Watchmen premiere review: The series brings modern problems to light in a unique way
Everything you love about the graphic novel and movie comes to life in a gritty, modern way that brings the dark side of comics to life in a new and exciting way.
There is an idea of a gritty comic interpretation and then there are adaptations of Watchmen. For me, Watchmen manages to do what no other “gritty” property has been able to achieve. With an action-packed first episode, the premiere of the HBO television adaptation brings to life a modern world formed by the Watchmen alternate history.
With President Robert Redford running the country (though we do not see him in this pilot), the world is filled with masked foes and protectors. When something referred to as “The White Night” happens, Sister Night (Regina King), whose real name is Angela Abar, retires from being a police officer because the terrorists knew her face and came to attack and shoot her in her own home.
From there, the police officers wear masks to protect their families and their identities, and thus a society of masked officers versus masked terrorists is formed. Using Rorschach’s mask as a symbol for their white supremacy, a terrorist organization known as the Seventh Kalvary is overtaking Tulsa, Oklahoma.
While still in the same universe as the original graphic novel, what is interesting about the series is its ability to bring to life real-world issues in a way that is both on the nose for our current timeline, while also pinpointing what’s wrong with society at large in a new and exciting way.
Throughout the episode, we have the ominous feeling that our “heroes” — meaning the police we’re following — are not in control as they believe. The episode opens with the race riot in Tulsa, known as Black Wall Street. A small boy escapes and is one of two to survive (the other being a small baby), and we then jump to 2019, where Sister Night exists as an undercover agent for the police and works with Judd Crawford (Don Johnson), the police chief.
When Judd and Sister Night have to figure out who attempted to kill one of their police officers, they use force to discover that their hideout is a cattle ranch and attack a faction of the Seventh Kalvary using Nite Owl’s ship. Though they barely make it out alive, Judd and Sister Night celebrate with a dinner with their families, clearly friends who look out for one another.
But when Judd leaves her house, it is the last time Angela sees him because Judd, on his own, gets a flat tire and then is hung to his death by a man that is revealed to be the young boy from the Black Wall Street Massacre.
Though this episode sets up a lot of where the show seems to be going, we do get to see a glimpse of Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons). Well, a bit more than a glimpse, as Jeremy Irons is completely naked, but you get the idea.
Watchmen’s premiere is a promising look at where the show is going to take the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons creation, and I can’t wait to see what comes next.
Next. The new Watchmen trailer brings to life the world of the vigilante. dark