Who Watches The Watchmen? Atlanta Just Did And It Was Amazing

#watchmenhbo #Hbopartner It was a hot night in Atlanta and the line was long. Over 400 people piled into the building, cascading yellow light cascading of the slick walls. Atlanta showed out for HBO’s The Watchmen screening in a big way, with more bodies than chairs getting ready to see HBO’s newest epic. The Sunday night ritual (not to be confused with the Sunday truce from The Wire, a participant of the ritual) of having a blockbuster TV show in the primetime spot was magnified to dizzying levels with Game of Thrones. Now, Game of Thrones is gone, but the excitement for The Watchmen screening may prove that Sunday nights still have a full dance card for the network. This was the second of screenings for the Watchmen, the first taking place at NYCC. While that screening was a big event taking place at a huge, multi-genre event, the event that took place in Atlanta had a different excitement for it. People put on pants just to be there, stood in line under a setting Georgia sun, then sat on barstools to watch the hour-long show. The first episode (and the subsequent ones) are arresting in it’s imagery and spectacle. Gasps, breathlessness and more laughs than you would expect were a garnish upon the evening. Atlanta came out to see a show and they got one.

I was lucky to be in the building for all of it, on a panel that followed the screening hosted by the peerless Kid Fury. My fellow panelists Karama Horne aka The Blerdgurl and Tatiana King Jones of the famed For All Nerds p…