Showrunner: Damon Lindelof
Starring: Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Andrew Howard, Jacob Ming-Trent, Tom Mison, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, Louis Gossett Jr., Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, and Hong Chau
WARNING: There are SPOILERS for Watchmen Season 1 in this review.
‘Who watches the Watchmen?’ I hear you ask. Answer: everybody should have watched HBO’s Watchmen because it was the best show on TV.
The show was created by Damon Lindelof, who’s famous for having been behind such shows as Lost and The Leftovers. He also helped write Star Trek, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Prometheus, World War Z and a whole load of other movies which include the not-so-good Cowboys & Aliens.
He’s had a pretty interesting career, but it wasn’t really until he made The Leftovers that people really started to take notice of Lindelof as being one of the greatest writers working in Hollywood today.
You see, Lindelof was very busy and wrote a lot of stuff, but there were often issues with the final products he was attached to, and it wasn’t until he got to make The Leftovers that people saw what Lindelof was capable of if left alone to his own devices.
He’s only bolstered his cachée as being one of the best writers, showrunners and all-round storytellers with his latest show for HBO, Watchmen.
The show takes place after the events of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic graphic novel in which masked vigilantes exist in a world in which Richard Nixon never left office in the United States.
Who should watch the Watchmen? Everybody
Regina King as Sister Knight in Watchmen Season 1 – Credit: HBO
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Set 34 years after the events of the graphic novel, Watchmen takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma where a white supremacist group called the Seventh Kavalry, inspired by Rorschach’s diary writings and his unique masked image, wage war against minorities.
They specifically target the police force and end up attacking 40 police officers’ homes on Christmas Eve 2016.
One of those offices is Angela Abar (played by Regina King) who manages somehow to survive the attack.
After that night, which was later named the White Night, Angela and the remaining police force are forced to hide their faces with yellow masks as a means to protect their identities.
This included certain costumed detectives, including Angela, who then goes by the name of Sister Knight and she has to keep her identity a secret from everybody.
That’s the beginning premise of the show and I really don’t want to spoil anything that happens in it. It’s about all you need to know to be honest.
What’s so good about Watchmen is the storytelling. It’s a real masterclass of how to tell a powerful, effective and important story in the realms of a TV show.
Watchmen Season 1 is storytelling perfection
Watchmen Season 1 also looks and sounds great – Credit: HBO
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It’s really something to behold. The excellent writing is backed up by equally impressive acting and direction.
When finishing the season, you realise that every tiny story beat in the show was deliberate and served a purpose.
There were no loose ends and there were clues peppered throughout the whole show as to how it was all going to end.
That’s the real genius of Watchmen, and I don’t use that word lightly. This show is pure genius.
I’ve never before watched such a meticulously crafted season of television. The whole show is a story in itself, which is probably why Lindelof has said he doesn’t really want to do a Season 2.
It makes sense. They had one story they wanted to tell, and they told it in one season.
HBO might not be so happy about this. Of course, they’d love to greenlight a second season because it gained a pretty large audience and was heralded as one of the best shows of 2019.
Watchmen Season 1 is one of the best shows of 2019
Damon Lindelof created a masterpiece with Watchmen Season 1 – Credit: HBO
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However, I really do respect Lindelof’s decision to keep it to one season, and that just makes me love Watchmen even more.
It’s a beautifully told and perfectly contained story which really does deserve to be seen by everybody.
Granted, it might be a bit hard to follow if you have no prior knowledge of the comic or even Zack Snyder’s movie. However, I think that even people who knew nothing about Watchmen before this series will get something out of it.
Certain episodes within the first season I would say are genuine masterpieces. I’m thinking specifically of the show’s sixth episode, This Extraordinary Being, which is a flashback episode unlike any other I’ve seen before.
If you haven’t seen Watchmen yet, I would highly recommend you do. I’ve really tried to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but that’s not always easy.
Have you watched Watchmen Season 1 yet, and if so, what did you think of it? Let us know in the comments below.
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British propaganda revision of American Anthropology And History in bad attempted British comic form. Too bad for the British makers of this British gayboy propaganda junk aimed at America and American Children that America never read their crappy knockoff comic just like them and America will never see their garbage movie EVER!! Watch THAT, sir king elizabeth!!