Watchmen
 

I am absolutely obsessed with the show so I got the novel. What should I know going in if anything? I have never really read comics or graphic novels.

it's not a satisfying or heroic story, nobody comes across as good...so it feels the most "real" of any comic I've read

I liked it a lot

the material doesn't seem suited for an episodic deal

but idk what the show is like

It’s absolutely stunning. Was a bit lost (and am still probably a little lost) but it’s set in the present and the cast/writing/directing/score are all ridiculous.

Episode 6 is one of the best things I’ve ever seen on television.

The comic is kinda a subversion of superhero-fiction tropes, so one might appreciate that aspect of it more if one is already familiar with superhero comics. But such familiarity is not necessary to enjoy it, because Watchmen is layered enough to be more than just a deconstruction of and commentary on superheroes.

I've not seen the show. Many people were complaining about how they are daring to do a sequel to Watchmen instead of "faithfully adapting it" or whatever, but like, the book still exists. It's still there for me to read it whenever I want to. I don't mind having something new.

We already have a pretty 1:1 adaptation of the book in the Zack Snyder movie, if that's what people want. They essentially used the comic as a storyboard, and just cut some stuff out for time and changed some plot elements of the third act. And even though it's a great comic, the movie is just kinda okay. Probably because what makes Watchmen great isn't just the plot, but its structure and the way it plays with the very conventions of comic-book storytelling to manipulate space and time. Transferring just the plot from one medium to another doesn't necessarily mean you've got an equally great movie, because the movie doesn't really do anything interesting or novel with the conventions of the motion-picture medium the same way the comic does with its own medium. Some stuff even comes off as hackneyed in the movie, like literally using "Ride of the Valkyries" in the Vietnam scene becayse Zack Snyder has seen Apocalypse Now once and has no imagination of his own. I honestly think the reason this was Snyder's least-bad movie is that using an existing good work as a script gave him very little room to screw anything up too badly.

I'm also seeing people complain about the new show being political because they think "the liberal media is inserting their evil SJW agenda into the comic," as if Alan Moore isn't an anarcho-communist who wrote the book to critique American solopsist imperialism and Reaganism. He literally made one of the characters a pastiche of Steve Ditko's right-wing objectivist superheroes, and casts him as a paranoid, sexually repressed, violent man who eats cold beans out of a can, doesn't shower, and has an unworkably black-and-white worldview.

Also, if you find yourself liking Watchmen and start to wonder if the prequels and sequel, Before Watchmen and Doomsday Clock are worth checking out, the answer is no. No, they are not.

I like Rorschach but why does his costume look like my parents yelling at each other

Yeah I really want to watch the show.
You don’t need to know anything special to read the comic. You could read on Wikipedia about how the characters are based on the 1960s Charlton comics heroes.

Speaking of that, anybody here read Grant Morrison's Multiversity? Each issue takes place on an alternate earth, and the issue he did with Frank Quietly, "Pax Americana," takes place on this alternate earth with the Charlton Comics characters. However, just as Moore's Watchmen characters were all pastiches to Charlton characters, the versions of the Charlton characters on this Earth are all pastiches of the Watchmen characters.

The comic has a reverse-chronological Memento-like structure. It's kind of a love-letter to Watchmen, in that it also plays with the conveyance of space and time through the conventions of comics (there's one spread page where Quietly takes the contiguous space of a single room, but slices it into three different points in time; it's hard to explain, but it's pretty cool). But as much as it's a loving homage to Watchmen, it's also a bit of a critique, as Morrison seems to suggest that Moore's highly structured approach renders his work somewhat clinical and sterile. This is illustrated by a scene where Captain Atom (whom Doctor Manhattan was based on) uses his god-like powers to painstakingly deconstruct and unravel his childhood dog piece by piece, and then put him back together, only to lament that "it's not the same."

the comic is great to know when watching the TV show. I can't image what the show is like for someone who's not read the comic.

The comic is so very cold war. The idea of of super heroes being corruptible and even awful is so common now in comics and movies that reading it today it's hard to remember that when it came out Watchmen was unique.
Bi
At the time i liked the Snyder movie. Now, not so much. It's basically an emotionless Billy Corgan music video

I was very lost for a while!

I feel like the major plot points of the comic have been spoiled for me which is too bad

Damn the dr Manhattan and Rorschach chapters are insane. Can’t believe I’m not even halfway through!

Finished the book and watched the movie. Movie was not great.

Oh, man. I love the movie, it’s like a shot for shot remake of the comic!

Anyway, the TV show is amazing and I cannot believe HBO is putting it out there. The level of racial tension is something else...I mean, the first person lynching scene was crazy.

Either way, I love the TV show and I want so much more.

Is this not the best show nobody is watching?

lol metal

Without understanding one iota of what made the comic good!

the 2 & a half star rating on Amazon probably isn't helping matters

It can't be the best show if it doesn't have Baby Yoda in it.

episode 4 was corny af even though the seven samurai influence was cool

best part of this series is the ending credits illustrations.

Oh, shut the fuck up edgelord

Well, the neckbeards hate it

i've heard the co-creator wasn't too fond of it either, but that seemed more like a "Stephen King hating Kubrick's Shining" situation so i didn't pay much mind

Alan Moore hates absolutely everything. I’m really surprised he hates it. It is pushing boundaries on racial relations in media.

Also having a show set somewhere else besides NY, LA, Chicago and Atlanta is fucking FREEING.

Yes, the person who didn't like the Zack Snyder movie is the edgelord

digging the show. gonna read the graphic novel ASAP.

Sorry that I’m not edgy enough to hate the Watchmen movie because it presented Rorschach as he was in the comic.

People like you are cancer to media.

The graphic novel is top tier. Just know what you’re getting into.

it just didn't translate all that interestingly to film as DK pointed out because lost in translation was the way in which the material was physically presented in the graphic novel

having not read the graphic novel i remember it being a decent film, especially in the midst of the increasingly straightforward superhero movies flooding out at that point

Jesus christ dude, way to be butthurt about someone's opinion

who is this "jesus christ dude"?

It’s a soundgarden song

Did you know Zack Snyder has multiple swords in his office

Are you one of those "Release the Snyder cut" people while also claiming not to be an edgelord yourself, because buddy,

FREE ZACK SHNYDER

Q: What's your dad's hobby?
A: Watchmen



:rofl:

the last two episodes were very good

It doesn't look like there's a plan for a second season :(




"I haven’t had any ideas of what subsequent series of Watchmen would be. Until those ideas come, I’m content with just letting this one sit out there for a while."


https://metro.co.uk/2019/11/17/watch...time-11170978/