“What Will You Have After 500 Years?”
“You.”
Honestly if you start a movie with the end scene of this, you got a blockbuster on your hands. I thought this was very interesting.
[7.4/10] Watchmen is not a carbon copy, rehash, or recapitulation of, well, Watchmen, which is to say that the most admirable thing about this introduction to the television series is that it is clearly of the world and characters brought to life on the comic book page by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, clearly indebted to their approach and their style, but is also clearly its own thing. In an age where franchise extensions are ubiquitous and even nominally original films and T.V. shows offer reheated versions of familiar tropes, that in and of itself is refreshing.
That’s not to say that “It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice”, that mouthful of a title for an opening episode, doesn't take pains to remind you what its inspiration and source material is. The catch, and the thing that makes the premiere a little more admirable than other late sequels, is that those references and remembrances have a twist that reminds you of what came before while channeling it into what’s happening now.
So you have the chance to see the iconography of smiley face through a classroom baking demonstration. You have the same circular visual motifs in aerial shots that create the tableau of a clock face. With that, you have an ambient sound track of ticks to make the audience nervous, for clocks and bombs and more, at the same time some characters literally verbalize the onomatopoeia. You have police cruising around in something akin to Nite Owl’s ship. You have a crowd of Rorschach worshippers quoting his most famous speech from the comic. You have, as promised in the final pages of the original graphic novel, the legacy of a Robert Redford presidency. You have little baby squid falling from the sky and concerns that batteries from old Dr. Manhattan-technology cause cancer. If you’re a fan of the original Watchmen, there’s plenty to latch onto here.
But the trick is how those homages are used -- as a bridge to the current setting and the exploration of topics that were, at best, tangential to what the original Moore/Gibbons comic were exploring. “It’s Summer” ends in the same way as the first issue of Watchmen started, with a murder mystery over the untimely death of a member of the old guard, and his blood dripping down on his pin of choice, only now, the victim is a police sergeant, not a masked vigilante, and the blood is dripping down onto his police badge, not the iconic yellow expression that’s come to represent so much.
And therein lies the difference, and what makes Lindelof’s Watchmen admirable. It’s using the same iconography and approach to get at something different, something timely about the tenuous connection between law enforcement and race and justice in the same way that nuclear annihilation was timely in the 1980s. It represents a transformation of Moore and Gibbons approach, something that channels their spirit, without just following a cookie cutter roadmap or reconjuring the same conflict and themes in a shiny new box.
I like that approach. I like the themes that Lindelof and company are chewing on in this opening stanza. I like the character at the center of the narrative. I like the concept of police identities being hidden and every interaction rigorously authorized and recorded as something to wrestle with. I like the notion of the post-squid attack United States having to deal with Rorschach-worshipping, hard right, conspiracy theorizing domestic terrorists as the legacy of *Watchmen*s most famous character.
I am intrigued (if a bit apprehensive) about how the typical dynamics are mixed and inverted, with the conservative white vigilantes going after a police force that, in this opening episode at least, prominently features African Americans. I like the bizarre dichotomy between Nixon and Redford as opposing symbols on that axis. I like an aged, secluded Ozymandias clearly still haunted by the memory of Dr. Manhattan.
I just don’t love the execution of all of that just yet. This is HBO, so everything looks pretty damn good. There’s a slickness to the production, a fluidity to the action scenes, and an attention to detail in the cinematography and production design that let you know this is a high class production. There is style here and competence here, reflected in the quality of the shots, the construction of the world, and the performers enlisted to bring it all to life.
And yet there’s something oddly soulless about it all. For touching on such hot topics, and channeling such a well-felt story, “It’s Summer” struggles to feel like a real human story, rather than one of metaphors and abstractions finding convenient purchase in various characters. Pilots are tough, needing to introduce the major personalities, places, and conflicts of the story, and this one does it all ably, on top of drawing noticeable but not over the top connections to its inspiration. But there’s little here that grabs you with its realness instead of tapping you on the shoulder with its intriguing but strangely detached vibe.
Still, there’s enough here to chew on, and enough promise to keep coming back.# Watchmen the T.V. series gives away the game a bit in its 1921 silent film opening, giving us a cinematic throwback to match “Tales of the Black Freighter” from the comic. It’s a story about who can lay claim to being the arbiter of justice, who can rightfully wear a mask, and who can be treated and as worthy of enforcing the law in a time and place where racial tensions and disparities make that suspect. That’s what Lindelof and company want to get at in this, and their focus on the 1921 Tulsa ravaging of the black community that gets the son of one of the perpetrators hanged almost a century later, one who seems to have far more but overcome his father’s prejudices, it sets a tone for a show ready to touch a nerve, to challenge its audience, to get at the heart of current cultural divisions in this country.
