Serializing Watchmen for HBO offered showrunner Damon Lindelof and his co-writers ample opportunity to lose their way. Lindelof is no stranger to twisty ever-expanding, extra-dimensional fantasy worldbuilding, but that doesn’t mean he always knows how to navigate his way through and back effectively. After what many dedicated fans viewed as an unsatisfying close to his breakthrough series Lost, wariness for plot-holes, loose-ends, and arbitrary storytelling have dogged the Lindelof brand. Devotees of the 1980s Alan Moore comic watched with bated breath as Lindelof took the reins of the Watchmen IP, fearing a renewed bastardization of their cherished lore after Zack Snyder’s regrettable 2009 film adaptation.
No one was expecting what Lindelof was to do with the material. His Watchmen is neither strictly an adaptation nor a sequel. It most closely resembles an extremely expensive piece of fanfiction, picking up threads from the comics, innuendos and possibilities not yet fully explored, while extending the world to include new characters and scenarios. Although generous with flashbacks and nonlinear narrative structures, the show mainly takes place in the present-day, which is about thirty years after the events of the comic books. Vietnam is the fifty-first state, and Robert Redford is the president (yes, that Robert Redford). This alternate America has made amends for some very real…
