SummaryThe Damon Lindelof series based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel of the same name is set in an alternative 2019, where there is no Internet, Robert Redford is president (28 years and counting), and the police wear masks to protect their identities.
SummaryThe Damon Lindelof series based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel of the same name is set in an alternative 2019, where there is no Internet, Robert Redford is president (28 years and counting), and the police wear masks to protect their identities.
Ambitious, imaginative, provocative and engrossing. ... A triumph of style and substance, it never sacrifices pace for preaching or pontificating. At least in the first six episodes made available to critics, it remains every bit as entertaining as it is intriguing.
Told through a complex and riveting mystery, a murder investigation is at the center of “Watchmen’s” first season. It’s up to Angela Abar/Sister Night to do the unraveling. King balances her divergent roles as mother, wife, friend and vigilante with a mix of grace, sincere affection and ferocity. ... After an unevenly paced premiere episode, I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this new series. But after episode two I was all in.
He’s packing a punch. Watchmen is a show that will be scoured for clues about yet-to-be-birthed fan theories, even as it’s an intrinsic provocation of the sorts of genre fans who were angered by Star Wars centering women and people of color, or outraged by the suggestion that certain superheroes, James Bond, or Hermione Granger might be black. It’s not just that Watchmen’s main character is a black woman, it’s how the new show reframes what came before it.
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.