Watchmen: 7 Ups And 0 Downs From 'It's Summer And We're Running Out Of Ice'

4. It Opens Up A Fascinating New Relationship Between The Police And Vigilantism

Watchmen takes a key focus on the history of race relations in the United States, but it also explores power dynamics when it comes to law enforcement too.

Lindelof's series takes place parallel to our timeline in that it's also set in 2019, and one of the biggest issues currently governing public discourse is law enforcement, or specifically how law enforcement is deployed in the United States. Police brutality is a historic issue, and it's one that's only been exposed further with the help of video evidence.

Likewise, the increasing militarisation of police forces across the globe but particularly in the U.S. has also made headlines over the last decade. It feels like now, more than ever, are people feeling most anxious about law enforcement - and it's here where Watchmen next endeavours to provide commentary.

In Watchmen's alt-history, the police all wear masks and they're forbidden from revealing their identity to each other or the public. They also live in a post-Cold War era governed by a liberal president, whereby they're obligated to contact a key officer to use lethal force before they can unholster their weapon, which actually leads to the death of one officer by a member of Rorschach's cult - the Seventh Cavalry - at the beginning of the episode.

The police here wear masks because of an event called the White Night, whereby members of the Cavalry targeted specific officers and their families. They're protected by anonymity, while at the same time hindered by the prohibition of immediate access to deadly force; they're both limited by what they can engage and unaccountable by virtue of their secret identities, a puzzling and contradictory set of quandaries both the force and public have to overcome.

At the same time, the enemy is clear. Regina King's Sister Night - the leading figure of Watchmen - is an ex-officer who now works as a vigilante who liaises with the force, and their main enemy are a rabid group of white supremacist terrorists. They dismantle the Cavalry with extreme prejudice, but it'll be interesting to see how the show explores this new power dynamic as it continues.