Following the controversial first episode, 200K people have bailed on HBO’s Watchmen with Sunday’s second episode.
The first episode of Watchmen is reported to have had 1.5 million viewers across all HBO platforms, down significantly from HBO’s Game of Thrones on Sundays, with the second episode having only 1.3 million viewers.
The live viewership saw a decrease as well, from 799,000 to 765,000 viewers.
It remains to be seen if the numbers will continue to fall or if they will stabilize, but the Watchmen viewership is still better than the Succession season finale which aired in the same time slot by around 20% or so.
Regarding the controversy, a lot of fans are upset that the show is race-baiting characters as well as made Rorschach a white supremacist.
Over at Rotten Tomatoes, fans have voiced their disappointment with the series as while its critic rating stands at a Fresh 98%, its audience score is only at 43% with over 2600 votes counted.
IMDb is similar, as the show has a one-star rating from near 1,800 fans.
Update: Week 3 numbers are in and are not good.
Fans don’t like HBO’s Watchmen
“Bland and boring. Nowhere near as captivating as the graphic novel, or entertaining as the film. Even the creator Alan Moore said it was rubbish. If you want a decent graphic novel adaptation watch “The boys” on Amazon prime. I’m actually shocked HBO green lit this, they usually have good judgement. Long story short, it’s a yawn! Fans of the graphic novel and right to be dissatisfied with this.” – RT user
“Ehhhhh, only redeeming factor is Jeremy Irons as Ozymandias. I really do not understand the direction they are taking the show.” – RT user
“Pacing and alternate story line with the established created universe fall flat.” – RT user
“Rorschach has always been my favorite superhero. What they did to Rorschach legacy in this supposed to be watcmen sequel is an insult to that.” – RT user
“Terrible show, turn the one character from the movie (Rorschach) who wasn’t willing to turn a blind eye to using an act of force to make the world chose peace through fear to a white supremacists symbol who use fear a weapon. Its just bad writing, especially disappointed because I loved the movie and how it showed the weakness\flaws in super heroes and instead its this preachy shit.” – RT user
“This feels like they took the name Watchmen as an attempt to rope in old fans and capitalize on its critical reception. Then, they made a show about things that seem very controversial so people would feel they have call it brilliant or seem like they weren’t getting it. Add in plenty of little mysteries which Lindelof will continue to sprinkle in without ever doing a good job of tying together (ehem…Lost and Leftovers) and this show seems like it’s destined to keep building until ending complete lack of payoff. Long story short, they should probably leave the legacy of Watchmen out of this and let Lindelof make another protracted non payoff without sullying a classic comic.” – IMDb user
“It has nothing to do with the watchmen movie or the comics whatsoever. Im from eastern europe and im sick of seeing american liberal fantasies in almost every movie and show this days.” – IMDb user
“The whole race preaching thing I kinda get but it’s extremely heavy handed and disjointed. I imagine the writers of this show are all purple haired , rainbow pin wearing “woke” white people patting each other on the back and believing they’ve made something really deep.” – IMDb user
“What did I just watch? I didn’t like it. Too racially charged for me and, frankly, getting a little tired of every show on television having some form of racism. Typical Hollywood grasping at a political agenda and squeezing every dollar they can from it.” – IMDb user
“In addition to obvious references to current American political atmosphere, which everyone is tired of, the pilot can’t seem to decide if it wants to be political drama, satire, social commentary, or comic book entertainment. It weirdly mixes old and new tech, it weirdly mixes old and new culture, it doesn’t explain things and behaviour that simply doesn’t fit. You are left wondering when, where and why, but with a bad taste of current reality in your mouth. It reminds you of heavy history in one scene, then tries to be funny in the next. Characters are not developed, you are expected to figure them out on the fly. If a sense of mystery was the intention, it turned out to be more like a puzzle you have no motivation to put together. Funny though, because choice of actors is good, dialogue is decent and production quality is good. It’s just not mixed and baked well.” – IMDb user
