There may not be a better time for a proper adaptation of fantasy television just keeps getting more popular, and with increasingly massive budgets going into these shows, we've reached a point of spectacle that would have been unthinkable just 30 years ago when Xena: Warrior Princess was as good as genre TV could ever hope to be. Yet with that increase in budget and quality of special effects, there has come a commensurate change in the tone of these shows as they become more and more grim.
Despite Discworld's complicated reading order, it could be the ideal choice for a shift in direction when it comes to the fantasy genre. The books' focus on themes of truth, justice, freedom, and love, have the potential to help make Disworld into a welcome entry into yet another fun, fantasy world.
Discworld Deserves A Faithful TV Show - How It Can Get It Right?
It Needs To Actually Be In A Conversation With The Source Material, Not Just Copy The Jokes
There have been three tries at making Discworld TV over the years, and they've all had flaws. In the 90s, Cosgrove Hall Animation made cartoons out of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters, which were faithful enough adaptations of their sources, but the cheap animation is almost unwatchable now, never mind that neither were ever released in high definition. The 00s brought live-action TV movies of The Colour of Magic (with some of The Light Fantastic for flavor), Hogfather, and Going Postal, which were well-received, but dull. And then there's the 2021 The Watch series, which didn't live up to expectations.
Every Terry Pratchett Adaptation Ranked (Including The Watch)
With BBC America's The Watch season 1 having come to a close, it can now be assessed alongside other adaptations of Terry Pratchett's novels.
The problem with all of these has been that they've had to make too many compromises from the original material without trying to do anything new. Of course, The Watch tried to do new things, but in doing so it made a mess of them and strayed so far from the source as to be unrecognizable. It's certainly a tricky balance for any adaptation of books to film, but Discworld has something special at its heart that, if someone can just get it right, could change the face of fantasy TV.
Now Is The Perfect Time For A Discworld TV Show That Adapts The Books Properly
Fantasy TV Is At Its Height Of Popularity So It's Time For Someone To Take It Down At The Knees
Discworld has heart and empathy in a way that no one expects it to, because they're those silly books full of characters with names like Carrot and Moist and Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler who all go on magical adventures. But those adventures have them encounter social issues like gender inequality, workers' rights, and nascent fascism. Discworld characters are alive on the page in ways that avatars of fantastical grimness like the Targaryens could never be, because the Disc's inhabitants have all the flaws and foibles of real people.
Terry Pratchett Abandoning Discworld's Original Premise Saved The Fantasy Saga
The long-running and beloved Discworld series by Terry Pratchett might not have been such a success if the author hadn't made this key change.
A good Discworld show will have to make changes and cuts to the books. That's inevitable in an adaptation, and doubly so when working with novels that are up to 40 years old. The important thing everyone has missed so far is that those changes have the opportunity to serve the story instead of underestimating its audience. Satire past a certain vintage needs to be handled with care, but this is an opportunity to breathe new life into the stories, so long as it's done by someone who understands narratives the way Sir Terry Pratchett did.