This is not a country for heroes – a review of the series “Watchmen”

All beginnings are awkward

At the outset, I would like to point out that I belonged to the group of people to whom the word Watchmenit was associated primarily with the 2009 film and unfortunately it turned out to be a ball and chain for me. As it turned out, Zack Snyder’s vision is a bit distorted compared to the comic book original by Alan Moore and introduces a bit of confusion in the reception. It must be remembered that the producers of the series do not hide the fact that they draw from the very sources and for me, that is, a complete layman, it turned out to be quite… problematic at times. Supposedly, the series can be watched without knowing the comic book, which is confirmed by various sources, but after time I find that it is worth getting acquainted with some, even elementary, information. Nevertheless, even when we have some insight into the Alan Moore comic, we cannot be sure if we will lose the plot somewhere in the middle of the season. I will immediately correct that this is not an objection, or rather an observation. The storyline has been arranged in a coherent way and you cannot even have the slightest reservations about it. After all, it was in charge of Damon Lindelof himself, responsible in part for the seriesLost or the movie Prometheus . It could not therefore be said that the fate of the Watchmen series was in inexperienced hands. Certainty was added by the fact that the manufacturer himself was very keen to faithfully reproduce the atmosphere of the original. But what ultimately came out of these noisy announcements?

But what is this all about?

This question was with me basically from the first episode to about the sixth. The story presented in the series is dated 30 years after the events of the comic, which makes it something like a continuation of Alan Moore’s work. Why cannot be called its full continuation? Well, the plot outlined by Damon Lindelof, although it has its foundations in the comic, it is a bit next to him. There is a reason the industry talks about a kind of “remix” of both of these stories. At the beginning, I had a slightly ambivalent feeling about this procedure, because on the one hand I could focus on exploring the main line of the series, which, by the way, is also not the simplest one, but on the other hand I was missing something in all this. Oil is added to the fire by threads that, as far as I know, have nothing to do with the prototype, such as the persecution of African-American communities in the southern United States. Yes, this is a subject that should be stigmatized, but what does that have to do with the original? It must be said openly thatWatchmen is full of secrets, so each subsequent episode must be watched with redoubled attention. Of course, the farther away, the more we learn, so we meet the main black heroine who, as a masked policewoman, works with her companions to work out the supremacist organization. Simple? It just seems like that.

You don’t see everything right away

In fact, bigger fish are involved in everything, including Adrian Veidt himself and Dr. Manhattan, the heroes of the comic book original. The first dropped a giant squid on New York, and the second fled to Mars, or so it would seem. This way, we get another mystery, the solution of which, of course, is provided by the series, but I will allow myself a few secrets. If you are interested, please visit the HBO GO platform, especially since it is really worth it in the end. The number of more or less subtle references to the comic, such as the yellow police masks or the “rorschach” ones, which were worn by the members of the Seventh Cavalry, testify to the inextricable bond with the original and expand the symbolism of the series. Not without significance is also the outstanding “tik-tok” spoken by the characters, i.e. the analogy to the clock, which often appeared on the pages of the comic. The farther away, the more there is, thanks to which we gain full confidence in the strong connections between the series and Moore’s work. They also keep all these elements in mind, and you can see whyDamon Lindedof’s Watchmen is called a “remix”. The cast, in which it’s hard to pinpoint a weak link, is doing great in all this confusion.

Oklahoma!

Bez względu na to czy znamy pierwowzór, czy też nie, jednakowy pozostaje odbiór audiowizualny serialu. Zdjęcia zarówno w Tulsie, Wietnamie, podczas poznawania historii Angeli Abar, czy te w Nowym Jorku, gdy rozwinięty zostaje wątek Willa Reevesa, stoją na wysokim poziomie. “Świat Idealny”, w którym rezyduje Adrian Veidt, przez swoją idylliczność doskonale wpisuje się w ideę, która przyświecała jego stworzeniu. Należy się za to podwójne uznanie. Również efekty specjalne, jak na produkcję, która ociera się o tematykę superbohaterów, prezentują się co najmniej bardzo dobrze. Demitologizację superbohaterstwa, znaną z komiksu, widać zwłaszcza w kostiumach policjantów. Sklecone naprędce maski i stroje niektórych z nich oddają klimat oryginalnych Watchmenów. At the end, however, I left the element that was the icing on the cake for me, that is the soundtrack for which Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are responsible. Atmospheric, electronic sounds intertwine with “epoch” songs, thus creating unusual combinations. Gentlemen are a kind of guarantee of high quality, but you must see it for yourself. The soundtrack from Lindedof’s series is something I will come back to often.

How do you bite it?

Watchmen is certainly an intriguing series that can appeal to both those who know its prototype and completely new viewers. It will be especially appreciated by people who appreciate a mysterious plot with a rich “backgroud”. Nevertheless, it has its drawbacks in the form of threads that are popular today, but have little to do with the original. I understand that politics plays a big role in the history of the Watchmen comic book , but emphasizing by force little of the threads that contribute to the whole is sometimes more than irritating, and sometimes even distasteful. Not everything needs to be shown directly, it’s just a pity that the producers forgot about it this time.