Jean Smart just took Watchmen to another level

The HBO series' best episode yet introduces a riveting new character

Jean Smart.
(Image credit: Mark Hill/HBO)

It's almost cheating to give actress Jean Smart, introduced in Sunday night's episode of Watchmen as FBI Agent Laurie Blake, all the good lines. Structured around Blake's transmission to Doctor Manhattan (who, remember, is living on Mars), the show's third episode begins and ends with her telling a joke with the refrain "...and the hero goes to hell." It might be foreshadowing, but it could also be a signpost: After all, when God tells the version of Doctor Manhattan in Blake's joke that he's condemned to hell, Manhattan sadly replies: "I'm already there."

It's difficult for any character to be introduced mid-season, after audiences already have their hearts set, but Smart doesn't really even need the generous boosts the script gives her (another: "I eat good guys for breakfast," is spat during a tense mausoleum conversation with Angela). Even when she is silently observing those around her, Smart bestows Watchmen with a renewed, electric complexity, one that further undermines the show's cyclical interrogation of who those good guys really are.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.