'Watchmen' Season 1 Episode 5: Fans praise season's strongest episode yet, 'Squid Pro Quo' amuses all
HBO's 'Watchmen' has gained praise from critics and fans alike for its writing, cinematography, and the performances of a stellar cast, but episode 5 — 'Little Fear of Lightning' — has taken things to an all-new level. The episode that fans have been waiting for since the ambiguous ending of the original comic has finally arrived with a large, squid-shaped crash, and no one is ever going to be able to enjoy 'Careless Whisper' the same way again.
Praise for the 'Watchmen' series has hit an all-time high, as the episode's focus on Wade Tillman (Tim Blake Nelson) examines the trauma left on the alternate-history America in the wake of "11/2" - the incursion of what appeared to be an interdimensional psychic squid attack. A user on Reddit remarked on just how far comic book adaptations have come: "This episode alone has done so much for the Watchmen universe. With all the comic book adaptations that 12 year old me would shed tears over in the last 10 years, this is really the icing on the cake."
One user on Twitter went so far as to say "Yeah okay, tonight's WATCHMEN is easily the year's single finest hour of television" - high praise, considering how close the end of the year it.
Another user praised David Lindelof's dedication to the comic series - "It’s like Lindelof wrote a love letter to everyone who read the graphic novel and said 'this is for you.'" For some, this episode was the strongest of the season, with one user saying, "Easily best episode of Watchmen so far, and really the first to feel like the season has a focus beyond intriguing extrapolation of the text." Another user drew focus to the performance of Tim Blake Nelson's Looking Glass — "I think Tim Blake Nelson deserves an Emmy. Loved this episode for going into Looking Glass' backstory."
With reliance on the source material being so heavy, there was an unfortunate number of viewers who found the episode extremely confusing. Giant squid being dropped on cities isn't the most common of occurrences, even on superhero TV shows. Though confused, one user still has faith in the show's direction, "Watchmen is good but I’m so confused on what’s really going on. I guess it’s one of those shows where everything will make sense at the end."
The next episode of 'Watchmen' airs November 24, on HBO.