"Watchmen" is Worth the Watch (With Spoilers)

The main criticism of Damon Lindelof's "Watchmen" is one that I agree with. This nine-episode series was sold to us as a story about Fascist cops in masks being pitted against a group of white supremacists that had co-opted Rohrschach's ideology, with no side really being totally in the right. And the "Watchmen" series dealt with that for all of three episodes before turning its attentions elsewhere, especially when Dr. Manhattan comes into play. Oh, and the white supremacists turn out to be the totally villainous ones in the end, and we get to see them blowed up real good in the last episode. This is very disappointing, considering the heavily political nature of the original "Watchmen" comic.

In the end, "Watchmen" is more of a typical Lindelof show, about solving mysteries and getting to know a bunch of interesting characters along the way. The character spotlight episodes are easily the best ones. Also, while the politics get backgrounded, the series does a decent job of handling the themes of racial injustice and legacies of hatred. Easily the most daring and admirable choice they made was retconning the character of Hooded Justice, the first superhero in the "Watchmen" universe, to be an African-American man played by Lou Gossett Jr. and Jovan Adepo. That episode, chronicling the creation of Hooded Justice and his eventual co-option by white superheroes, was a fantastic commentary on race relations done through a typical superhero origin story.

Similarly, I found episodes centering around Agent Blake, Looking Glass, and Doctor Manhattan very strong, and loved the little weekly check-ins with Adrian Veidt (though I wish they would have made it more explicit that his story was mirroring Lady Trieu's). I like that there was room for all these different performances and facets of this universe. The show had just the right amount of bizarreness and humor (Hi Lubeman!), and enough fanservice to satisfy the old die-hard fans like me, but was never so impenetrable that a newbie couldn't enjoy it. I have to marvel at all the little details and all the little devices that the show kept from the comic - all the alternate history worldbuilding, the "Peteypedia" supplemental materials, the "American Hero Story" segments, the "Fearful Symmetry" structure, and they actually showed the goddamned squid!

This is one of the few shows where picking apart all the little minutiae was so much fun, and exactly what the creators intended for viewers to do in the first place. And sure, figuring out that Trieu was a Veidt, or that Cal was Manhattan early blunted the actual reveals a bit, but that didn't matter to the stories in the long run, because they were so well executed. And I loved seeing the "Watchmen" universe through a slightly different lens, from the viewpoint of African-American characters through their histories and their culture. Bass Reeves inspiring Will to become Hooded Justice, just as he inspired the creation of the Lone Ranger, fits so beautifully. And one little detail I can't get over is that the '70s blaxploitation version of Nite Owl in this universe is a fella called Batman.

On the other hand, I wonder if there was a little too much fanservice, a little too much game-playing. The first episode had a ton of explicit references to the comics, like the blood splatters and the smiley faces, and I'm glad those stopped quickly. However, there were replaced by the foreshadowing of future events. Did all the time spent on puns and Superman references get in the way of the writers really digging into the implications of vigilantism within the police force? Did having Blake tell a literal "brick joke" take attention from the wider implications of the government paying out racial violence reparations? I didn't want the show to solve racism, but I did feel cheated that we never got a closer look at a fascinating "what if?" situation that was outwardly the most intriguing aspect of the new series.

I think the show was a little too short, ultimately. The finale played out much too quick - we could have used another spotlight episode for Lady Trieu or Judd Crawford to address some lingering questions about their motives. Maybe I just want more of Hong Chau's understated megalomania and Don Johnson's genial ambiguity. Still, the ending saw just about every setup pay off, and I'm not about to argue that there's anything wrong with economical storytelling. The reveal about Cal initially had me skeptical, but the subsequent "A God Walks Into a Bar" was a very effective episode that told us all we need to know about Dr. Manhattan's role in this story and his relationship with Angela Abar.

And that leads us to the question, should there be a second season? I don't see why not, since Lindelof and company managed to pull off a very decent miniseries. And, as Dr. Manhattan himself put it, nothing ever ends…

Though if I had my druthers, they'd wait another thirty years to try.

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