City Watch TV series

FABRICATI DIEM, PVNC

Last week, there was an incredibly exciting rumor that a television series based on Discworld's City Watch was in development.  I did my best to take the news with more than a grain of salt, though.  These rumors get started fairly frequently, and Terry Pratchett is notoriously skeptical about his books being translated to the screen at all, let alone successfully.  But then I saw the news repeated on Pratchett's official news source*, with an admission that he had in fact started the rumor.  And today The Mary Sue posted a video of Terry Pratchett and the show's writers brainstorming about the direction of the show.

Here's the video

So now it feels more official, and I'm really starting to get excited.  The series would obviously deviate from the books.  It sounds like they're leaning more towards a crime-of-the-week structure fueled by the characters Pratchett created.  I'm (perhaps overly) confident that the show will capture the spirit and humor of the books.  And I really can't wait to see how this all turns out.  Sounds like I may only have to wait two years to see it!

If you've never read any of the Discworld novels before, there are seven books and one short story that concern the city watch.  In chronological order, they are:

• Guards! Guards! 
• Theatre of Cruelty (follow the link to read this short story in it's entirety)
• Men At Arms
• Feet of Clay
• Jingo
• The Fifth Elephant
• Night Watch
• Thud!

I've only read through Jingo, but will be moving on to The Fifth Elephant as soon as I finish Carpe Jugulum (part of a separate mini-series about The Witches). I've said before that I'm not the biggest fan of the Rincewind novels, but The City Watch books are spectacular.  They are more or less structured as traditional murder mysteries and should translate well into a crime show that plays with all of the cliches of the genre.

Basically, you should go pick up one or more of these books.  Then when the TV series comes out, I'll have people to geek out about it with!

*Here's the link to the announcement.  I can't figure out a way to perma-link to the entry itself, so this link will probably become outdated fairly quickly.