HBO’s Watchmen show will premiere this Sunday night, October 20, at 9:00 p.m. EST. Coming from the mind of showrunner David Lindelof (The Leftovers, Lost), the show takes place in a world not unlike our own, but off a bit. Robert Redford is president and has been for over a decade. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, police officers are being targeted by the Seventh Kalvary, a group of domestic terrorists wearing masks modeled after the one worn by the hero Rorschach, a major character from Alan Moore’s original graphic novel. To protect themselves and their families, the police fight back by wearing masks of their own.
Lindelof’s show is set 30 years after Moore’s seminal work, and some of the characters are still around. Jeremy Irons (probably) plays Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, the villain of the original story. Jean Smart plays Agent Laurie Blake, who is probably the hero Silk Spectre. They are joined by Regina King as the masked police detective Angela Abar, aka Sister Night, and Tim Blake Nelson as a mirror-masked police detective named Looking Glass.
Now that you’re caught up, let’s see what the critics have to say about HBO’s Watchmen show.
Rolling Stone’s Alan Sepinwall calls the show a “Dazzling reinvention of a landmark comic.” That’s high praise from a respected critic.
"At times, Watchmen falls into some of the same traps that could make the first season of Leftovers so difficult to get through. The tone can be dour, the show’s visual palette frequently more muted than the material seems to demand. (The hypnotic synth score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is more up to the challenge than many of the photography choices are.) But then we’ll cut to whatever ridiculousness Jeremy Irons is up to, or alien squid will rain out of the sky (again, you kind of have to be there), and Watchmen will come to dazzling life in the same jaw-dropping manner in which Lindelof’s two previous series so often did. The sixth episode, a largely black-and-white trip back to New York in the late Thirties, unlocks the show’s secrets and themes so smartly and audaciously, it left me feeling the same visceral, disbelieving thrill I haven’t experienced since Kevin Garvey sang karaoke to escape The Leftovers‘ afterlife, if not since we found out that Lost‘s John Locke was in a wheelchair before the plane crash. It’s the best kind of magic trick, where you can’t stop wondering how they pulled it off, even as you keep applauding the end result."
After reading that, I don’t think my hype can get much higher.
Entertainment Weekly’s Darren Franich is also full of praise. “It ain’t boring,” he writes.
Here’s Franich In Franich’s review, we learn the name of the masked terrorist is “The Seventh Kalvary.” Here’s Franich’s take on the conflict between the police and the Seventh Kalvary:
"It’s a defensive necessity. Years back, the Seventh K staged a mass assault on law enforcement, onslaughting officers in their homes while they slept. Now, beat cops model bright yellow facewraps, nose-mouth-chin covered like they’re robbing banks in the Neon West. Detectives get to personalize their persona. Angela Abar (Regina King) looks like a ninja nun under her hood, so they call her Sister Night. Her colleague codenamed Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson, voice like a lonely bourbon barrel) wears a formfitting mirror reflecting the world around him, which surely must be a metaphor for something. Police Chief Crawford (Don Johnson) doesn’t have a Costume costume, but his choice of headgear is a telling nudge: a white cowboy hat is never just a hat.."
Watchmen Regina King as Angela Abar aka Sister Night in full costume. Image: HBO
Haleigh Foutch from Collider was very enthusiastic:
"Right out of the gate, Damon Lindelof’s Watchmen announces itself as a series that has some shit to say. An impressive act of world-building reverentially structured around the events of the beloved graphic novel, the new HBO series may not be what diehard fans are expecting, but it’s a vital update and doting love letter to the original that marries the spectacle of a high-profile cable budget with gripping philosophical storytelling, awards-worthy performances, and first-rate technical accomplishment across the board. And it wastes no time getting to the point."
So far, so good, but not everyone is falling over themselves in praise. Variety’s Daniel D’Addario is less impressed:
"Damon Lindelof ambitiously tackles how individual people are wrecked by history, but Watchmen lacks the focus necessary to the task. To tackle the meanness and violence of history in a truly serious way — with superheroes or with mere magnificently brave mortals telling the story — demands a focus Watchmen simply lacks, and attempts to make up for with a tone of increasing dudgeon. What Watchmen sets out to do, taking the opportunity of an artwork perceived as unadaptable and writing a whole new story, is admirable. But both that original artwork and, more crucially, this story deserve better. They deserve, perhaps, less."
Image: Watchmen/HBO
Lindelof has said he designed the series to be approachable by newcomers, but as you can tell from these reviews, there’s a lot of density. The Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman thinks some prior knowledge of Watchmen will go a long way:
"Again, the series will be utterly confusing (if visually astonishing) for newbies unless they brush up on their Watchmen backstory. That’s because the new series includes both references to and appearances by the superheroes of the original — including Irons as Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, Doctor Manhattan, Silk Spectre and others. If you didn’t know that an alien squid landed on Manhattan and prevented World War III, that the United States won the Vietnam War and Richard Nixon was never impeached (he actually served into the 1980s and was succeeded by Robert Redford, who is still president), or that even though it’s 2019 there’s no Internet or cellphones and tobacco is illegal, then you should probably do a little homework."
If you’re interested, feel free grab a copy of Moore’s novel or watch Zack Snyder’s 2009 movie to prepare for what’s looking like a TV event!
Whatever this show, it definitely does not sound boring. See you on Sunday!
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