--- title: "Watchmen" year: 2019 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/watchmen-2019" fi1m_score: 84 critics_score: 82 critics_reviews: 14 published: "2026-09-17T13:11:34.548660+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T13:11:46.627304+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Watchmen (2019) Created by Damon Lindelof · MPA TV-MA · Drama, Crime, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery **Fi1m score: 84** · Critics 82 from 14 reviews *In a sentence:* The masks are back, the police are wearing them, and the smartest man in the world is bored in a country house > Damon Lindelof’s nine-part sequel to the comic is nervy, strange and mostly gripping, with Regina King carrying it and Tim Blake Nelson stealing it. His habit of hoarding answers costs it something, but not enough to change our verdict. ## Synopsis Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1921: a boy watches a silent western in a cinema while, outside, white mobs burn the town’s black district. Tulsa, 2019: Robert Redford is in the White House, squid fall from the sky, and the police wear yellow masks after a white-supremacist group called the Seventh Kavalry murdered officers in their homes. Angela Abar (Regina King), officially a retired detective running a bakery, works cases in a black hood and habit as Sister Night. Her chief, Judd Crawford (Don Johnson), sings show tunes and worries. Then an officer is shot at a traffic stop by a man in a Rorschach mask, and far away Adrian Veidt (Jeremy Irons) is writing a play. ## Review Damon Lindelof’s *Watchmen* is not an adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s 1986 comic. It is a sequel, set 34 years on, in an America where Robert Redford has been president, where squid fall out of the sky, and where the police of Tulsa, Oklahoma, wear masks because a white-supremacist group called the Seventh Kavalry shot officers in their homes. It is the best thing anyone has done with this material, and it is a bold, odd, mostly gripping piece of television. It is also a Lindelof series, which means it saves its answers up and then delivers them in speeches. The first ten minutes settle what it is about. Tulsa, 1921: a boy in a cinema watches a silent western about a black marshal while, outside, the town’s black district is burned. We were horrified, and it was the ordinariness that did it: broad daylight, dust, no music, people running as if they had done it before. Then Anna Hauger, Henk van Eeghen and David Eisenberg cut to 2019 and a traffic stop, a policeman in a yellow mask pulling over a pickup, the driver’s face hidden by shifting ink blots, and the series has told us who wears masks in this country and why without explaining a thing. Regina King plays Angela Abar, a detective who officially retired to run a bakery and works cases as Sister Night, in a black coat cut like a habit and a hood that leaves only her eyes. Meghan Kasperlik and Sharen Davis dress the Tulsa police as if from a hazard sign, and dress Angela as something older and more frightening. King plays her tired and furious at once, and never asks us to like her. Don Johnson’s Chief Judd Crawford is more charming than a police chief needs to be, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Cal is calm to the point of stillness, and Jean Smart arrives as Laurie Blake, a federal agent who has seen all this before. The performance we keep returning to is Tim Blake Nelson’s. Wade Tillman, called Looking Glass, interrogates suspects inside a pod lined with screens, his face a mirror so they see themselves while he watches, and he speaks in a flat Oklahoma murmur that never rises. He gets one hour built almost entirely around him, and it frightened us more than anything with a gun in it, because Nelson plays a man who has spent thirty years waiting for the sky to fall again. Kristian Milsted and Mark Worthington give him a house full of tinfoil and canned food. Somewhere green and far away, Jeremy Irons’s Adrian Veidt lives in a manor with a manservant, Mr Phillips (Tom Mison), and a maid, Ms Crookshanks (Sara Vickers), and writes a play. Xavier Grobet, Gregory Middleton, Alex Disenhof and Andrij Parekh light this strand in soft gold and light Tulsa in hard flat daylight, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score the manor with something jaunty and the city with a low synthesiser pulse that ticks like a clock. We laughed at Irons, and then we grew impatient, because these scenes exist to be a puzzle and Lindelof will not say what kind. That habit costs the series. Hong Chau’s Lady Trieu, a trillionaire building an enormous clock, is the best-cast character in it and is given the least to do; she talks in riddles because the script needs her held back. Lindelof plants mysteries and, when he pays them off, does it in speeches, tied with a neatness the comic refused. In those stretches we