Prando

Huge fan of the books and the series continues to track fairly closely to the original stories' narrative and themes. Where they vary, the changes are (almost uniquely in book->tv development) generally strengthen the storyline. Strong characters and clear narrative progression of the story, coupled with unbelievably high production values make this a not-to-be missed viewing experience for any sci-fi (and most drama) fan. The show demonstrates that 'hard science' fiction (that is 'realistic', science-based fiction) has a good audience when done well. Most science fiction that makes it into TV production relies completely on the drama and tension between characters, often at the expense of the science fiction elements themselves and so are more correctly considered as 'drama of the week in space'. In The Expanse series, space itself is almost another character in the story, even to the point of allowing story development to slow at times(mostly successfully)due to the issues with communication, travel and distances involved.

This show just goes from strength to strength in character development and story telling. It is a genuine masterclass of how to bring an old story into the modern day. For those familiar with the original Karate Kid movies, the storylines are familiar and engaging. You become aware once viewing episodes of Cobra Kai of how two-dimensional the original movie characters were and how simplistic the story themes were. In the CK show, the characters are nuanced and well developed, with backstory development and different perspectives - Zabka's performance as Johnny is fantastic and you can't help rooting for the guy as he bumbles through life. While Macchio's 'Daniel' is a much richer and less likeable character in many ways, both are so much more fully realised and human and that is just the start. By series 3, even the wholly 'bad guy' Kreese has a fuller backstory and is becoming more understandable in his motivation, if not likeable. Series 1 introduces the characters and in many ways parallels the original movie for the modern audience, with many new characters. Series 2 is where things really get interesting in term of the development of new storylines for characters and series 3 keeps the tension at the same high levels. This is probably the only show left that I would (and did) binge from start to finish the day it is released.

As a lover of Terry Pratchett stories, this proved a very hard series to watch, the butchering of core characters alone should be a criminal offence to literature. The few positives? - Fantastic production values in place, Ankh-Morpork (the city the series is set in) is very well realised. Terry Pratchett stories are inherently difficult to develop into visual media such as TV. Generally there is far to much going on and the stories themselves consist of intelligent and often subversive themes deceptively simply laid on often familiar frameworks - Pratchett went through a phase of creating his stories on some of Shakespeare's plays for example,and still managed to develop uniquely original stories. Unfortunately all of this was clearly well above the heads of those who developed the Watch, they had absolutely no concept of what the stories are about so they didn't try to find out. So this series offers a difficult viewing experience to any of Pratchett's fans, while being fairly incomprehensible to those unfamiliar tot he original stories. This series is a classic example of why American productions of British humour, rarely, if ever, work. In simplfying the story for the US audience, most of what makes the origin stories great is lost. The Watch is the conglomeration of a number of Pratchett's novels about the titular Night Watch, a ragtag bunch of losers in the first story, who evolve into a extremely competent and potent law agency over a series of novels (in simplest terms)and who are deeply embedded into the latter world-building of Pratchett's 'Discworld' series. Ignore the series, read the books.

I think the overall impression here is 'lazy' - lazy story adaption, lazy storyline development, lazy and minimal character development. There is a solid cast here, woefully under-utilised. Great production values. So a lot of missed potential, along with a clear lack of comprehension of what the core themes of the origin story actually were in the minds of those developing and writing the series. The mindblowing editorial decision to chop back and forth in time makes little sense and badly damages the narrative, removes any sense of drama and prevents any sense of the stakes in the story. It is impossible to see what the purpose of this timeshifting is - it alienates those familiar with the original story and miniseries, while preventing new/casual viewers from engaging with the new series. Also unfortunately, too many audience 'critics' are getting bogged down in their own personal and childish 'we hate Amber Heard' tantrums online instead of considering the actual faults of the series itself.