Watchmen was a 12 issue comic book series which ran from September of 1986 until October of 1987. Rather than giving readers the well-adjusted noble superheroes we were accustomed to; Alan Moore painted a very dystopian picture of selfish emotionally damaged heroes. On October 20th, HBO premiered the first episode of Watchmen, a series supposedly inspired by Moore’s classic tale. Below are my thoughts on the show. Spoilers ahead.
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Instead of a story featuring Dr. Manhattan, The Comedian, Silk Spectre, or Night Owl II, the focus of the series is on an original character, Sister Night, a stealthy police detective serving a small town’s police force where all police hide their identities for fear of reprisal. We do see news reports about the superheroes in the background, but they’re there more to justify the use of the “Watchmen," label than they are to move the story forward.
The Watchmen character we saw the most of was Rorschach. Well… sort of. Replacing Rorschach, the noir-esc hero, was a cult donning Rorschach masks. We know the cult is on the wrong side of the law, but weather they’re heroes or villains is unclear. Equally unclear is their connection to the hero they’re modeled after, or if he exists at all.
It’s a textbook example of bait & switch. Imagine going to an “Avengers” movie only to have it be about Luke Cage living in a small town. The product may very well prove to be an exciting story. It’s just not the one fans, like me, tuned in to see.
Final Note:
Interestingly enough, Amazon Prime streams a dark superhero show called The Boys, which reminds me more of the Watchmen comic book than the show which bares its name.
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