{"id":380460,"date":"2026-10-10T10:16:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/?p=380460"},"modified":"2026-10-10T10:16:06","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T17:16:06","slug":"hbos-lanterns-just-wrapped-but-watchmen-still-wins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/hbos-lanterns-just-wrapped-but-watchmen-still-wins\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO\u2019s Lanterns just wrapped, but Watchmen still wins"},"content":{"rendered":"

HBO<\/a>\u2019s Lanterns<\/a><\/em> finished its eight-episode first season on October 4 after debuting on August 16, and this new drama built from the Green Lantern<\/em> mythos goes for a moody, grown-up version of Hal Jordan and John Stewart. If darker comic-book TV is your thing, it\u2019s easy to recommend, even if I still give the nod to HBO\u2019s Watchmen<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Chris Mundy co-created the series with Damon Lindelof and Tom King, and Lanterns<\/em> drops Hal Jordan and John Stewart into a Nebraska murder case that jumps between 2016 and 2026 with a clear True Detective<\/em> influence. The show puts its energy into character, moral gray areas<\/strong>, the writing, and the performances, not big empty spectacle.<\/p>\n\n

Critics were on board, and most viewers were too, fandom backlash aside. That was enough to make Lanterns<\/em> one of HBO\u2019s biggest superhero successes of 2026<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

The Watchmen<\/em> comparison feels fair to me because both shows do more than just recycle their source material. Still, HBO\u2019s 2019 nine-episode sequel feels tighter, more unified in what it\u2019s trying to say, more complete on its own terms, and more fully finished, while Lanterns<\/em> plainly leaves story threads<\/strong> hanging.<\/p>\n\n

I\u2019d say Watchmen<\/em> also hit harder culturally because of the way it tackled racial injustice and the 1921 Tulsa race massacre. It won 11 Emmys<\/strong> and four TCA Awards, including Program of the Year. Even so, HBO says Lanterns<\/em> 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<\/em>\u2019s 7.1 million.<\/p>\n\n

Both are streaming on HBO. Season two of Lanterns<\/em> is reportedly being considered, Chris Mundy is expected back, Damon Lindelof and Tom King apparently aren\u2019t, and Lindelof still considers Watchmen finished<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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HBO\u2019s 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\u2019s easy to recommend, even if I still give the nod … Continue reading “HBO\u2019s Lanterns just wrapped, but Watchmen still wins”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1009,"featured_media":380459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[6869],"class_list":["post-380460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","content-category-streaming-videos"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1009"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380461,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380460\/revisions\/380461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380460"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=380460"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=380460"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=380460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}