Simon Fernandes

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”

Barcelona, city of protest – Saturday

After the accidental excitement of Friday night, you’d expect that I’d want to “remain indoors” for the next evening, right? Well, so would I. But again, that’s not how it turned out; this time, though, I was forewarned by my experience, and genuinely curious. What would the protests be like before they descended into chaos? Would it happen again? And if so, how? Continue reading “Barcelona, city of protest – Saturday”

Barcelona, city of protest – Friday

Gosh, it’s been ages since I updated this blog! A whole summer went by – I went to a music festival in the mountains of Girona, had a few weeks back in England (which felt very odd now), and started a new teaching job here in the Catalan capital. All, or some of these, I’ll hopefully document at some point.

However, I’m writing now so I can cover the events of this week, which have been pretty dramatic – especially as yours truly ended up caught in the middle of them. While the UK has been tied up in knots over Brexit, the US concerned with the possible impeachment of its increasingly deranged President, and cities all over the world disrupted by Extinction Rebellion, Barcelona has barely noticed any of that. This city’s been preoccupied with issues of its own, as the months long trial of the former Catalan leaders wound to a ghastly but inevitable conclusion. Continue reading “Barcelona, city of protest – Friday”

Barcelona life – Pride weekend!

The shindig on Thursday night was only the beginning!

Pride weekend proper here in Barcelona begins on Friday. Thus it is that, after recovering from the Thursday night bash at Placa Universitat, and teaching my solitary Friday afternoon class at Arc de Triomf, I remember that Paolo said there was yet another party on Friday at Placa Reial, just off La Rambla. Pride or not, you’re never far from a free party in Barcelona! Continue reading “Barcelona life – Pride weekend!”

Barcelona – a week in the life

So ok – I’m back at Bar Berlin, in the lengthy break between faraway classes I have every Thursday. These two, Abertis and Bayer Pharmaceuticals, are so far out (but in the same direction), that it’s not worth me going home for the two and a half hours between them. It is, however, an excellent chance to enjoy a cervesa in the sunshine, and write a blog post!

Barcelona life – the beer

The beer here isn’t cheap. Most places you go to, they only have that continental lager, the sort of stuff that, if you’re an ale snob like me, you’d turn your nose up at anywhere in England. Thing is, it works here. It’s so warm so much of the time that your classic nearly warm pint of Scruttock’s Old Dirigible, with the twigs and the bits of beak still in it, wouldn’t be all that refreshing. A glass of Estrella, though, chilled near to freezing, is about the most perfect alcoholic beverage in this climate.