Watchmen Episode 1 Review – Enormous Potential and a Solid Hit

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”30840″ img_size=”720×360″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

Watchmen, a brilliant 12-issue graphic novel created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons that literally changed the comic book landscape, which has spawn a blockbuster 2009 film by director Zack Snyder (which I absolutely loved) and now a new HBO series (which has said to have cost about $15 million per episode) by creator Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers) who also serves as season 1 show runner.

Lindelof has already stated that this version of Watchmen is a direct sequel to the graphic novel and takes place in the United States, in which masked vigilantes became outlawed due to their violent methods. Despite this, some masked figures join up to start a revolution, while others are out to try and stop it. This new series takes place in a fictional Tulsa, Oklahoma, 34 years after the comic book ends. In that time, a white supremacist terrorist cult group known only as The Seventh Kalvary has be created, which has been inspired by the anti-hero Rorschach, and now have all dawned the famous Rorschach mask. Also now in this troubling time all members of the police have also resulted in masking up themselves.

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”30864″ img_size=”800×450″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

This first episode starts off during the horror show of The 1921 Tulsa Race massacre (which a lot of people don’t realize is one of worst incidents of racial violence in American history) then gives a little bit of backstory before jumping to the year 2019. Now in present-day Tulsa, race relations are now at horrible breaking point, by policies placed by Robert Redford, who has now apparently been president for 28 years. We now follow Angela Abar (Regina King) a mother with three children who operates a bakery by day and spends her nights as an ass-kicking black-clad masked detective. She’s a part of a small group of cops run by Judd Crawford (Don Johnson) I gotta say this show is bold and absolutely amazing.

[/vc_column_text][vc_single_image image=”30865″ img_size=”780×438″ alignment=”center”][vc_column_text]

With great performances from King, Johnson and Irons. Nicole Kassell (The Killing, A Little Bit of Heaven) does a fantastic job behind the camera of getting the audience immersed in this incredible new series. I think Lindelof and Kassell do an amazing job at the world-building in this pilot. I’m most definitely all in on this show.

So in closing, will this show be HBO’s next game changer, probably not. But, in a world where everything is centered around comic book projects, I do think HBO Watchmen has enormous potential and will most definitely be a solid hit for fans and critics alike.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments