HBO’s 9-Episode Watchmen Miniseries Is a Modern Masterpiece

Comic-book adaptations are common, yet HBO’s nine-episode Watchmen miniseries stands apart: more a sequel than a straight adaptation, it delivers a bold, self-aware remix of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s original. Series creator Damon Lindelof pledged it would “not be retread nor recreated nor reproduced nor rebooted,” but rather remixed, and the result preserves the graphic novel’s edge while feeling like a fresh update.

Set 34 years after the comics, the show imagines Robert Redford serving seven presidential terms after Richard Nixon’s six and enacting liberal policies such as reparations, while leaving the nation far from utopia. The plot opens two years after the White Night, when the white-supremacist Seventh Kavalry attacked Tulsa on Christmas Night; most officers quit, and Detective Angela Abar (Regina King) and Chief Judd Crawford (Don Johnson) were among the few who remained.

Officers now wear masks and strict gun rules apply; masked vigilantes may return only if they work for the police.

United States, Tulsa

watchmen, hbo, damon lindelof, alan moore, dave gibbons, regina king, robert redford, seventh kavalry, white night, tulsa