Watchmen: As Envisioned by Damon Lindelof
A prescient statement on modern politics, Lindelof's reinterpretation is a slam dunk.
Hello again! Y’all ready to wrap this Watchmen Week up? Me too. Let’s get started!
Today I’ll be closing this miniseries by covering Damon Lindelof’s 2019 HBO limited series, Watchmen, which inventively was not a direct adaptation of Alan Moore’s work.
THE BRILLIANCE OF RECONTEXTUALIZATION
Existing in the same continuity of Moore’s original run but taking place a few decades later, 2019’s Watchmen excellently finds new value in the idea of extension. Through the cementing of Ozymandias’ actions to “save” the world and Rorschach’s writings being co-opted by racist factions, head writer Damon Lindelof breathes life into Moore’s distaste for the society it portrays. The only difference is time.
The updated setting and lived-in world Lindelof presents is one filled with lore from the graphic novel, but the bend he puts on it highlights core issues of the 2010’s involving police brutality and corruption, religious cultism, and institutional racism. Oddly predictive of where United States culture wars would head in the 2020’s, it’s a haunting dirty mirror that evokes the same satire and disgust of its source.
SUBTLY SLEEK
It would be easy for Lindelof and co. to flex on the visual side and build on what Snyder did ten years prior, but smartly, the series retains a minimalism that allows its themes to shine. The blocking and set design are impeccable, displaying a grounded world that has a strange tinge of the paranoia Moore and Snyder had instilled in their iterations.
However, where Lindelof finds perfection is the bold pops of color that he holds off on underscoring until pivotal character moments. As the series’ tension escalates, the palette becomes brighter and more outlandish, visually peeling back the veneer of this lie that has painted Lindelof’s world for decades. Stunningly, the yellow and blue hues mix into the slick black shades in an excitingly balanced fashion, striking a chord emotionally as much as it does viscerally.
NEW WORLD, SAME HORRORS
The writing team could have gone a far more straightforward route to tell Angela Abar’s story, and they could have disguised the mystique of her character’s history as a misdirect. Instead, Lindelof does neither, providing a fully rounded arc with implicit and explicit context. Consequently, her journey finds her toggling between internal and external conflicts that speak to a push and pull many modern-day African Americans may face.
The sixth episode of Watchmen, “This Extraordinary Being”, in addition to being one of the best hours of television of the 2010’s, doubles as a stirring indictment of white privilege, reflecting its protagonist’s anger, resentment, and pain, carrying it across generations for further introspection and dissection. It’s a harrowing feat from Lindelof, daring to call out the nation’s most disgusting sides of its history, while adhering to Moore’s demonstration of hypocrisy in our heroes and institutions.
2019’s Watchmen may not have the visual bombast of Zack Snyder’s film adaptation or feature our favorite Moore characters in their prime, but Damon Lindelof expertly binds two worlds together: the past and the future.
By immersing us into these themes and having the foresight to extrapolate them on a wider scale, it turns out to be one of the most important landmarks in modern superhero television, while also garnering its own legacy as a grand statement.
Well, there you have it! Thanks for tuning in for my thoughts on Watchmen, it’s been a great time revisiting these incredible works.
Stay tuned for a video game review of Square Enix’s Guardians of the Galaxy as Superhero Month continues. Until then…
Peace out!