HBO’s Emmy-Sweeping ‘Watchmen’ Miniseries Is Better Than Zack Snyder’s Take

The Big Picture

• HBO’s Watchmen series successfully captures the nuanced themes and social critiques of Alan Moore’s original comic.
• The series updates the story for the modern era, delving deeper into relevant issues such as racism and the negative impacts of scientific progress.
• The representation of a diverse cast in the series highlights the importance of giving marginalized communities a voice and addresses the failures of institutions to provide equity.

Adapting a beloved piece of media is always risky, with creators facing the ire of a franchise’s fans if they aren’t successful in re-capturing the original’s magic or if they make too many changes. Zack Snyder‘s 2009 film Watchmen, adapted from the acclaimed comic by Alan Moore, was a valiant attempt to bring this historic piece of media to the screen. And while the director was relatively successful in transitioning this story (focusing on the darkness a world with superheroes would entail) into a new medium, it’s unfortunate how so much of this movie fails to capture the nuances and complex portrayals of the source material.

The failures of this attempt were highlighted even further when 2019’s Watchmen from Damon Lindelof premiered on HBO. This new telling (which earned 11 Emmys) not only embodies Moore’s twisted narratives, but it updates his social critiques for the modern era and delves deeper into the core aspects that Snyder’s version ignored. Through its ability to represent the spirit of this masterpiece and expand on the initial themes, HBO’s Watchmen has proven itself the exemplar of continuations for this story — especially when compared to the lacking ones that came before it.

HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ Miniseries Makes Key Changes to Alan Moore’s Story

Watchmen, at its core, is a satire that de-mystifies not only the superhero genre but the fallacies of modern society that allow regimes of hatred to gain power. These issues are as present now as they were three decades ago in Moore’s story and Snyder attempted to showcase them throughout his adaptation. This version features the terrors of the Cold War and the political intrigue that accompanied this treacherous time in world history, and while it succeeds in being a (mostly) accurate duplicate, this refusal to change certain elements detracts from the relevance (and, therefore, fear) of the plot to its audience. Yes, these events are present and should be touched on, but the story’s root lies in governmental misdeeds and capitalistic horror. While it’s not a negative that Snyder copies so much from the original comics, that is ultimately what the film feels like: a copy. And, unfortunately, in trying to replicate this successful book without adding any of its own elements, this movie fails to garner any acclaim beyond its relation to the original’s fame.

HBO’s Watchmen made two changes that immediately set it up for success: its story is a continuation of the graphic novel that is set in the modern day (rather than a direct adaptation), and it is a television series. The original comic was alarmingly relevant to readers because it carried with it events and individuals who existed at the time of its publication, creating a story that, while featuring things like superheroes and historical fantasy, had a shocking amount of reality. 2019’s version still endowed viewers with the lingering fear of war, but rather than focusing on external battles, it made these horrors domestic, grounding itself in sadly relevant fears like the terror of white supremacy and the negative impacts of scientific progress.

This update doesn’t shirk Moore’s intent. On the contrary, the series pays respect to Moore’s work in every episode with a variety of Easter eggs and plot elements incorporated into its story. It builds upon these and shows what the world that so enraptured readers would grow into. This evolution may not have been necessary for Snyder’s edition, but the director’s emphasis on making it just an adaptation ultimately cheapens any impact it could have earned.

2019’s ‘Watchmen’ Goes Deeper Than Zack Snyder’s Movie

Within the first episode’s first scene, the 2019 version of Watchmen reveals one of its major themes: the terror of racism in modern society. It introduces unaware viewers to the horrific 1921 Tulsa Massacre (days of terror that decimated the city’s thriving African American communities) and instantly introduces the reality and sense of urgency that made Moore’s work so haunting. It goes even beyond its progenitor, though, first by comprising its main cast largely of people of color. Unfortunately, the original comic fails to feature visible heroes and characters of color, trying to tell a story about injustice while excluding the communities most impacted by these indignities. In attempting to be a copy, Snyder’s edition features no prominent characters of color, continuing this harmful trend of imagining a history where marginalized individuals played no major role. HBO’s Watchmen recognizes this lack and uses it to its advantage, asking of its world: What happened to the secret wars our heroes didn’t choose to fight?

