I admit, having been threatened by guns pointed to my face by a looter and a cop - both masked - and my neighborhood turned into a curfewed police state in the very recent past, may have made me a bit jaundiced and susceptible to the various implications and commentaries presented. But the show's radical reinterpretation and historical reframing of its own meta universe is completely in line with the original text: We all believe we're right with power unchecked. Until it's staring back at you.

This is entertainment for people who don't have to worry about racism. I'm forced to live with racism every day, so I can't help but reject a self-serious superhero show that pretends to wrestle with the topic. Even if I didn't have the aforementioned objection, this series is listless and meandering, thanks to Lindelof's signature, tedious drip-feeding of information. What's the point of this? Is it to demonstrate how ridiculous extremist progressivism is? The Boys is much more watchable.

I love the graphic novel and thought Snyder did a great job bringing it to the screen. And because 'Lost' is absolutely amazing, I'll see whatever Lindelof churns out. Neither Regina King nor anyone else in the cast is cool enough to tie Earle Haley's Rorschach's grubby shoelaces, though, and while the first season of this peculiarly overrated quasi-sequel does grow better as the narrative threads finally come together, I was never compelled to keep watching. Now go watch 'The Boys' instead.

Damon Lindelof has mastered the art of convincing everyone he is smart, without any merit whatsoever. He plants colorful thematic seeds (which never bare fruit), spins the wheels of narrative muscle-cars (which never arrive at their destination), and soliloquizes (without saying anything). Watchmen is a C-tier fan-fiction bolstered by solid acting, editing, and production but lacks an understanding of both its own thematic thrust, its source material, and devolves into parody by the end.

This show has as much to do with Alan Moore's graphic novel as Lost has to do with being stranded on a desert island.

Every detail and plot device has a meaning and it will make sense by the end. Don't skip out on what you think is the writers creating a plot device and leaving it. It's a narrative that is sprawling and it takes time to make sense of it all with the moving parts consistently moving to the pay off. Well acted by all involved in this engaging project. It truly is a one shot from beginning to end and one that pays homage to the roots it came from while also reinventing itself.

Like many powerful liberals, Lindelöf (who described himself as having been "complicit w/ white supremacy" bc words mean whatever the woke elite say they mean) thinks racist Ta Nahisi Coates is a genius for arguing EVERY black problem is the fault of racism. He makes a carefully plotted & imaginative Watchmen sequel, but its reparations time too, so he retcons 1 character & ignores Moores original ending for Dr Manhattan. If you want old faves turned into a form of reparations, this is perfect.

The Post-Trump narratives... they are finally here!

Quit after 3 episodes. Hated all 3.

As the series grows, it appears to be fleshing out a little more nicely than it originally appeared to be (which was a fascist cops, vs. white supremacists shit show). The addition of an aging Silk Spectre now turned FBI specializing in taking down vigilantes is a pretty fascinating touch as is the brilliant sociopath Adrian Veidt house of horrors. I will stick with this because Lindleof playing around in an Alan Moore world is pretty fucked up. - EDIT bumped the score up.

Meh. I was excited initially. At the end of the day, I love Damond Lindelof; Alan Moore - not so much.

I'm not sure what their goal was with having fascist McCarthy-like police as the protagonists 'cause the question now isn't who watches the Watchmen but who in the crab apples do we root for? The fascists or the white supremacists. I choose those cute baby squids.

Some giddy highs and frustrating lows mark this ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful adaptation – the performances are consistently strong (especially King, Smart and a wickedly droll Irons), and it looks terrific, alternating a gaudy 80s sheen with a sleek, clean look for the modern sequences. The attempts to shape this material into a BLM parable are heavy-handed and never really work, and the fetishization of racial violence (especially in the earlier episodes) leaves a somewhat sour taste.

Arguably a more interesting take on Moore & Gibbons' seminal novel than Snyder's 1 to 1 adaptation, but despite throwing a lot of neat ideas, cool aesthetics and timely thematics into the pop-art blender, it doesn't really come together in the end.

The worst aspects of identity politics, in movie form. Nothing to do with the original comic except for the thinnest surface level. If you have an original story - just write it! don't piggyback on a critically acclaimed story for the sake of views.

Shame they used the name of the origional. Made it 0:12:12 into the first episode. Painfully obvious and predictable. A 5 minute insult to your intelligence as 'tension' before a traffic stop that's going to go bad from the start. A world with police gun locks but no body cams? This was made in 2019 so what's the story? Are we in the watchmen world or a realistic version of the watchmen world? Why change the meaning of what Rorschach stood for (protecting the helpless) with some neo nazis? No.

Works very well up to the last couple of episodes and then it falls apart a bit mainly because it doesn't respect the original characters - remember what Jon dismissed towards the end of the book on account of Laurie - that is in direct conflict with his actions and abilities towards the show's ending. Some interesting threads opened and not followed through. Some silly characters, some awkward pacing too. Not worth the time, I'm sure Alan Moore won't like it.

Was there a payoff to the skinny dude who lubed himself up and slid through a storm-drain? If there was I missed it, I want more of that dude. Gets bonus points for the badass soundtrack. For how woke-adjacent it is, making police the force AGAINST racism seems a little tone-deaf given the state of... well, American law enforcement.

Lindelof first gave us the best TV show of the 2010s and follows it up with one of the best seasons of television in ages. Few shows manage to balance the unknown and the known as well as this. The twists come at the exact right time and you never feel underestimated as a viewer. Some episodes are so wildly inspired and artfully constructed that it brings back that all-too-fleeting feeling of pure oy after having seen something truly great. Very close to perfect television.

