Timestreams

CWs: sexual assault (indirectly mentioned in links), racism and racist violence

I finally got around to watching the Watchmen limited TV series (2019), and wow, what a ride. Back in 2009, I remember seeing the Watchmen movie trailer and being immediately enthralled. I think I’d heard of the graphic novel before, but really didn’t know anything about it. I was living in San Francisco at the time, and think I was watching a movie in the theatre in a mall I frequented. That mall happened to have a Borders in it (remember those?), and IIRC I went straightway to Borders and bought a copy of Watchmen to read. Loved the book, thought it was fun and fascinating, really trippy stuff. I couldn’t wait for the actual movie to come out.

Please note that there are a few spoilers here and there for the show Watchmen, so if you haven’t watched it, you may want to come back after you have. Nothing major, but yeah.

This is before we all collectively loathed Zack Snyder, and he was mostly famous for 300 and the Dawn of the Dead remake. I guess Sucker Punch too (I rememnber enjoying that one, although it was Not Great). He seemed like a nerd’s nerd, like, he got it! And in some ways that is true, but I think reception studies will not be kind to him, and that’s understandable.

Anyways, I remember seeing Watchmen on opening night at the IMAX at the Metreon in San Francisco. Absolutely loved it. It was really quite a faithful adaptation of the book, except for the ending, and I think people will probably never forgive Snyder for doing that (why no squid?). But it’s OK. I have a very soft spot for the movie, thought the casting was great, and overall thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven’t watched the movie in quite awhile now, although I did show it to my spouse very late one evening, not long after we started dating, and I think they fell asleep during it. Mostly because they were tired and I think it was late on a Friday night at the end of a very long week, and they say they don’t remember anything about it now.

I heard there were sequel and prequel comics and what not, all of which I’ve ignored. Whatever.

So when I heard rumblings of a TV series, I was a little skeptical, and didn’t run out to watch it. I thought, hey, this will just be a rehash, a retread, just a rando TV adaptation of the book. Why do that? Doesn’t make much sense.

And then I finally sat down and watched it in the last couple of weeks, knowing next to nothing about it. I was completely wrong about the premise, and that is a good thing. It’s definitely not a rehash of the original. It’s set in present-day (at the time, 2019), and you could say it’s a sequel, but time is slippery, flowing freely from the present to the past and everywhere in between. Damon Lindelof of LOST fame created the series and wrote or co-wrote all of the 9 episodes, and he really did a bang-up job with it. I was a huge LOST fan, but that one (like Snyder’s corpus) has not aged well, with rampant accusations of racism and other toxicity during production. Thankfully, Lindelof must have had some good collaborators on this show, since it is great.

So the show is set 34 years after the original book (2019 vs. 1985). Most of it is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We’re introduced to a new group of masked vigilantes, although now they’re working directly with the cops, who are also masked. It’s icky watchihg cops as protagonists, especially in 2019, and I think the show realizes that and leans into it. It’s also strange watching people wearing masks (generally what we’d call “gaiters” now), knowing what 2020 would bring.

The show goes to a lot of strange, wonderful, yet also deeply terrifying places. The racist Tulsa massacre of 1921 is front and center in the opener, something I don’t think I ever heard about in school (unsurprisingly, given how white the educational systems in the US are). I don’t think I learned much about it until watching Lovecraft Country, another show that has a pretty checkered Nachleben, given star Jonathan Majors’ manifold legal troubles. I was thinking that Watchmen does a better job engaging with the horrors of Tulsa, but honestly it’s just a different treatment, with different emphases and different stakes. I loved Lovecraft Country and I’m kinda sad that I don’t think I can ever watch it again, mostly due to the issues with Majors. (Despite being written by a white man, the book is actually quite good)

I don’t entirely know where I am going with all this. All I know is that the show surprised me, kept getting weirder and weirder, and I overall really loved it. At nine episodes, it also never overstayed its welcome, and I’m glad they’re not (to my knowledge) making any more episodes. Let it lie, let it be enough.

One thing that inspired me to write on the show was the use of music. Overall the show has a great soundtrack; sometimes the music is a little too on the nose, but generally it’s well-done and very fitting. I noticed a particularly deep cut that may just be me, however. So, Adrian Veidt (“Ozymandias”) comes back, and is essentially imprisoned on a moon of Jupiter, placed there by Dr. Manhattan. What moon of Jupiter’s many moons? Europa.

I’m reminded of Arthur C. Clarke’s second sequel to 2001: a space odyssey, 2061: odyssey three (1987). You see, in Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan terraforms Europa and makes it habitable, and sets about creating a “utopia” there, and creates life, and sends Veidt there to rule over the inhabitants, who worship him. In 2061, Clarke writes about primordial life-forms developing on Europa (there is a bit about it in 2010: odyssey two as well), and Earth is informed that “all these worlds are yours - except Europa. Attempt no landings there.”

I find an interesting intertext between Clarke’s works and Watchmen in terms of music. During a number of scenes on Europa, Strauss’ “The Blue Danube” plays in the background. If you know your 2001: a space odyssey as I do, you’ll remember “The Blue Danube” is an integral part of that movie, mostly in the first half or so of the movie. I therefore wonder if Lindelof & al. were thinking of 2001 (or rather, 2061 by way of the movie 2001) when they selected “The Blue Danube” to play during the Europa scenes. I find it really interesting. Maybe I’m the only one who would think in those terms, though.

I also immediately thought of “timefall” from Death Stranding when I was introduced to the concept of “squidfall.”

Anyways, I haven’t said anything really substantive about the show, though, mostly because I think you should check it out yourself. If you enjoyed the original book, and Snyder’s movie adaptation, I think you’ll enjoy the show. Lindelof clearly loves his source material, and he’s remixed it very adeptly, very deftly, and created a sequel to the original that seems like a very natural progression. I really recommend checking it out either way. It can stand on its own, but if you know the source material, it is all that much richer.

Anyways, thanks for reading, friends. <3