Watchmen on HBO trades the Cold War for the culture war, keeps superheroes
The trailer for HBO's new Watchmen series.
In 2019, it might be impossible to convey how groundbreaking the original Watchmen comic series felt and eventually proved to be. Three decades after its release in the mid '80s, unorthodox superhero pop culture has become commonplace. There's superhero fare that asks "...but what if superheroes are bad?" like The Boys. There's superhero fare that applies some version of the complicated anti-hero trope to a caped crusader, like Legion. And thanks to the fervor and discussion over some clown, you may be aware superhero movies can really be about something else or really be a different type of movie dressed in a mask.
Into this muddled landscape comes the latest unorthodox superhero take from HBO: a new version of Watchmen from Damon Lindelof, the critically beloved TV scribe behind two deeply engaging and enigmatic series that ended with vastly different levels of success. (And if you've read about TV on the Internet, there's no need to clarify The Leftovers and Lost any further).
Lindelof has gone to great lengths to make sure viewers know ahead of time that this Watchmen should not be called a reboot, adaptation, or even a reimagination. You've read his five page essay on why he chose this project, right? And this series may not necessarily do anything new in the unusual-superhero story realm, either. But Lindelof has an indisputable track record of being able to build engrossing worlds that ask massive philosophical questions, and last night's Watchmen premiere indicates that viewers have another highly dissectible and discussable journey ahead.
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