There still is an inherent incompatibility with plot driven narrative of Moore and happenstance/mood driven style of Lindelof. So this series fails to bring the best of both worlds and instead ends up as generic and mundane. Or you can as easily skip to last 2 episodes and lose nothing in the process.

Having seen just the 2009 film, and not having read the comics, this TV extension of the universe was a mixed bag. I found the first few episodes to be detrimentally tedious; steeped in American-American history with a self-righteous tone and aimless, slow plot. As the protagonists are fighting white-supremacists this never really goes away, and all the main characters are somewhat unlikable. The story comes does together by the end, and the show has solid acting and visuals throughout.

The final few episodes are disappointing in how "conventional" they are & how a major character is portrayed. Despite this I'd still recommend it to someone familiar with the novel; the world building and themes explored are fantastic (plus another great Reznor/Ross soundtrack). The Looking Glass + Hooded Justice episodes are stellar while the Jeremy Irons plot is one of the most bizarrely hilarious things I've seen on television.

Guess I prefer the first half -- absolutely loved the Tim Blake Nelson episode; Hooded Justice episode would be my second favorite of all -- than the second, but this is still pretty good -- not as brilliant as it thinks it is, though, but pretty good. Cast is flawless, Lindelof's vision of turning Watchmen into a weird meditation on the Trump/police state era is spot-on and it's just overall pretty fun to follow, from the well-imagined alternate reality to the actual comic book material.

High budget fanfic missing the point?

pretty good! veryyyy compelling plotwise and just storytelling wise, and has some veryyy cool sci fi concepts. specifically the kind of sci fi concepts i really appreciate! it's also a visually pretty show. as for everything else though, it's nothing too special

The second to last episode is brilliant, everything else is considerably weaker.

This was a really great TV show. The cast was excellent. Jean Smart, Yaya Abdul-Kateen II, Regina King all giving top rate performances. The story was also really good and well written.

Fails. Misses everything important in the source material. No ethical questions of who (if anyone) should mete out justice or of how the best-intentioned can go wrong ("Who watches the Watchmen?"); just cartoon racists vs liberal cops. Name-drops social issues but never shows them; dramatizes important history just to mock it with nonsense explanations and plots that go nowhere. Hangs lampshades everywhere as if that will save it. Hollywood "genius" main villain is especially boring and asinine.

Liberals please stop shittily appropriating anything anarchists do, thanks.

A continued and well done deconstruction of the superhero genre. A series that understands power dynamics.

underrated

The Watchmen comic has some truly iconic scenes, but they also get tied together in a plot that is as brilliant as it is batshit. This series certainly has some memorable moments, but the overall plot - while it certainly plays right into the zeigeist - falls flat and the last two episodes in particular felt like something straight out of a bad fanfic.

I almost quit watching so I do think it has a bit of a weak start, but redeems itself in the final two episodes, which were really exciting tv making.

This is the superhero genre as an ongoing dialogue. Better than fan service, you have to have read the material and come to class being ready to discuss it. But my enthusiasm weakens more and more when I think of the last episode which hastily ties up lots of loose threads that I was particularly enjoying having loose and which actually commits rather thoughtless sacrilege against the Holy Text. So I guess, I never really fully internalized or dealt with that.

rvw. didnt care about most of it and most of veidt until doc got poppin. treau was cool at times but wish she got the power but angela end cool too. finally seeing hooded justice shit was cool

Displays a superficial appreciation of the graphic novel, enough to make for an entertaining series. However, in the end, it clearly fails to fully understand the novel or its characters. After all, how can any meaningfully faithful adaptation or sequel to Watchmen have any semblance of a happy ending? Nor does the ending even feel like a fitting conclusion to the preceeding series, having all but dropped its earlier thematic threads (reducing the previous subtlety to just a bland "racism bad").

Season 1: I have to say that I'm a big fan of the Snyder adaptation and the graphic novel, so this series had shoes to fill. That being said, it fills them quite excellently. It truly feels like the historical continuation of the world that was left to Lindelof. The casting, direction, and story are all awesome with only slight problems here and there. Very cerebral, very interesting, very compelling.

Strong storytelling, brilliant acting, and well crafted entirety.

Just stupid. Too many reasons why to even bother going into.

TV masterpiece. Takes several episodes to get going, but once you're into it you get hooked in really deep by the drama. Everything seems confusing, until the last two episodes that piece it all together. Keeps you thinking about it for days after it's over.

Although Snyder managed to make a pseudo adaptation of the comics (which in my opinion works VERY well), Lindelof manages to take the comics and skewer it into something different and original at the same time.

I think of you don't binge it you might lose faith too early thinking it's about something else. It's pretty good, and had made new want to read the original graphic novel even more than the movie.

Season 1: 80

Well put together and performed. As it goes on plot contrivances and a crush to bring about resolutions causes some issues, but overall a very solid series.

Started out quite well apart from a few episodes then just takes a dive in nonsense land with episodes 8 and 9, with episode 9 revealing that the characters of Wade and Blake, and as a result the two episodes about them, were completely pointless.

Great show. Lots of respect to novel and an amazing storytelling with great fiction. I think s2 will be suck because they told everything they could tell. Already final scene was silly. But that again, it was great sequel for Watchmen.

After the first 8 episodes, I'm obsessed. Episode 6 sealed the deal forever. Hope Lindelof sticks the landing with the finale, I'm pretty sure he will. It's so well-plotted, even when confused, there are so many fun things to see and churn in your head. But once it comes together, it soars.