Month: November 2019

Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 6 – This Extraordinary Being

“Who wants to be in the present when you can live in the past?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

“Tonight, on a very special episode of Watchmen…” Yes, this week Watchmen continued to experiment with form, with a self-contained episode very different in style to any that have gone before. As with everything on this well-executed series, that’s something that has precedent in the original comic; for example, one issue is entitled Fearful Symmetry, and every page is the mirror image of its equivalent on the same sheet of paper. Hence, p1 is mirrored on p28, p2 on p27, and so on – until the very middle of the comic, where pages 14 and 15 mirror each other. Continue reading “Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 6 – This Extraordinary Being”

Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 5 – Little Fear of Lightning

“We know there are other dimensions than this one, but this is the dimension where we live – and we will not live in fear.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Last week, I wrote that Looking Glass was fast becoming my favourite of Watchmen’s minor characters, and I hoped we’d be seeing more of him. It now looks as though he was being prepared for that since the very beginning, as this week the focus was squarely on him. This ep cleverly managed to combine his origin story (his “trauma” as Laurie would put it) with an examination of his psyche overall; and along the way, gave us perhaps more exposition about this world than any ep so far. Continue reading “Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 5 – Little Fear of Lightning”

Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 4 – If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own

“In three days, she’ll know what I’ve done. And she’ll hate me for it.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Step forward, another major player, as this week’s Watchmen introduced us to Lady Trieu, the mysterious industrialist mentioned last time who bought up Veidt Industries in its creator’s absence. Lady Trieu made quite an entrance, in a portent-heavy prologue that incorporated many of the show’s ongoing motifs. Promising a seemingly happy (but childless) farming couple a baby of their own in exchange for their land, she’s clearly a force to be reckoned with despite her diminutive stature. Continue reading “Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 4 – If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own”

Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 3 – She Was Killed By Space Junk

“Hey. It’s me again. I’ve got a joke. Stop me if you’ve heard this one…”

Do you know what a brick joke is? Well, despite the first joke we hear this week, it doesn’t actually have to be about a brick (though the best iteration I ever saw, in the Father Ted episode Speed 3, certainly was). No, a brick joke is something that rewards patience. And a good memory. Continue reading “Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 3 – She Was Killed By Space Junk”

Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 2 – Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship

“I ask you, what is democracy? Do you enjoy the same rights as white people, or are you second class citizens? … to carry a gun in the service of America is not an honour but a shame.”

After last week’s densely packed pilot episode, this week it felt like Watchmen was starting to get on with the story proper. Its world established (but not explained), the show can get on with the job of a narrative. And maybe start giving us some exposition as well. Continue reading “Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 2 – Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship”

Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 1 – It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice

For the discerning comic book fan, Alan Moore’s seminal classic Watchmen is still the gold standard of the medium – despite having been written more than thirty years ago. A literate, multi-layered complete work (rather than an ongoing series), Watchmen was at once a great superhero comic and an intelligent deconstruction of the concept. These were superheroes who were real, recognisable human beings, with all the flaws and frailties that real people have. Alcoholics, racists, sadists, misogynists – Moore’s characters were these and more, but always rounded, with good qualities to offset the bad ones. You know, like actual people. Continue reading “Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 1 – It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice”