Just finished watching “Going Postal”…

…on Blu-Ray, and it was very good.  It’s based on the Discworld book by the same name by Terry Pratchett, and it turned out to be a reasonably good adaptation of the novel*; the characters (and actors) were engaging, the quasi-Victorian sets were excellent and the original book’s themes about technology, innovation, and how both can be pretty cool came across pretty well.  I liked it: check it out.  If you’re a Terry Pratchett fan, you should like this.

And if you’re not a Terry Pratchett fan already… well.  There are a lot of people out there with your condition, and many of them go on to live reasonably full and meaningful lives.  So, you shouldn’t give up hope, or anything.

Moe Lane

*Short version: the hero is a conman who is ‘hired’ by the most brilliant politician in Western literature to resurrect a fantasy city-state’s post office system from the financial oblivion that arose from the introduction of a steampunk clockworkpunk stringpunk equivalent of the early telegraph/internet system.

Yes, I know. But it was written by Terry Pratchett. So it’s good. It’s really, really good.

7 thoughts on “Just finished watching “Going Postal”…”

  1. I’ve been reading (and enjoying) your posts here and on redstate for awhile but have not commented before, but here I go.

    I hated this movie. I LOVE terry Pratchett. I’ve loved his works for about a decade now. I have every Pratchett movie on DVD – I loved Hogfather and the Color of Magic – but Going Postal (which is my favorite book) is the worst of the lot. I could really rant about all the things they just plain screwed up in this one, but it would take to long. Read the book; and, semaphore towers where real (not quite as techy as in GP, but real.) and the post office was dead long before the grand trunk was invented, it was just the increasing costs of the semaphore towers that lead to V’s wanting to reopen the post office.

    YMMV.

  2. So, comments that disagree with you get deleted – even if they are polite about it? No room for consenting opinions?

    1. Actually, I just hold all first comments for review.

      I am, however, putting you on auto-spam for your second comment, which demonstrated quite nicely that you’re a bit of a dick.

  3. On the fifth day the Governor of the town called all the tribal chieftains to an audience in the market square, to hear their grievances. He didn’t always do anything about them, but at least they got heard, and he nodded a lot, and everyone felt better about it at least until they got home. This is politics.
    — Carpet politics are very similar to Discworld politics (Terry Pratchett, The Carpet People)

    Love Pratchett. My favorite of his was a collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Good Omens (a humorous look take on the Apocalypse). I’ve given away numerous copies.

  5. I liked Colour of Magic and Going Postal in both book and movie form…I did not think Hogfather worked well as a movie… I agree re: Good Omens…a must read!

  6. Because of your post my husband & I just watched “Going Postal” on iTunes and enjoyed it immensely – the only disappiontment being there aren’t any other episodes to watch. Thanks for introducing us to Discworld!

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