felt managed rather than trusted. Zack Snyder’s 2009 film reproduced the comic’s panels and missed its argument. Lindelof and his writers, among them Cord Jefferson, Stacy Osei-Kuffour and Lila Byock, throw the panels away and keep the argument, which is that a mask is a way of deciding who gets to be frightening. It is a 15 certificate, and earned. Watch it over a week rather than a weekend; the mystery is kinder at that pace. The tagline is ‘Nothing ever ends…’, and this is the rare series that would have been better for believing it. *Fi1m score 84, published 17 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (14) - **The i Paper**, Emily Baker (5/5): The critic praises the series as a sublime adaptation that marries superheroes with race relations and real-world issues like racism, calling it potentially the new Game of Thrones. Highlights Regina King's performance and the exciting, otherworldly story. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/watchmen-review-sky-atlantic-hbo-353343) - **IndieWire**, Ben Travers (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the HBO series as a spectacular, insightful and exciting sequel that wrestles with big questions about American identity. It singles out the show's ability to deliver big-scale entertainment alongside its thematic depth without compromise. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/watchmen-review-hbo-series-1202181390/) - **Empire**, Kambole Campbell (85/100, inferred): The review calls it a triumph for using the material to say something new about white supremacy and history, with magnetic performances, crackling dialogue, and bold rewrites. Praises the world-building and visuals while noting the mystery might test patience initially. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/tv/reviews/watchmen-season-1-review-damon-lindelof/) - **The Guardian**, Lucy Mangan (85/100, inferred): The series is a bravura, thrilling and uncomfortably resonant remix of the original comic that interrogates power, storytelling and contemporary issues like racism and fascism. It honours the source material's ambitions while featuring a diverse cast and controlled plotting from showrunner Damon Lindelof. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/oct/21/watchmen-review-the-perfect-superhero-story-for-our-tattered-times-hbo-alan-moore) - **Vulture**, Matt Zoller Seitz (85/100, inferred): The critic finds the series succeeds on sheer nerve as an extremist superhero dystopia that refreshingly interrogates why people wear masks. It singles out the show's nerve in tackling racial themes and its complex, divisive approach to the source material's legacy. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/watchmen-hbo-series-review.html) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (80/100, inferred): Creatively bold and superbly written and acted, a tour de force that is relentlessly entertaining, odd and creative, though the landing needs to be stuck. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/watchmen-review-1247215/) - **The Telegraph** (4/5): This is at last a great screen version of Alan Moore's graphic novel, a confident 'remix' with fresh dystopian chaos and racial tensions as its theme. The action scenes thrill, the intrigue holds, and bold choices like killing a major character early grab attention. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2019/10/21/watchmen-episode-1-review-last-great-screen-version-alan-moores/) - **Radio Times**, Huw Fullerton (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the series "interesting" and original, a significant achievement in creating something new from the IP, complex and stylish, well worth watching despite being occasionally confusing. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/watchmen-review-this-time-its-well-worth-watching-the-watchmen/) - **The Times**, Carol Midgley (★★★★☆): The series is extravagantly, surreally bizarre and weird but definitely not boring, with sheer originality and oddness carrying it along even for non-fans of comics. It offers an alternative recent history of America filled with white supremacy, masks, and memorable performances like Regina King's. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/watchmen-review-weird-weird-weird-but-definitely-not-boring-ztqk568fh) - **Variety**, Daniel D'Addario (50/100, inferred): The critic notes it ambitiously tackles how people are wrecked by history but lacks focus; mixed on the diffuse approach to character and story. [Read](https://variety.com/2019/tv/reviews/watchmen-review-1203370058/) - **Den of Geek**, Alec Bojalad (5/5): The critic calls the premiere a brilliant, disturbing introduction that captures the essence of Watchmen through confidence and clarity of vision. It singles out the pilot's unsettling opening sequence and its moral complexity in reframing race and policing. