Television

John Krasinski stars as a more righteous than lovable ex-marine working as a financial analyst for the CIA. Season 2's plot line seems to have been ripped from (a casual glance at) the headlines.

Horror is enjoying a rise from the dead right now — particularly on TV. And as streaming TV services multiply, AMC's Shudder has found success with a menu of classic horror and original programming.

The original 1986 Watchmen comic was built on a fear of nuclear holocaust; Lindelof's new HBO adaptation takes racism as its central evil, opening with a reconstruction of the 1921 Tulsa massacre.

HBO's new series has plenty of court intrigue, scandals and betrayals, but the script amounts to little more than a historical greatest hits, bouncing from well-known event to event.