Watchmen: A Beginner’s Guide

We’re less than a week away from the premiere of Watchmen, a dark, buzzy new superhero series that HBO hopes will help to fill the new Game of Thrones-sized hole in its lineup of dramas. But despite the title, the new series isn’t an adaptation of the legendary comic of the same name. Instead, it’s a kind of sequel, revisiting the same universe (and a few of the same characters) in 2019 to tell an all-new story.

I’m not going to spoil any of the new stuff in the HBO series—but viewers who tune in with no context for Watchmen will almost certainly be baffled by some of the series’ more eccentric elements. For better or worse, HBO’s Watchmen assumes a lot of knowledge about the original series.

Continue to GQ >