I need a mini rant about something before we actually get to the topic at hand. Why is this show simply titled “Watchmen”? That’s the name of the original story. How come every sequel rebooting a franchise has to have the same name as the original? Blumhouse did it for their first Halloween film, the 5th installment of the “Scream” franchise did it, the Netflix Texas Chainsaw Massacre film did it. If your story is following up on events from previous films or installments, then you have to do better to identify it as a separate entity! Why is Hollywood’s lack of creativity progressing to project titles?! All right…I’m sorry, just needed to get that out there. let’s actually get to the problem regarding this specific show.

Before you get mad, I should say I think HBO overall did a great job with this show. I definitely would recommend it for fans of the graphic novel. Especially if you are someone who is looking for a sequel that’s more like Alan Moore’s writing style and the grounded take he approached. The world has progressed in an organic way from the graphic novel’s ending, we explore fascinating aspects of this world’s past and are introduced to a whole set of engaging new characters. The show deals with the nature of power, Racism, and explores many similar themes and ideas that Alan Moore once did. But having said that, there is one part of this show that I feel it ultimately failed to do justice. And it comes back to our favorite superhero advocating for nudity – Doctor Manhattan.

They do a few things with this character in the show. Manhattan seems to possess the ability to transfer his powers to someone else. And that’s hinted at in the final episode where Angela eats an egg that might have been imbued by Manhattan with his powers. But we don’t actually see if she inherited them, leaving it open to interpretation. This I’m actually good with. It is completely logical that this would be in his power and he did do something like this in Doomsday Clock. The second thing the show does with him is apparently show he has a weakness. The bad guys apparently use this special kind of battery to power a machine that has the ability to permanently kill Doctor Manhattan. I…look, Adrian was able to hide his real plan from Manhattan during the events of the graphic novel. It had to with a certain type of particle that could shield themselves from how Manhattan viewed time. But Adrian thought he could also kill him, only to see him reappear as a giant right in front of him. Resurrection is literally the first ability that Manhattan learned how to master. You MIGHT be able to find a way, but you have to come up with something really convincing. And I don’t think the show did that to explain how they were able to kill the blue man.

But the real issue is his motivation. The reason why Manhattan is in this show, the reason why he is interacting with these characters. We are shown that he did leave Earth for a while and did experiment in creating intelligent life. But then one day he turned his attention back to Earth and saw Angela. He came back and met her because he had fallen in love with her. Let me repeat that. Doctor Manhattan – the man whose whole story in the original was related to how he felt himself disconnecting with his emotions and fell out of love with two women – had fallen in love and that’s why he returns to Earth. I…no. Just a simple no. I can’t accept that as a believable motivation for this character.

Let me better clarify Manhattan’s story. To say he had fallen out of love might be interpreted as he no longer has feelings. But that would be inaccurate. He does return with Laurie to confront Adrian about his manipulative plan about creating world peace. Even though he felt like life had no meaning throughout most of the story, the talk he and Laurie has on Mars did remind him about how spectacular it is. And the graphic novel does show he still cares for Laurie and Dan. But the intensity of emotions he feels isn’t the same as it was before his transformation. It’s more like he cares about them the same way some people might care for a family pet. He’s fond of them, recognizes that he does have an emotional connection to them. But he still sees himself as superior and doesn’t believe he actually needs them like they might need him. And keep in mind, he ultimately decided that Adrian’s plan was the way to go. Whether or not he agrees with it is irrelevant. Manhattan is fundamentally a scientist and has a different set of principals than his former teammates.

Look, Doomsday Clock is not a perfect story. I actually made a post going into further details about that Watchmen sequel, including going over some flaws. But Manhattan’s role and purpose in that story was more faithful. The way we are introduced to him in that comic matches up where we left him in the original and we actually see in that comic how he changes by the end. But we don’t really get that in the HBO show. We don’t really get why Manhattan suddenly finds himself in love again. But he is important to the themes the show wants to explore so they needed to find a way to bring him in. And don’t get me wrong, having Manhattan in this show is the right decision. The show is still overall great. But their handling of the character prevents me from fully realizing this as a faithful follow up to the original story.