Going Postal

[Edvarius]

Link to part 1: http://www.sfdebris.com/videos/tv/goingpostal1.php

I've loved a lot of the Discworld novels I've read, so while I haven't seen this adaptation it's certainly got my attention now. Out of curiosity, did this adaptation explain the part about how the mail sorted was made by Bloody Stupid Johnson, who thought that pi was too messy and so made it just 3 in all of the workings of his sorter?

EDIT: and now a link to part 2: http://www.sfdebris.com/videos/tv/goingpostal2.php

[DanteC]

Wondering if part 2 will have a clip from the show that made Richard Coyle famous (Moist von Lipwig
's actor), Coupling, in it.

[Dînadan]

Link to part 1: http://www.sfdebris.com/videos/tv/goingpostal1.php

I've loved a lot of the Discworld novels I've read, so while I haven't seen this adaptation it's certainly got my attention now. Out of curiosity, did this adaptation explain the part about how the mail sorted was made by Bloody Stupid Johnson, who thought that pi was too messy and so made it just 3 in all of the workings of his sorter?

Been a while since I've seen it, but I don't recall it mentioning Bloody Stupid Johnson, or even the mail sorter for that matter; presumably it was cut to avoid digressing, which is a pity as the footnotes and asides are some of the funniest material in the Discworld books.

In some ways it's a pity there haven't been more adaptions of the books as I would love seeing Chuck tackling them. Although he has reviewed other books before, so I suppose it's not out of the real of possibility for him reviewing the actual books at some point.

[DanteC]

There's been animated adaptions of some of the books, so that's always an option.

[Dînadan]

Not sure if it apocryphal or not, but I believe that years ago there was an adaption of Mort planned, but Pratchet pulled the plug when the people producing it wanted to write Death out of it. Regardless of what you think of the changes in this Going Postal adaption (and the adaptions of Hogfather and Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic by the same people) I'm sure we can all agree they're trivial compared to wanting to write Death out of a story whose premise is a kid becoming Death's Apprentice!

[Madner Kami]

What could have gone wrong? *facepalm*

[griffeytrek]

Of these three adaptions I really HATE this one. Going Postal is one of the better books. It's not just that this movie/tv show changes things from the book. It's that it entirely changes the tone, messaging and characters in so doing it. And it's weird. Hogfather was an almost word for word straight up adaption of the book. Very very little altered. In some ways that was its weakness as they essentially filmed the book and made no real accommodations to the change in medium. Whereas the going postal live action feels like the script was written and directed by someone who had had the book described to him, but hadn't actually bothered to read it.

[Eruvadhril]

This adaptation does a real disservice to Adora Belle, I think. Not only the scene where Moist Drove Her To Take Up Smoking Oh The Horror, but the nonsense where Reacher Gilt invokes the rom-com mid-point misunderstanding at the restaurant and she's stupid enough to fall for it. And then there's the other smoking-related bit at the end of part two, which, no. Adora Belle Dearheart smokes because she enjoys it, it is not a symptom of her tragic past or something that needs to be ~cured by the love of a good man~. Adora Belle Dearheart does not need to be fixed.

There's also the matter of where they trimmed down dialogue- specifically, where they deliver a line that book-readers will recognise as the setup to a joke, but then leave out the punchline. Or worse, when they deliver the punchline because they knew it was "a funny bit", but don't give the setup beforehand.

[Mickey_Rat15]

I am not sure what would be the best way to fix the introduction to Discworld. At this point in the series the books are rather self-referential. Which is a great thing when you have read the most of the series, but I wondered what a new reader thought of the inside jokes. On the other hand, print is a medium where one can get away with that as you have more space to explain things, a screenplay is does not have that luxury.

Why are there two massive stone lions in Lord Vetinari's office? Ankh-Morpork's national animals are hippos!

Tell the Commander of the Night Watch, that Corporal Littlebottom shall not be armed with a crossbow in Lord Vetinari's presence, it puts the Patrician inexplicably on edge.

[Nevix]

Link to part 1: http://www.sfdebris.com/videos/tv/goingpostal1.php

I've loved a lot of the Discworld novels I've read, so while I haven't seen this adaptation it's certainly got my attention now. Out of curiosity, did this adaptation explain the part about how the mail sorted was made by Bloody Stupid Johnson, who thought that pi was too messy and so made it just 3 in all of the workings of his sorter?

From the looks of it, no.

I think the whole BS Johnson/Impossible Sorter thing was cut, as the wraith killer died by getting tossed into the sorter, not burned by angry mail.

Also, I think they cut the Postal Golem who was waiting for the universe to start over again to deliver his message in time, who got exploded/killed by a combination of heat from the fire and cold water from a water tower.

Too many a number of the little details were changed, especially the implications that Adora Belle was Anoia, the goddess of annoyance and things stuck in drawers.

It's obvious that the person adapting the book to the movie didn't quite get Discworld/Terry Pratchett's deft humor.

I might be "meh" on the Discworld series as a whole, now that I've grown up more and changed, and now that I can see a certain level of bitter cynicism at the core of Discworld... But I still think they're all very well written, and frequently both hilarious and insightful in many ways, and I want to see them get very high quality adaptations, instead of lackluster ones like Going Postal.