HBO’s Lanterns finished its eight-episode first season on October 4 after debuting on August 16, and this new drama built from the Green Lantern mythos goes for a moody, grown-up version of Hal Jordan and John Stewart. If darker comic-book TV is your thing, it’s easy to recommend, even if I still give the nod to HBO’s Watchmen.
Chris Mundy co-created the series with Damon Lindelof and Tom King, and Lanterns drops Hal Jordan and John Stewart into a Nebraska murder case that jumps between 2016 and 2026 with a clear True Detective influence. The show puts its energy into character, moral gray areas, the writing, and the performances, not big empty spectacle.
Critics were on board, and most viewers were too, fandom backlash aside. That was enough to make Lanterns one of HBO’s biggest superhero successes of 2026.
The Watchmen comparison feels fair to me because both shows do more than just recycle their source material. Still, HBO’s 2019 nine-episode sequel feels tighter, more unified in what it’s trying to say, more complete on its own terms, and more fully finished, while Lanterns plainly leaves story threads hanging.
I’d say Watchmen also hit harder culturally because of the way it tackled racial injustice and the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. It won 11 Emmys and four TCA Awards, including Program of the Year. Even so, HBO says Lanterns drew bigger numbers: 10.5 million viewers for the finale in three days, a 19.3 million season average, and a top-five HBO launch, compared with Watchmen’s 7.1 million.
Both are streaming on HBO. Season two of Lanterns is reportedly being considered, Chris Mundy is expected back, Damon Lindelof and Tom King apparently aren’t, and Lindelof still considers Watchmen finished.
Author: Jesús Bosque
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