Watchmen Review Round Up: What Are The Critics Saying About The New HBO Show?

Watchmen is coming to HBO as a weekly series beginning on October 20. Based on ideals and concepts from the award-winning DC comic limited series of the same name, reviews have come in for the first season of the show, and they are overwhelmingly positive.

The upcoming series takes place in a reality where masked vigilantes are outlaws, the police have to wear masks--for fear of getting attacked at home--and it's all headed by The Leftovers' and Lost's Damon Lindelof as showrunner. If you've seen the trailer for the series, then you know there is a lot of imagery taken from the comics, like Rorschach's mask.

The new series is not a reboot or a sequel, according to Lindelof. The show "will be set in the world its creators painstakingly built… but in the tradition of the work that inspired it, this new story must be original," Lindelof explained. So don't expect to see the story focused around Dr. Manhattan hanging out on Mars, narrating the events on Earth.

And so far, that seems to be paying off. As of this writing, Watchmen sits at an 84 on GameSpot's sister site Metacritic, with overwhelmingly positive reviews for the show. Aside from a mixed reaction from Variety, everyone has scored the HBO series positively. Check out a few of the reviews for the show below.

Watchmen arrives on HBO on Sunday, October 20.

GameSpot -- 9/10

The pilot is steeped in that sensibility. Sure, superheroes play a major role, and yes, there's no shortage of commentary about the complicated interplay between vigilantism and heroism, but at its heart, Episode 1 feels like the start of something truly special for fans of science fiction television.

[Full review]

TV Guide -- 4.5/5

Watchmen's world differs from ours. Beyond its superheroes and squid-induced catastrophes it's conspicuously free of cell phones and other digital devices, suggesting what 2019 might look like without those transformative devices. (Newsstands are still going strong, for starters.) But, like the book that inspired it, it's the ways Lindelof and his team of writers and directors uses this unknown to comment on the world we know that makes it so compelling.

[Full review]

IndieWire -- A

The past and present are looking at one another, and neither likes what they see. "Watchmen" asks how we move forward from there; how we evolve, how we coexist, how we trust one another again. There's no easy answer, but you’ll be shocked at how rewarding the search can be while watching this "Watchmen."

[Full review]

Entertainment Weekly -- A-

Watchmen doesn’t overdose on nostalgia, like so many franchise extensions in our reboot-soaked decade. It’s dangerous, and invigorating. Like the proverbial Space Squid, it blew my mind.

[Full review]

USA Today -- No score

"Watchmen" is at its best when it tries a little less hard to be profound and instead focuses on the fascinating and deep cast of characters. Even in an age of superheroic saturation, "Watchmen" stands out for its richly drawn characters and restrained special effects.

[Full review]

Variety -- No score

What "Watchmen" sets out to do, taking the opportunity of an artwork perceived as unadaptable and writing a whole new story, is admirable. But both that original artwork and, more crucially, this story deserve better. They deserve, perhaps, less.

[Full review]