This newest version has a representative cast of characters (heralded by the always astounding Regina King), some new and some older versions of Moore’s, whose depths transcend the surface-level portrayals of Snyder’s movie. With these complex characters come conversations that each can realistically speak to, finally granting these underserved groups voices in a story that, because of its premise, always needed them. This version cherishes Moore’s original story and uses that appreciation to go beyond what even he intended, showing how the presence of superheroes and their cataclysmic actions would influence the communities they actively chose not to fight for. Even further, in detailing Will Reeves’ (Louis Gossett Jr.) experience as Hooded Justice and being forced to hide his racial identity, putting aside his fight for equity to join the heroic “big leagues,” it shows how any institution meant to serve fails the instant it decides some lives are worth saving more than others. It is a truly ingenious advancement from the original story that combines reality with superheroes, illuminating these real issues in an eloquent (and super-powered) way.

Zack Snyder Misses the Point of Alan Moore’s ‘Watchmen’

So much of the Watchmen story is terrifying, with the plot showcasing how people with a twisted savior complex can wreak bloody havoc. Inevitably, in stories with vigilantes and powers, there will be fantastical elements that, if mishandled, can immediately draw away from the severity of any real issues being discussed. Snyder’s version heavily features these, from cartoonish scenes of the offensive hero Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) swinging through the air on a grappling hook to comical depictions of President Nixon (Robert Wisden) dreading nuclear war. While there is space for this kind of unreality, in this film, it’s to a degree that prevents the story from grounding itself in the real fears of its audience. In its failure to understand how to portray these elements, Snyder’s cut cheapens the message he’s working so hard to replicate.

This failure reveals one of 2019’s ultimate strengths, as it features bright blue superpowers, cars falling from the sky, and rampant cloning in a way that, while not relatable to viewers, feels at home in the world it’s presenting. It then capitalizes on the surprise of these wonders and horrors to drive its messages further, using them not as simple acts of comic book heroism but as more evidence of how devastatingly powerful the evil forces in this world are. This is exemplified in one of the main differences between the adaptations. In Snyder’s, the villain Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) orchestrates several explosions and blames them on Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) to bring the world’s warring nations together, while HBO instead has the mastermind drop a gigantic squid on New York City to accomplish the same. Both are successes, but Snyder’s strays far from the climax of the original story, which the HBO version chooses to duplicate perfectly.

HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ Improves on Alan Moore’s Source Material

While it embraced so many fantasy elements, the 2009 version lacked the finesse to tell such a truly wondrous ending as a giant alien squid bringing the world together while also maintaining its severity. It failed to accomplish copying Moore, begging the question: why compromise your movie up to that point to do this and not fully commit? Yet 2019’s Watchmen not only keeps this history, it builds off of it to great effect and somehow makes it a core aspect to drive forward the real-world horrors of its plot. This version perfectly synthesizes its unbelievable roots with its modern message, a feat past versions never could.

With an original story widely regarded as a classic, it’s arguable whether any project inspired by Watchmen can be truly ranked. Especially Snyder’s, which, while deserving of critique, does capture so much of what made Moore’s story great. But while that version is certainly respectable, its reliance on the original means it fails in truly embodying (and elevating) the story’s message as impressively as HBO’s version does. By using the story as a springboard and delving into aspects it failed to consider, 2019’s Watchmen honors Moore while using his plot to tell a message that captures this story’s magic and makes it more relevant to a modern audience. It thrives where its predecessors fail, all while telling a genuinely complex and amazing story that puts other attempts to shame.

Watchmen is available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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