It remains to be seen whether addressing those issues is enough to make up a compelling story, let alone one that carries the mantle of one of the definitive literary works of the twentieth century. Still, “It’s Summer” promises a series that takes its cues from the original Watchmen, but aims to emulate its spirit, not just its beats, which makes it worth seeing through beyond this first, solid but unspectacular outing.
Brilliant depiction of Lovecraftian horror. They got the vibes down right. Perfect.
Ooo who doesn’t love the “creepy alien things hidden away in caverns” thing.
Also, hail chthulhu :upside_down:
The only question is, who could be powerful and large enough to imprison such a gigantic beast?
INASIAL - I'm not a spy. I'm a lawyer.
Ironically, by ending it the way they did, they actually found a way to potentially revitalize the show and set up some new storylines. Maybe let it percolate for a bit and then do "specials" once a year or some such. In any case, I will simply say...,Sploosh!!! And that's all I have to say about that.
Oh god, that evil, vile, bathroom lady.
"honey, you gotta stop stabbing him"
An astounding finale on all levels. Poor Mark, to be put through all this shit. That leaves scars my man
such an incredible way to return to barry. barry has gone even crazier, sally’s parents suck, hank and cristobal are in santa fe, and gene is going viral. that last scene was incredible. can’t wait for more
WTFIOH = Who the fuck is Owen Hendricks?
Now I'm afraid every time I hear, "made in Georgia," I'll start crying, like one of Pavlov's dogs!
This is a great freshman season finale. Made better with truly wide ranges of performance from Paul Lee (Appa), complemented perfectly by his counterpart, Andrea Bang (Janet).
The episode is so much bigger than mere 20-minute running time. It's filled with great comedic moments (pimp daddy), perfectly awkward moment at the car rental shop, to poignant finale at the church and aftermath.
Dawn dropping the 'I'm not gonna write you a love song coz you asked me to'. Subtle jokes as always.
The Gloria and her ex thing is a bit overdone. I guess they're doing it coz her ex is her wife irl but they have a surprising lack of screen chemistry so wish there was something else going on.
[7.1/10] Not bad at all. I enjoyed Elfo making friends with his fellow freaks in Steamland, even if that storyline felt surprisingly disjointed given how much focus it got. Elfo developing a rapport with the seemingly headless, slot-jockeying fortune teller to his right is oddly sweet, and his unwillingness to accept her tarot cards predicting doom and gloom for their relationship feels true to form for the blithe li’l elf. The mermaid’s eye-rolling at it works, and Bean’s rescue mission is solid. Plus, there’s some decent gags about the other residents of the freak show.
Bean’s efforts to escape from Alva’s goons has its moments. I like that she ends up running into her steel horse-riding acquaintance from last season’s Steamland adventure. (Bean’s obliviousness to the woman’s attraction is an intriguing beat, depending on where the show goes with it.) Alva’s romantic salvos have some creepy creativity to them, and it seems like the show is pointing toward a Cinderella story with Bean’s lost boot, Not to mention, it turns out she has magic electricity powers, which is a big twist!
The weakest part of this one is Luci finding a replacement talking cat for Zog, only to get jealous of it. The vaguely Walken-esque cat doesn’t have a lot of laughs, nor does Zog’s continued Madness schtick. That said, I’m compelled by his statement that he has brief moments of lucidity that haunt him, not to mention Luci’s confession that he wants to rule Dreamland.
Overall, this is one that’s more intriguing in terms of plot than humor, but that’s more and more Disenchantment’s mode as it gets further in its run.
I really like the new season cover! Not my favourite one out of all of them. But it's great nonetheless!
Maximo: Hugo, you might be too young to understand this, but for adults, coffee is life. It's the one thing that keeps us going until it's late enough in the day to turn to alcohol.
Compelling, thorny episode, in which Diane wrestles with a complex dilemma and makes an Alicia-like decision that, excellently, both still stays true to her character but is a betrayal of her friend/colleague and half her principles. Baranski's best showcase in a long while, and she knocks it out of the park, especially her night scenes grappling with that dilemma, both before and after making her decisive move.
Speaking of those scenes, screaming at Elaine May guest starring as imaginary Ruth Bader Ginsburg lol.
I’ve never seen a person so determined to stand in the way of their own success than Steve. And he was so reckless. It was a miracle the brand survived and thrived at all.
Interesting start. What a stellar cast though. Sandra Oh and Holland Taylor. Wow.
“I can’t take my mum anywhere” - he missed the perfect opportunity for the Donny Dunn dance that would have been hilarious
