Damon Lindelof (“Lost,” “The Leftovers”) is one of the entertainment industry’s most interesting writers. Notorious for posing interesting questions and taking his sweet time to follow up, Lindelof has decided to set his sights on one of the world’s most iconic graphic novels. Lindelof is famous for deconstructing the idea of superheroes and the culture that surrounds them and thematically turns it into one of the most relevant and daring series on television, for better and for worse.
“Watchmen,” or at least what can be gathered from the first two episodes, essentially takes the very modern topic that is Black Lives Matter vs. the police and completely flips it. The series follows a secret police force in Tulsa, Oklahoma, seemingly made up of a majority of people of color. The higher ups of this police force are the “superheroes” or, very well-skilled fighters, known as the Watchmen. The Watchmen’s arch enemies are that of the 7th Cavalry, a white supremacist anti-police terrorist group. The social commentary should be obvious at this point. The controversy over this being the main tension of the show is understandable. Watchmen was political but it was never this political. The conversation about how this should be omitted is absolutely baffling considering the fact that it is easily the show’s most engaging aspect.
Episode one opens with a shocking showcase of the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, an event that baffled viewers not because of what takes place but because of the realization that it was a true event that not many people have heard of. Following this, we see a modern and more familiar event in which a black police officer pulls over a white man. Although the roles are flipped, the scene still ends in the shooting of a black man. Opening the pilot episode with these two scenes back to back throws the viewer right into the fiery passionate lens in which the show is depicting racial tensions in America. We then finally focus on our protagonists and members of the Watchmen, Angela Abar, played wonderfully by the extremely cool Regina King (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), and Judd Crawford, played charismatically by the also extremely cool Don Johnson (“Django Unchained”). We watch as these and other members of the Watchmen navigate this strange alternate America filled with classic Lindelof in-depth world building, strange foreshadowing and generally questionable, but undeniably interesting choices. The directing is where the show unfortunately falters. Whereas the “Watchmen” film directed by Zack Snyder (“Justice League”) felt less substantive due to its basic word-for-word retelling of the actually substantive graphic novel but was made up for by the incredibly crisp and striking visuals, this show aims to do the opposite by employing insanely original and memorable world building and storytelling and drops it against less than interesting visuals and a disappointingly out of place Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (“Gone Girl”) score. A part of it seems to be an intentional response to the overly dramatized visuals of the film and intelligently aims to downplay this and set it in reality to mirror the relevant themes rather than make it look cinematic for the sake of being cinematic.
However, another part of it just feels bland and uninspired, especially considering the aesthetically interesting world and constant yellows, as well as comparing it to fellow HBO shows such as “Euphoria,” “Chernobyl” and “Succession” where the visual styles were appropriately cinematic and meticulously crafted to complement their respective stories beautifully to the point where they feel like one long movie rather than just another TV show. “Watchmen,” by comparison, very much feels like the latter.
This series is so far a mixed bag. Insanely relevant themes and a solid hook, but the filmmaking is not nearly as strong as its writing and it is unclear how long its characters can hold the attention of the viewers, especially considering the less than promising episode two. Let us just hope the next few episodes give more reasons to keep the viewers coming. The hook was good but how long before this begins to wear thin and viewers begin to think their time is being wasted? Hopefully not soon.
Image from HBO via YouTube