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/watchmen-episode-1-review-spoiler-free/) - **Collider**, Haleigh Foutch (A): The critic calls the series a vital update and love letter to the graphic novel that excels in world-building, philosophical storytelling, and performances, particularly Regina King's. It grounds its themes in historical events like the Tulsa Race Massacre while delivering gripping, technically accomplished television. [Read](https://collider.com/watchmen-review-hbo/) - **/Film**, Chris Evangelista (85/100, inferred): The critic applauds the decision to make a sequel series rather than a direct adaptation, praising its organic world-building, pacing, strong ensemble cast led by Regina King, and nuanced handling of issues like racism and police identity without easy answers. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/569760/watchmen-review/) - **Digital Spy**, David Opie (80/100, inferred): The critic argues the series is great precisely because it ignores the movie and remixes the comics into a timely reflection of fractured America. It singles out the effective world-building that blends comic-book absurdity with realistic societal concerns like racial conflict. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a29512303/watchmen-hbo-review-sky-movie-comics/) ## Details - **Created by:** Damon Lindelof - **Creator:** Damon Lindelof - **Director:** Nicole Kassell, Stephen Williams, David Semel, Fred Toye, Steph Green, Andrij Parekh - **Writer:** Damon Lindelof, Nick Cuse, Claire Kiechel, Jeff Jensen, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Cord Jefferson, Lila Byock, Carly Wray, Christal Henry - **Cinematography:** Gregory Middleton, Xavier Grobet, Alex Disenhof, Andrij Parekh - **Editor:** David Eisenberg, Henk van Eeghen, Anna Hauger - **Music:** Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross - **Production design:** Kristian Milsted, Mark Worthington - **Costume design:** Meghan Kasperlik, Sharen Davis - **Producer:** Karen Wacker, John Blair - **Cast:** Regina King as Angela Abar / Sister Night; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Cal Abar; Jeremy Irons as Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias; Jean Smart as Laurie Blake; Tom Mison as Mr. Phillips / Game Warden; Jacob Ming-Trent as Panda; Andrew Howard as Red Scare; Sara Vickers as Ms. Crookshanks - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA - **Release (the US):** 20 October 2019 - **Genres:** Drama, Crime, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zymgtV99Rko ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Hulu: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Critics' Choice Awards 2020: Best Drama Actress (won); Best Drama Supporting Actress (won) - Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series 2020: Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Drama Series (won) - Peabody Awards 2020: Peabody Awards (won) - Primetime Emmy Awards 2020: Outstanding Casting for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special (won); Outstanding Cinematography for a Miniseries or Movie (won); Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes (won); Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie (won); Outstanding Limited Miniseries (won); Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special (won); Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Limited Series or Movie (won); Outstanding Sound Editing for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (won); Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Limited Series or Movie (won); Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie (won) - TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama 2020: TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Drama (won) - TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials 2020: TCA Award for Outstanding Achievement in Movies, Miniseries and Specials (won) - TCA Award for Outstanding New Program 2020: TCA Award for Outstanding New Program (won) - TCA Award for Program of the Year 2020: TCA Award for Program of the Year (won) - Writers Guild of America Award for Television: New Series 2020: Writers Guild of America Award for Television: New Series (won) ## If you liked this - *The Leftovers* (2014): Lindelof’s previous series, where the mysteries stay unsolved and it hurts more. - *The Prisoner* (1967): A man in a pretty village, watched by everyone, asking who Number One is. - *Twin Peaks: The Return* (2017): Eighteen hours of American dread that trusts you to sit with not knowing. - *Lovecraft Country* (2020), Fi1m 74: Pulp monsters and Jim Crow in the same frame, and the Jim Crow is scarier. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/lovecraft-country.md) - *Utopia* (2013): A British conspiracy thriller in acid colours where the comic is the clue. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/watchmen-2019