I watched the pilot episode of Watchmen last night, and I was left with many questions. Many questions in a good way, but still many questions. I also caught a number of things along the way, and so I decided to record what I was thinking as I was watching the show here. This will contain spoilers, but it is not a review beyond “I liked it and am ready for more”. These are my thoughts as I was thinking them, so they are kinda rambly with very little analysis; a written first reaction, if you will. Please feel free to leave a comment with your own thoughts and reactions to the show!
It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice
I’m not going to talk about the Black Wall Street Massacre here - there have already been articles about it being in the show. But I am thrilled that a silent reel about Bass Reeves is playing in the beginning. Not enough people know about him.
A modern stereo system and a modern police car - when is this taking place? September 8th, 2019, eh? 34 years after the events of Watchmen.
Hm… Tulsa Police, and people are not allowed to see their faces. What the fuck happened since 1985? Or is this local to Tulsa only?
Kavalry, with a K (I watch with subtitles on - it’s easier for me to understand shows with subtitles on)? Is that like the Klan? And a Rorschach mask? I mean, he did leave his diary behind, and he was a right-wing extremist; I can see white supremacists flocking to his memory. But why are police guns locked to the vehicles? That seems ultra dangerous. Is this Panda secretly a white supremicest?
Oh, shit - that cop is so dead.
Black Oklahoma!? Is that a thing? Aside from that one time on The Boondocks. (Note: It turns out the strip in question was actually Gone with the Wind. Oops.)
Woah - can that cop in the reflective mask see out of it? What is that mask made out of?
Why is Doctor Manhattan back on Mars? What is he building and destroying?
Eggs in a smiley face. Always gotta have one somewhere.
Oh, hey! That’s Regina King!
Oh, jeez - I saw the word squid. Please, no squids - I hate cephalopods. I have a phobia. Please, no. Please, please no.
Wait, Vietnam actually became a state? The 51st state actually happened? Looking back at the movie, there was a painting on a wall that said that Vietnam officially became the 51st state, so I guess that happened around 1985. Wow.
Either way, if you don’t know about the war babies from Vietnam, you should.
Is that President Robert Redford as the current president in the background? Is he, like, a mirror Ronald Reagan? What the fuck? I mean, they’re both actors, so that makes sense. Unfortunately, it is too blurry for me to see when Nixon stopped being president and Redford became president. If Nixon only did three terms, then his third term would be up in… 1981… 4 years before Watchmen… huh. Okay, so the 22nd Amendment must have been repealed in the 70s, and Nixon was at the end of his 4th or the beginning of his 5th term during the events of Watchmen. Supposing he still died in 1994, and Gerald Ford was his last vice president and he didn’t die until 2006, it’s conceivable that Nixon was President-for-Life with Ford or Redford as VP.
White Night? Hm… that doesn’t sound good. But that’s what caused masked cops. Interesting.
Redfordations? Well, if Reagan did his fucking Reaganomics (what a pile of bullshit), perhaps Redfordations is either reparations for slavery or possibly even reparations for the Vietnam war. Interesting.
That kid’s family are probably members of the Kavalry.
Tornado siren? Then why are people getting out umbrellas? Get under a bridge! Is Oklahoma even in Tornado Alley? (Note: Yes, it is.) Oh, wait… are those tiny squids or something? GOD WHY GOD WHY. Wait, is this show a sequel to the comic or the movie? Because the comic had that squid monster thing, but the movie didn’t. Personally, I liked the movie ending better - it made more sense.
Pager, eh? Legit. That’s harder to infiltrate than smartphones, I’m told. I could be wrong.
Ooo! Airship! An American Hero Story? Must be the Minutemen. Yep, Minutemen. There’s Hooded Justice.
What’s with the guy, “the future is bright”?
Veidt Officially Declared Dead, eh? That would make him about 80.
Oh, Gramps is gonna be important.
Oh! Regina King is the Nun! I never picked that up from the commercials.
Seventh Kavalry giving a very Rorschach-like speech. Yeah, they’re the Klan.
It makes sense that only the Chief of Police is unmasked.
Wait, Nixonville? Is that an actual town, or is that the name of communities that hold white supremacists? And what is this pod, an interrogation room?
Wait, Panda is Black? And has a giant panda head? What.
I should look up the Latin one day.
Huh. The Pod is a fancy high-tech interrogation room.
Ew, Nixon’s head is on Mt. Rushmore.
Transdimensional attacks? The cephalopods?
Blood under the door. Like Rorschach when he was in prison. Wait, is the prisoner dead, then?
Wait, are Sister Night, Red, Pirate Jenny, and Silver Face also SWAT? Or was SWAT outlawed?
What’s with the batteries? Oh, and they’ve got cyanide pills. And a technical. And an airplane.
Oh, Sister Night, you are running out of cow!
Oh, an old Dollar Bill poster. Of course the criminal in the poster is a Black character - this was the 1930s & 1940s.
Wait, did the Tulsa PD get their hands on Archie, or did they make their own? Are the blueprints in the government vaults now? What is going on here? I NEED TO KNOW!
Okay, the Chief of Police has grown on me. “Are you okay?”
A castle? Are we in Europe now? Is “Master” receiving a blowjob? Oh, his legs are being massaged.
Is the horseshoe symbolic? Are these all clones or robots or something? Their level of love and devotion to this old fellow is kinda creepy. And what is with the watch? Is it the Doomsday Clock? Is it Doctor Manhattan’s dad’s watch from that flashback? Wait, The Watchmaker’s Son? Manhattan?
“President Truman, President Eisenhower, President Nixon, President Ford, President Redford!” Thanks, kids! So, no Jimmy Carter. I guess Redford took the Democrat angle of Carter and the actor angle of Reagan.
Wait, did the Chief just snort cocaine? Yep, that’s coke. That will kill you one day. Unless that cancer bomb gets you first, I guess. And that background ticking.
Ooo! A Minutemen trailer! Wait, why isn’t Captain Metropolis at the head of the table? And where is Silhouette? Is she cut out because she’s a lesbian, even though it’s 2019? What about Mothman?
What’s with all the corded phones?
Oh, and the Chief is gonna die.
30 years of Redford? Okay, so, 1989-2019 is Redford, 1969-198? is Nixon, so where is Ford? If he only did 3 years, like in real life, perhaps Nixon left office for some reason in 1986, right after the world declared “peace”.
Hey, it’s Gramps! Wait, is he a super? Oh, he’s the boy from the beginning. But is he a super? And why did he kill the Chief?
So. Many. Questions. I’m looking forward to watching episode 2.
It’s NaNoWriMo time again, all! That means that I’ll either be posting a lot more than usual, or a lot less than usual. It really depends on where my fancy takes me as I alternate between working on stories and working on blog posts. But I will be writing at least a little bit every day, which is the whole point of this. Get the creative juices flowing and having fun! Feel free to follow along with me here: https://www.nanowrimo.org/participants/justin-grays
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