Watchmen Is The Best Show On TV Right Now And You Should Binge It To Catch Up ASAP Before This Season Ends Next Sunday (Bonus Binge Viewing Guide Included)
Blogger's Note: Don't worry, there are NO spoilers in this blog. Also I don't know if Watchmen is actually the best show on TV right now because I don't have time to watch that much TV. But it seems like that's something you have to say in order to get people to click your piece, which obviously worked if you are reading this
It's been a little while since I did sort of deep dive into a TV show on the blog. The last time I did that, I rewatched one episode of Game of Thrones a night for 67 nights in a row then did an Instagram Live recap afterwards in order to seamlessly transition into the final Thrones season. As you can imagine, the bad taste of Thrones along with having two kids under 5 prevented me from wanting to dive into another TV show anytime soon.
However during Thanksgiving break, I decided I was going to binge a TV show because I needed to do something other than pass out or watch my shitty sports teams once my kids fell asleep. I chose Watchmen because I liked the premise of the story (a bunch of real life superheroes that for the most part don't have superpowers set in the real world that have effected real life events like the Vietnam War and the JFK assassination), enjoyed the movie, and most importantly didn't need to watch that many episodes in order to be caught up since this Sunday will be the 8th episode of the 9 episode season since I'm not only a parent of two young kids, but I'm a washed parent of two kids. If I am up at 3 AM, it's because I woke early not because I fell asleep late.
The final thing that convinced me to binge Watchmen is that it is the 9 PM ET show on HBO, which is pretty much the television version of playing quarterback for the Cowboys. Hey, you guys remember when Terrell Owens cried about the media picking apart Tony Romo after the Giants beat the Cowboys in the playoffs on their way to winning Super Bowl XLII? That was awesome.
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Anyway, my quick review of the show isn't that I like it or I love it. I am OBSESSED with it. I'm talking watching YouTube videos breaking down the episode, scrolling the show's reddit page for theories, and spending every minute not doing those two things thinking about the show or the Watchmen universe. You know how True Detective became a smash hit because the theories people came up with were so incredible and how let down people were once they didn't come true? Watchmen is the opposite of that. Each episode is packed to the brim with small references or Easter eggs that are either a nod to a past event or foreshadowing of a future one. It's kinda like Fargo in that sense, which is the best show on TV when Watchmen isn't on. I never watched Lost, but it sounds like this Watchmen season is like the first season of Lost before things got out of control and stopped making sense, which makes sense because the creator/showrunner of Watchmen is Damon Lindelof, who was the co-creator and showrunner of Lost. I'm sure people will wonder if Watchmen may fall apart in its later seasons like Lost did. But as of now there is apparently a good chance they only do one season of Watchmen, which obviously suuuuucks since I decided to write an entire blog trying to convince people to watch the show. But as a fan of The Simpsons and someone who knows how angry Lost fans got, I know sometimes more is less when it comes to TV shows.
If this poorly written blog piqued your interest about catching up on the show before it reaches its dramatic conclusion in a few weeks and the inevitable spoilers on the internet ruin it for you, this is my guide to binging Watchmen.
1. Watch Alt Shift X's recap of the Watchmen comic:
Alt Shift X was my guy when learning about all the background mumbo jumbo in Game of Thrones. So when I saw he made a recap of the Watchmen comic that the movie is based on and that the show is pretty much a continuation of, I knew it was a Must Watch. He does a great job succinctly summing up an entire comic book universe in less than 18 minutes just like I did a great job using the word succinctly on a Barstool Sports blog.
2. Watch the Watchmen movie:
If you don't have almost three hours to watch the movie along with the seven hours or so you will need to watch the show episodes that have already aired, you can probably get away with just watching Alt Shift X's comic recap. But if you want to get much more of a feel for the characters and the world of Watchmen, I recommend watching the movie (I included sites that stream it above since saying to watch the DVD would cause people to call me a Boomer).
FYI, be prepared for a whole lot of blue dick swinging around because Dr. Manhattan may share the same shade as Tobias Funke but he is the opposite of a Never Nude. The movie has a 64% Critic Score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 71% Audience Score. But after The Last Jedi, I don't trust anybody's opinion on review sites anymore.
3. Trust The Process
Some shows like Breaking Bad grab you from the throat from the jump and never let go while taking you on a wild ride. Other shows like The Wire need to be watched for a while before everything clicks and appears in front of you like one of those Magic Eye paintings. God I loved those fucking things. Lets stare at one and see what pops out.
I'm sorry, I hit you with a Watchmen like twist since that was really just a cropped picture of a marble notebook.
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Here's a real Magic Eye, Scout's honor (I made it to Webelos of Cub Scouts but never was a Boy Scout, so I'm not sure if that Scout's Honor is stolen valor)
It's a sailboat schooner! JK, I don't know what it is because either my eyes stink and I can no longer do these anymore or they can't be done on a computer screen in general. But what I'm trying to say is Watchmen is a lot to take in the first few episodes, even if you know the backstory and almost everyone I know finished every episode confused as fuck.
Which is why I recommend watching an episode, digesting it in your brain for a second, wait for your brain to throw up from all the shit it just took in, and then let a YouTuber break down what the fuck just happened (especially the Jeremy Irons scenes). Jeff D. Lowe, Kenjac, and Robbie did a great job of explaining what happened starting in Episode 3 and I used Think Story for Episode 1 and Episode 2.
Also don't worry about the first couple of episodes being as race-driven as a typical NFL Sunday was a couple of years ago because the show is about much more than that.
4. Enjoy The Ride
I'm far from a critic who knows what the hell he is talking about when it comes to pretty much anything, let alone producing a show. But the writing in Watchmen is great, the acting is incredible, and some of the visuals in Watchmen are so good, I sometimes rewind just to gawk at what someone did with CGI. Even the episode titles hit like a hammer to the head.
If you made it this far in the blog, hopefully you are going to give the show a shot or are just as obsessed with it as I am. The penultimate episode is Sunday the 8th, which if Watchmen is anything like Thrones, means some shit is about to go down. even though a whole lotta shit has already gone down. Hopefully you like the show. And if you don't, tweet @UncleChaps and let him know why you don't like it (Spoiler free though because I don't know if he's watched it yet).