Watchmen review: Episode 2 is propulsive, confident television

Two episodes into Watchmen (Sky Atlantic), HBO’s “remix” of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal comic-book series, being black and of service to a country that has actively disempowered you remains its central tension. It’s there in the 1921 prologue, where a man – later revealed to be Angela Abar’s grandfather – begins to question why he is defending a country that treats him so horrendously. And it’s there, decades later, with Angela’s increasing suspicion of the white father-figure she believed was a good man.

Angela, still played with cape-swishing force and haunted vulnerability by Regina King, is a wreck of contradictory impulses. She has been conditioned to express little in the way of emotion, refusing to cry even when told that her police partner and his wife have been murdered. And when Angela does express feeling, it usually takes the form of violence. “This s*** is unnecessary,” she claims to Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson), amid a brutal raid on a Nixonville community of suspected white supremacists. But her stance shifts when one man tries to attack her, and she breaks into frenzied violence.

Brought to life by King’s carefully modulated performance, Angela encapsulates the show’s fascination with masks, and how difficult is to maintain many of them at once. She is the timid baker, the resilient crime fighter, the compassionate adoptive mother and the good cop – if also coming apart at the seams, with everything she believed she knew about truth and justice all coming undone.

It is a compelling thread on which to hang the series, with Don Johnson’s late Chief Crawford appearing less and less trustworthy as Angela digs into his personal life and finding a possible ally in an elderly man (Louis Gossett Jr) who shares her DNA – as opposed to the white authority figures whose allegiances are suddenly questionable.

King remains Watchmen’s most winning element, but series creator Damon Lindelof (Lost, The Leftovers) is its secret star – particularly his ability to tease out his world via seemingly disparate elements that all point towards a compelling, fascinating whole. Jeremy Irons and his clone army remain deliciously ambiguous, as does the continued presence of American Hero Story, with its chewy hamminess and melodramatic content warnings. Then there are the slow reveals of what happened on White Night and the origins of Angela’s children.

Mirroring Angela’s declaration at the very end of the episode, when faced with what appears to be some kind of UFO, Watchmen still inspires near-constant “What the f***s”. But they’re of the best kind. This is propulsive, confident television, bursting with ideas and urgency.

Watchmen continues weekly every Sunday on HBO and airs in the UK the following evening at 9pm on Sky Atlantic. Listen to new weekly podcast “Watching Watchmen” for thoughts and analysis on every episode – you can subscribe here