After a brief tease released on Instagram by Damon Lindelof, we received official confirmation that HBO has ordered a pilot and commissioned additional scripts for a television drama based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal 1986 miniseries Watchmen. Naturally, this news instantly struck a chord with diehard fans of the source material, especially those who still feel the sting of Zack Snyder’s polarizing 2009 big-screen adaptation.
Unless you’re Alan Moore, who’s famously expressed his clear disapproval of any adaptation or spinoff of his original story, you likely have a checklist of things you’d like to see in a live-action Watchmen television series, and we here at Epicstream are no different. With that being said, here are 5 things we want to see in HBO’s Watchmen series:
Give Us The Interstitial Content
One of the (many) things that makes Moore’s Watchmen so brilliant is the interstitial content that appears in the form of excerpts from newspapers and magazines, as well as Rorschach’s journal, Hollis Mason’s biography, and the pirate-themed comic-within-a-comic Tales of the Black Freighter. However, in the 2009 film, only some of these elements were utilized, and those that were only appeared in truncated form, such as the movie’s opening montage and Rorschach’s occasional inner-monologues.
While it’s understandable that much of this content was trimmed or outright omitted due to the film’s time constraints, a presumably hour-long serialized television format is the perfect vessel to allow this crucial information to receive the attention it deserves. When viewed out of context, these seemingly random tidbits add nothing of value to the overall narrative, but truthfully, it’s the very expository nature of these components – which illustrate the politics of the book’s alternate world and present larger-than-life superheroes as tragic and flawed human beings – that make Watchmen such a revolutionary and appropriately bleak story.
More Of The Minutemen
If HBO’s Watchmen series plans to stray from the source material – which it probably will if there’s going to be more than one season – Lindelof should make it a point to shine the spotlight on the original 1940s costumed adventurers known as the Minutemen, which consisted of Captain Metropolis, the original Silk Spectre, Hooded Justice, the original Nite Owl, Silhouette, Dollar Bill, Mothman, and The Comedian.
In the film, the exploits of these characters are merely shown in quick flashbacks or the aforementioned opening montage, but without the restrictive nature of a theatrical runtime to adhere to, partial, if not entire episodes can be spent exploring the lives and actions of these intriguing and – in the case of the movie – underutilized characters. Whether it’s from the original miniseries or the divisive prequel series Before Watchmen, there’s certainly no shortage of material to pull from.
Character-Centric Episodes
As alluded to in the last entry, an episodic television format could afford the Watchmen series the ability to dedicate entire episodes to specific characters should Lindelof and company choose to go that route. This means that the outstanding Doctor Manhattan-centric fourth chapter of the miniseries, “Watchmaker,” could become just that: A Doctor Manhattan-centric episode that adheres more strictly to the source material than the condensed version we got in the film.
Additionally, we could get an episode that deals primarily with Rorschach, exploring everything from his troubled upbringing to his early days as a crimefighter to his slow and calculated corruption of his own psychiatrist. And let’s not forget Ozymandias, either. The contents of his Nova Express interview from the end of chapter XI, alone, would make for an incredible episode to help viewers understand his sinister motivations.
It’s episodes like this that hook viewers in and give them reasons to become invested in a particular character, which is something the miniseries achieves so beautifully and that the television series should absolutely follow suit with.
Don’t Kill Off Rorschach
This one might be a bit of a stretch for Watchmen purists but remember – if this Watchmen series is going to be anything more than a 12-episode, one-and-done season, it’s going to need to deviate from the source material. That being said, if the series adapts Watchmen and even Before Watchmen, how would viewers respond if the show then took our favorite characters and embarked on a compelling new journey with them, save for Rorschach, because he died at the end of Season 1? Let’s face it, Rorschach is arguably the most popular and captivating character of the comic series, so to try and expand upon the original Watchmen lore without him is a mistake that we can only hope Lindelof and HBO don’t make.
At the same time, though, keeping Rorschach alive creates an entirely new predicament because the manner in which he dies – choosing to go out on his own terms rather than withhold the knowledge that Ozymandias killed millions of innocent people – is such an iconic and quintessential moment for the character. This means that the series will need some sort of deus ex machina that keeps Rorschach from becoming a bloody inkblot in the snow without undermining his strict, unwavering sense of integrity. If only there were a bald, blue, possibly-naked being with Godlike powers that could somehow intervene…
Give Us The Damn Giant Squid!
The decision to replace Ozymandias’ genetically-engineered giant squid monster with explosions that matched Doctor Manhattan’s energy signature in the Watchmen film was a move that drove a massive wedge between fans of the comics. On the one hand, it helped keep the movie a bit more grounded and in line with the tone of the narrative, but for a film that stuck so closely and faithfully to the source material in nearly every other regard, the move came as an unwelcome surprise for some moviegoers. So with that being said, just give us the damn giant squid this time around.
In the miniseries, the creature was created by Ozymandias and deployed in New York City, killing millions before dying, itself, with the purpose of uniting the U.S. and Russia against a common “alien” threat. Ultimately, Ozymandias’ plan proved to be successful, and although Zack Snyder proved that it’s also interchangeable, it would still be nice to finally see this iconic moment realized in live-action, and with HBO’s budget, that shouldn’t be a problem.
What about you? What else do you want to see from HBO’s Watchmen series? Let us know in the comments section!