Franklie This show was not at all what we expected. We're not familiar with Terry Pratchett's work and had his name mixed-up in our minds with Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, so it was VERY fun to occasionally hear a line in the movie that sounded very Python-ish.The writing was fantastically clever and witty. LOVED all the humor about the pins. We didn't realize it was a story with a message, several of them in fact, and very timely.We also didn't realize the show would be family-friendly, which was fantastic!! They didn't even refer to "crap" or "freakin" (or their synonyms) which most writers can't seem to avoid these days. Instead, we got to hear all sorts of fun exclamations and whatnot that just made us smile.There were some big plot holes in the type of message used in the race at the end of the show, but they're easy to overlook if you're into the spirit of the story. And we could have done w/o the sliminess of the banshee and the blind man bit.But we really really liked it and wish more shows would have this level of writing.

Robert "Going Postal" is a cringeworthy adaptation of Terry Pratchett's work for TV where every subtlety is lost, characters are utterly 2-dimensional, and music steamrolls you at every turn. Pratchett seems to have taken every cliché'd character imaginable (including the animated kitchen sink) and thrown them into a Steampunk "Christmas Carol". Vampires? Check. Werewolves? Check. Golems? Check. (And the Golem in question here is almost a direct rip-off of "Kryten" from "Red Dwarf".) But for all that "Going Postal" has that is unwelcome, it's conspicuously lacking two elements: a character that you can give a damn about, and a "McGuffin" that makes you care about what happens to them. "Going Postal" is a superficially clever premise that is utterly let down by a paper-thin script and made insufferable by treacly music and unnecessary voice-over. Give this one a WIDE miss.

dccarles First off, I thought Going Postal was an above average Discworld novel. It flowed nicely, the character development was interesting, and of course it included Pratchett's trademark similes.This production, however, was sub-par. First, though, what they got right.The special effects were adequate. The golems looked like what you'd expect a guy wearing a hundred pounds of clay-coloured latex to look like, but the clacks towers were well done, as were the swirling letters in the post office. The sets and costumes, however, were excellent. The city streets lived and breathed, and the post office was wonderfully dark and decrepit. (Moist's Postmaster hat, I noticed, improved over time as the Post Office's fortunes improved.) The script benefited from streamlining the novel's plot somewhat. Just about everywhere the plot was changed, I could see why they did so. Much of Pratchett's wit made it into the dialogue, as well as more than a few good lines that weren't in the novel. But nothing, nay, nothing can make up for the acting. I don't blame the actors here: plainly they were directed to mug like Jim Carrey having a facial spasm. So much of what was funny in the novel was made utterly cringe-inducing by being overdone. Pratchettian humour works by understatement, by the characters taking themselves and what they do seriously. Of the characters played for comedic effect only Vetinari, as far as I could see, was played straight, and not coincidentally only he survived this massacre unscathed. It might be that the program was aimed at children, and this explains the awful, awful hamhandedness. But Pratchett is lost on apparent age level they were trying to pitch to. A terrible, terrible shame, after all the thought and effort that went into the production, that the delivery was muffed so badly.

Cheesly_Amis Whoever wrote the script for this TV adaptation should have his figgin roasted and sliced into tiny pieces then given to a seagull. Also some sort of serious bodily injury would be appropriate. It appears as if he/she managed to read the book and get the general gist of the plot- line, made a note of several character names and remembered a couple of jokes that he/she obviously didn't understand and attempt to combine them all into 3 hours that bear almost no resemblance to the original book, with several random moments stolen from the book added in out of context. I do understand that not everything from the book could make it in, and budgetary constraints do... er... constrain things but they could have easily done a much better job than this.As another reviewer's already mentioned, most of the cast looked like they'd stepped out of a pantomime, the only exception (in my opinion) Tamsin Greig as Sachrissa Cripslock, Ian Bonar as Stanley Howler and Charles Dance's commanding presence as Lord Vetinari, even though his hair colour and beard weren't appropriate, but i digress. It seems ironic how unrealistic and frankly stupid the sky adaptation team seemed to make the show for a work based on an author who attempts to ingest as much realism and intelligence into his fantasy books as possible.There were 2 moments that gave me a modicum of entertainment; cries of "Heretic" towards Tamsin Greg in a Pratchettian moment not in the original book and a 2 second cameo of watchman Nobby Nobbs.I could go on about the stupid banshee costume and terrible special effects i could spend ages complaining about the fact that all the golems were identical, i could complain about the lack of trolls and dwarfs in the crowd scenes i could wonder why there were plot threads that began but were never ended but that would be as pointless as the 3 hours i wasted watching this piece of garbage.Do not watch this if you're a fan of Terry Pratchett's books, you WILL be sorely disappointed.