no such thing as a too-obvious joke. Take his character Constable Carrot (Adam Hugill), a well-meaning young man looking to make his name in law enforcement. Pratchett’s Discworld novels explain that Carrot is human, but was raised by dwarves after his birth parents abandoned him. The joke being, he’s tall for a dwarf, which led to considerable tensions down in the mine. (See also: Will Ferrell in
Elf.) It’s a decent gag, and it shows up fairly early on in
The Watch, BBC America’s latest take on Pratchett’s work