The Internet is abuzz!  Watchmen is coming!  Watchmen is coming!  The early reviews are in: Variety hates it.  The Times (UK) loves it.  Kevin Smith thinks it’s a work of genius.  The Hollywood Reporter says it’s the first flop of 2009.

What are we, the people, supposed to make of these wildly divergent reviews?  How will we know if Watchmen is worth seeing or not?

The Overthinking It readers look up and shout  ‘Help us, Mlawski!’

And I look down and whisper, ‘Okay.’

This Internet is afraid of me.  I’ve seen its true face.

“Thriller a Broadway musical?”

That’s how the Associated Press derisively reported plans to adapt Michael Jackson’s classic song/music video to a Broadway musical. It goes downhill from there; it seems the haters have written this one off about as fast as the Internet’s collective knee can reflexively jerk.

Make a music video a musical? Silly, right? Not really. First, it’s not just based on the music video; there’ll be plenty of other Jacko songs in the show (I know, that makes it a “jukebox musical,” but that’s a rabbit hole that I won’t go down right now). But at its heart, this is just another adaptation of the visual styling and plot from one art form (music video) to another (musical theater).

How is this so different from…say, the upcoming Watchmen movie?

(Image from Rope of Silicon)

There, I did it. I compared the “Thriller” musical to the Watchmen movie. OK, I know, not all adaptations are created equally (No Country for Old Men, novel made into a movie. Wing Commander, video game made into a travesty.), and that the “Thriller” musical is getting bad buzz partly due to Michael Jackson’s tarnished public image. But it’s an adaptation, and that by itself is no reason to condemn a work of popular culture.

So I, for one, welcome the ‘Thriller’ musical, and I do hope that it sets the precedence for a Guns ‘n’ Roses “November Rain” musical:

Hey, you know what else would make a great musical?

Watchmen.

Wrather hosts a panel including Belinkie, Fenzel, Lee, and Stokes, overthinking:

• The ontological status of the Chihuahua, and its place in the cultural landscape of Beverly Hills
• The Constitution, By-Laws, and Code Of Ethics of the Chihuahua Club of America
• The Coen Brothers, makers of The Ladykillers and Burn After Reading
• Auteur Theory
• Career Advice for Michael Cera
• Neurasthenic Nebishy Romantic Leads in Post-9/11 America
• Films that are based on novels, and one that isn’t

And the second installment in our new feature, Overthink This:

• Belinkie: Valentine (http://cwtv.com/shows/valentine)
• Fenzel: Dragonball Z Teaser Trailer (http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/dragonball/teaser-trailer)
• Stokes: It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (http://www.hulu.com/its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia)
• Lee: Way to Normal (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E1DJ9S?tag=overtit-20)
• Wrather: Joe’s Garage, the opera (http://www.openfist.org)

As always you can email us at podcast at overthinkingit dot com, or call (203) 285-6401 to leave a voicemail that will be played back on the podcast. And would it kill you to visit the iTunes page and leave us a nice review?

Download Episode 14 (MP3)