Going Postal on Sky

[Kittycat1977]

Kittycat, which Sky?

I think it is Sky1. Will check tonight when I get home.

[sheilaj]

Finally got a few spare hours in which to watch this, thanks to Sky+.

I have to say, I was very impressed with the show and thought it was several orders of magnitude better then the previous two mini-series Sky have been involved in. I thought that Hogfather was a bitter disappointment and CoM/TLF could and should have been far better than it was, but was ruined by train wreck levels of bad casting.

Going Postal on the other hand, was the first time I've seen a TP book adapted to the screen wherein the actors actually capture the essence of the characters they're portraying (with one exception, more on that below). Richard Coyle played a man coming to terms with the enormity of his previous crimes perfectly, David Suchet was his usual exuberant self, Claire Foy was magnificent as Adora and Charles Dance was a revelation as Vetinari. Andrew Sachs was better than he's been in years as Groat and Ian Bonar was equally good as the awkward Stanley. I thought all of the main characters were portrayed with uniform excellence. Even the tweaking of Mr Pump made perfect sense within the way was story was told on screen.

As far as plot goes, there were some pretty obvious changes from the book. The Sorting Machine in particular was conspicuous by its absence, but I don't think that in any way detracted from the main story. The Sorting Machine was never more than a MacGuffin to begin with, the real story of Going Postal is Moist von Lipwig and his gradual transformation from selfish, arrogant thief, to principled, cocky smart arse who wants to atone for past wrongs.

In the books this takes place in a reluctant internal monologue; Moist can barely admit to himself, let alone others, that he's ready and willing to seek redemption. That sort of thing just doesn't work on screen, as anyone who's seen the original cut of Bladerunner with its droning voice over will tell you. Because of this, Mr Pump becomes a strange Jiminy Cricket style character, constantly prodding at Moist and reminding him of who he was previously and what he had done, while the letters become a sort of Greek Chorus on Moist's past crimes. Choices which I thought worked very well for a screen adaptation of a book which takes place mostly inside the head of a character whose internal monologues are totally at odds with his external actions. Moist is an unreliable narrator of his own behaviour in the novel, lacking the self awareness to fully understand his own feelings and actions. In order for him to be a believable lead character on screen, this process needs to take place externally. The telly is a visual and visceral medium, after all. That's why the X Factor gets higher ratings than Steven Poliakoff dramas.

There were other changes, bits and bobs of cutting and pasting. Moving the order scenes happen in, tweaking characters to better fit an entirely different medium of storytelling or their canonical physical appearance to suit the right actor to capture the essence of said character, keeping the budget at sensible levels, time restraints, pacing and so on and so forth. All of them made perfect storytelling sense to me, with one glaring exception... The fact that Angua changed in front of other people. This seems to have been done purely to squeeze in a werewolf effects shot and leaves some glaring holes, should any City Watch book be adapted in the future.

Did it stick faithfully 100% to the book? Nope, but if you want the book, then read the book. Did it actually bring to a thoroughly different medium the essence of the book's story and plot? With resounding success, I thought.

Overall, a 9/10 would be my mark. Far better than the 3 I would give Hogfather, or the 5 I would give CoM.

I accept that I'm not going to get the book, But I don't want to knock back a huge mouthful of chocolate milkshake and find that its strawberry cunningly labelled as chocolate.

[poohcarrot]

Aha! But some people like strawberry just as much as chocolate, and wouldn't mind if the two were switched.

[mariekni]

Both part 1 and part 2 are on sky anytime at the moment so if it isn't repeated anyone who's missed it over here can at least watch it on there

or there is this on the online sky player.

LINK

[Tonyblack]

I shortened that link for you Marie as it was stretching the screen.

[janet]

Okaaay....I don't have Sky or any other extra-terrestrial TV stuff, my computer runs on Windows XP quite nicely (usually), but the link just sent me to Windows Silverlight, which is a free installation but I'm still none the wiser. Why did I think the link would enable me to see stuff on Sky etc.....sorry......had a bad day......I'm a banana....

[Tonyblack]

Okaaay....I don't have Sky or any other extra-terrestrial TV stuff, my computer runs on Windows XP quite nicely (usually), but the link just sent me to Windows Silverlight, which is a free installation but I'm still none the wiser. Why did I think the link would enable me to see stuff on Sky etc.....sorry......had a bad day......I'm a banana....

I think you still have to have SKY to be able to watch the episodes on the link.

Probably a case of waiting until it comes out on DVD I'm afraid.

[janet]

Bananas have no concept of current technology and I bow to your judgement Tony!
Happy to wait and watch the 'Marmite' debate develop....ie. seems that either folks love the adaptation of 'Going Postal' or hate it!
I found that 'Hogfather' actually grew on me with repeat watchings but that may have been the result of being frozen indoors for 3 months over the winter and not enough domestic chores or creative hobbies to occupy my mind (a plague on daytime TV )

[Who's Wee Dug]

As far as I know so far the next film adaption is going to be Sourcery and not Making Money which will follow.

I hope David Janson is not cast as Rincewind again.

[janet]

Agree with that, Who's Wee Dug. Jason was borderline-too-old for COM. I'd like to see someone younger take the part of Rincewind next time......but then the books do not really indicate what age he's supposed to be. He's a whizz in later books (Unseen Academicals) which would preclude someone of mature years.....unless the magic conquers.

[mspanners]

Of the 3 made by Sky the ONLY one that I find hard to watch was The Colour of Magic and this mainly because I found the way the the actors and writers butchered the story line.

The Colour of Magic was a conglomerate of the first Two books chopped up, MAJOR episodes in these books ditched and the rest crammed into the show with obvious time/cash constraints involved.

A shame because there were some very good parts to the show, the sets were really good and the film had some genuinely hilarious parts (the man who was trying to beat out the flames on His back in the back ground outside the Drum Inn during RIncewind and Twoflowers conversation was a good cameo for example).....BUT...

Well Rincewind trying to commit suicide? Really? THe wizard who would run through fire to avoid DEATH..... and from all the pre Sky art work and books I have seen or read He is either a Young or Middle aged tall skinny man. not a short dumpy pensioner............and I could go on but wont.

OK the other two shows have had a re-write but I think they have stuck closer to the sprit of the Books and I think benefit from being well acted and not being based on Two books being crammed into the time slot that one of Terry's just fits in....

The Hogfather and Going Postal are Defiantly the better of the Trio!

[meerkat]

Michael Sheen was on the one show sporting a beard. I though with longer hair he would look good as Riccewind!

[ladyramkin]

I'd be happy with that. Anyone but David Jason.

[Who's Wee Dug]

Going Postal has a good write up in the Daily Mail gave it 5* I will leave it to Tony to put the link in.

[poohcarrot]

That's because recently, TP let the Daily Mail have an exclusive story from TP about the "Secret of his success"

Fair swap!