Why Watchmen Fans do not need to be worried about the HBO TV adaptation



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"Nothing ever ends," says Dr. Manhattan to Ozymandias at the end of Alan Moore's graphic novel. Written in the height of the Cold War, Watchmen took on importance only when comic adaptations took precedence over film and television amid the new US tension with Russia (not to mention a whole lot of other nations). As the current administration continues to show alongside that of Richard Nixon – who is on his fourth term as president when the graphic novel begins – is now the perfect time for a major television referee like HBO to see how Watchmen works for modern

Charging, creatively, is Damon Lindelof, the spirit behind Lost and The Leftovers. While the first was a victim of the demands of networked television, with an end (after six seasons) that the majority of fans found unsatisfactory, the latter, although little seen by the masses and almost ignored by the prices, is became a critical darling in his second and third seasons (it was the best-reviewed show on Metacritic for 2017).

Lindelof recently posted on his Instagram that the main photograph for the Watchmen pilot has wrapped up, while the last few weeks have been riddled with fascinating updates. choice from Regina King of Leftovers to Alfred Pennyworth of the CESD, Jeremy Irons. All the while, the fans did what the fans will do, and questioned all the news that was posted on the new potential series. But if you look at The Leftovers – his themes, his construction, his musical choices – Lindelof may have been born to attack the most famous and often considered unsuitable graphic novel of all time.

and The Leftovers center around a mystery … in a way. The backbone of Moore's 12 numbers may be to determine who kills the superheroes, but the answer is probably the least interesting aspect of the overall work. It's mostly because when the so-called heroes realize that it's Ozymandias who pulls the strings, it does not matter – his plan runs smoothly and the world keeps spinning. Lindelof made it clear that he does not just fit the novel, but that it makes it a "remix" with a new story, but he wants to maintain a similar feeling to the novel, look no further than The Leftovers deals with his own great mystery.

The three-season HBO series revolves around a group of normal people after an unexplained cataclysmic event in which 2% of the world's population disappears. Towards the end of the series, it becomes the mission of a determined character, Nora Durst (Carrie Coon), to investigate by herself when a suspicious group claims to be able to answer the question of what which happened. But this answer (for fans who have chosen to believe his story) does not matter, and we catch up with Nora decades later, still sad. This degree of self-torture is reminiscent of Rorschach's in the Watchmen's graphic novel: a hero driven by his own anger against the world around him, as well as himself. The difference between the two, once the two characters realize that the answer they were looking for has not changed, is that Nora chooses to go beyond her obsession in the last moments of the series, where Rorschach chooses to die in the snow. 19659009] And yet, it does not matter that the central mysteries of Watchmen and The Leftovers ultimately have little impact on history, since these revelations have no bearing on the quality of the projects as a whole. That's because Lindelof and Moore put their characters first. The return to Nite Owl's heroism and the fact that Dr. Manhattan finds himself coming back to Earth to help are far more convincing than finding out who killed the Comedian. The same thing can be said about The Leftovers, where Nora's struggle to find peace in herself (her husband and two children were part of the 2% who left) is a much more moving journey than it was to be able to find peace. learn how they could go

Way Moore built the 12 numbers of the Watchmen graphic novel, which means that some questions focus almost entirely on one character, while giving us bits of information and information. character development on the rest of the characters en route. The best example is "Chapter IV: The Watchmaker", which tells the story of Dr. Manhattan's origin – not only through accidents in a laboratory, but also across different points of his evolution from scientist to superhero. For most of his episodes (the entirety of his third season and most of his second), The Leftovers uses the same tactics to focus solely on a character and examine what they feel about the crazy world that they inhabit. Even Lost, sometimes just by flashback, but also through the events happening on the island, would spend whole episodes focusing on only one member of his whole. A series of Watchmen is a perfect way to pursue this type of storytelling, as it is already embedded in the novel's DNA and in Lindelof's previous concerts.

Another quality shared between the graphic novel and the television sensitivity of Lindelof. Moore frequently mentions popular songs from the period on the page at the end of each chapter / issue, just as Lindelof has brought peppy music to some of his most dramatic scenes (God Only Knows of the Beach Boys plays on a moment when a character must cut out his own heart). Although not only common but essential in a storyteller's toolbox, music has long been used to set the tone in various media, but Watchmen and The Leftovers use music to turn their heavy equipment into something that is often slightly, if not overtly satirical. Compared to Zack Snyder's muffled use of "Hallelujah" in the 2009 Watchmen movie, Lindelof knows how to use music to create an energy that the new stories in this universe could benefit.

But perhaps the best proof that Lindelof is the right creator for this material is his own words. The Instagram note that he wrote to anxious fans, is partly written as "The Watchmaker" in prose, jumping through the emotional moments of Lindelof's life that was preparing him to confront Watchmen.

Day 140.

A post shared by Damon (@damonlindelof) on May 22, 2018 at 11:00 AM PDT

And at this time when everything and any thing relaunch, whether fans like it or not, it's important for the quality of the work to have a mind behind that that not only likes the material, but that respects its thematic significance. Do not get me wrong, Watchmen is an important cultural work. With an artist able to draw both sneaky satirical comedy, fantasy and deeply human stories, as seen on The Leftovers, Rorschach's journal may have finally managed to find its way between the good hands. Here's all we know about the HBO series to date.

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