HBO's Watchmen is not only one of the year's most acclaimed new series, but it's filled with fun Easter eggs that harken back to the original graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. On top of that, there are also a few punchy peculiarities that come with this alternate world - like the "show within a show" called American Hero Story that's supposed to be a tell-all about Hooded Justice and The Minutemen.

Watchmen: All the Comic Book References in the HBO Series 81 IMAGES

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A few episodes have showed us clips from the faux series, which was a loving nod to producer Ryan Murphy's TV empire (Murphy himself almost cameo'd as the creator of Americvan Hero Story). The series not only gets the actual history wrong (as we'd learn who Hooded Justice really was in Episode 6, "This Extraordinary Being" ), but some fans noticed that an action scene, showing Hooded Justice's debut, fighting bad guys in a store, was filmed in a hyper-stylized, ultra-violent way that seemed, at the time, like a dig at Zack Snyder's Watchmen from 2009.Watchmen's EP/writer Damon Lindelof, talking to Variety , wanted to set the record straight on all that. “I will always take responsibility for when I’m winking or insulting or trolling," he said. "There was no intentionality on my part to make fun of or take a shot at or troll Zack Snyder’s Watchmen movie.""I have a tremendous amount of affection for for Zack’s movie and for Zack himself," Lindelof added. "And I feel like if anything, the challenge of doing Watchmen as a straight-up adaptation in the body of a three-hour movie is near impossible, and he did about as good of a job as anyone can.”The director of the episode featuring the show's scene ("Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship"), Nicole Kassell, also spoke about the stylistic difference used for American Hero Story. “What I was wanting to do with those [American Hero Story scenes] was like 'This is the version we could make, and we are very concretely not making that version.' We’re grounding our story in a much more real kind of naturalism."Kassell reportedly wanted to create a contrast in stye, much like how the comic-within-a-comic, “Tales of the Black Freighter,” was drawn in a different style from the Watchmen graphic novel.The Watchmen season finale airs Sunday, December 15, on HBO.For more on Watchmen, here's our explainer for the post-credits scene from Episode 8 . For more on Zack Snyder, here's a look at Superman's black costume from the Snyder Cut of Justice League

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler