Watchmen (2019)

I can’t remember what I had going on when this miniseries was initially airing, why I didn’t take the time to pick it up, but I didn’t get around to it until recently. I thought the original comic story was flawed but fascinating, and this adaptation is one of the boldest that I’ve ever encountered, using the source material as a jumping-off point to tell its own story set in the same world.

Set decades after the Watchmen comic, we follow characters through a world that’s been shaped by what came before it. There are special recording booths to send messages to Doctor Manhattan on Mars, commuters treat a downpour of tiny alien squids as a minor weather event, and the only masked crime-fighters around are on the police force. Angela Abar works anonymously as a police officer, the costumed Sister Night. A mysterious death and the arrival of a strange man leads Angela to investigate the Seventh Kavalry militia and unlock the secrets of her own past.

I realize I’m more than a year-and-a-half late on all the discourse for this show, so I can’t really say anything that hasn’t already been said. I love that the miniseries doesn’t adapt the story of the comic for modern times – instead, it extrapolates a new story using the information we have about this world, in which the events of Watchmen the comic are history that informs life in Watchmen the series. Laurie, the young woman scarred by her connections to the hero world, is now a hard-nosed investigator with little time for costumed heroics, and Adrian Veidt, once touted as “the smartest man in the world,” now works to fill his days in exile in a mysterious locale. Other characters from the comic are referenced rather than shown, such as the Seventh Kavalry wearing Rorschach masks, while plenty of the major characters in the series weren’t in the comic at all.

Just as the miniseries tells its own story, it also uses the backdrop of the comic to explore its own themes. We still get into the nature of humans, of heroes, of symbols, of powers, of how society views heroes and the effect of larger-than-life threats on the populace. But while the comic was written near the tail end of the Cold War and employed its superhero premise to explore the threat of nuclear war, the miniseries uses that same premise to examine the threat of white supremacy. From its opening scenes depicting the ravages of the Tulsa Massacre, it’s clear that this is a political show with something to say about racism, violence, and America, in history as well as in the present.

You probably don’t need me to tell you that this is a cool, engrossing show, albeit a dark and disturbing one. Its big swings don’t always land, but plenty of its risks pay off, and the ideas it puts forth are backed up by fantastically-good visuals and masterful acting. Regina King tears it up as Angela from start to finish, and her fantastic performance is joined by the likes of Jean Smart, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Hong Chau, and Jeremy Irons. I’m also really impressed by Tim Blake Nelson, who plays a colleague of Angela’s, Don Johnson is great in a smaller role, and the show also features Tom Mison and James Wolk, who I loved in Sleepy Hollow and The Crazy Ones, respectively.

Warnings

Strong thematic elements, strong violence (including lynching and references to rape,) sexual content, language (including slurs,) drinking/smoking, and disturbing images.