Ok so before I jump right in, I read these comics in high school, not long after they finished the series and it has stuck with me like few other pieces of literature. I love this fucking story. With that in mind it was a huge surprise for me to turn on my computer and discover that the TV adaptation has already started. After watching AMC’s first episode which aired last Sunday I have to say I’m a little concerned to be honest.
Look I’m not one of those purist fanboys, I’m one of the only people out there who genuinely thinks the ending to Watchmen was better in the film. More concise, less convoluted and essentially hits the exact same themes and message. So I’m not gonna pick apart every little change they’ve made – of which they have made many.
While I say that, I am slightly concerned that some of the changes could either have profound implications for some of my favourtie subplots or could even negate those subplots completely.
But more than any of that I’m concerned because structurally it’s not a great first episode, I’m trying to look at it objectively, through the eyes of someone unfamiliar with the story and I don’t really get anything that’ll hook me from this first episode.
The problem is that it is all expsoition, mostly exposition that didn’t exist in the book and largely seems unnecessary. Sure there’s a bit of intrigue inherent in some of this exposition but there really is no mind blowing event to grab the attention of a new audience. Nothing that makes one say, “Holy fuck, I gotta check out what happens next week.”
The thing is the comic series had shitloads of this, in the very beginning Custer’s entire congregation bursts into flame and Tulip and Cass find him in the rubble. They then find themselves on the run from the law. That’s a fucking hook. It’s also the catalyst for almost every force that is laid against them throughout the story. That’s how the Grail find him, that’s how the Saint of Killers finds him, that’s why Arseface starts chasing after him.
But it seems like this very important plot point has been negated, they can’t exactly burn the congregation when Tulip, Cassidy and Arseface are all sitting in there. And rather than this be the catalyst for the whole chase it appears the Grail have already tracked him down. They seem to have sanitised things a bit.
Now again I don’t necessarily see all this as bad, they may well come up with – as in the case of Watchmen – a more concise way of covering all these bases but it doesn’t bode well for my favourite subplots. Will we see Jesus De Sade and the gomorrhans? I doubt it.
But all thematic and plot concerns aside I worry that if even I, a man who has been chomping at the bit for years for a TV adaptation, finds himself watching this first episode and thinking “All right already, get bloody on with it.” what will a new audience think? Will they like I ask why nothing actually fucking happened in a highly anticipated first episode? Will this turn them off the series? Can the series survive on the backs of the diehard fanboys alone? Because I would hate for them to get Firefly’d.
Obscenity 'n' Shit 