Watchmen - Pilot Review

They're driven by trauma. They're obsessed with justice because of some injustice they suffered. Ergo, the mask. It hides the pain. I wear the mask to protect myself, right, from the pain. There was a cavalry-involved shooting last night. You gonna give me the speech now? What speech? I should calm down, take a breath before we're at war again. No. There's a guy in my trunk. Delightful. Put him in the pod. You know why you're here? Some nun kicked in my door and put me in the trunk of her fucking car. What the hell? Hey! That is correct. I want my lawyer. Yeah, we don't have to do that with terrorists. Why would they start this shit up again? Maybe there was something they didn't want found. They had a mission. Tony just begun. Cavalry has our names and addresses. Are we safe, Angela? There's a vast and insidious conspiracy. If I told you about it, your head would explode. What is this?

This is the only way to show you the truth.

You need to help stop the Seventh Cavalry. From doing what? Those fuckers are trying to start a war. Well, it looks like you got things under control here. Cool costume. Thanks.

Welcome back to the channel. Hope you're having a great day. So a lot of people kind of forget that I started off, uh, well, a lot of my content started off doing television shows, entertainment, book to television adaptations, um, and a variety of, uh, interesting entertainment, cinema, uh, science fiction, fantasy. So a lot of that got— was part of the channel and some of my interests. So some of y'all probably remember some of that, so we go back to that ever so often. Uh, hence the entertainment in the education. But anyway, we're reviewing Watchmen, episode aired last night on HBO, and we want to talk about, uh, what we got in the episode. So wow, very powerful opening. Tulsa, Oklahoma. A lot of people aren't quite familiar with, uh, Tulsa, Oklahoma. I thought it was very interesting that they chose to open up with this very so powerful, moving. I kind of teared up looking at it. Tulsa, Oklahoma represented, uh, Black Wall Street. It was a, it was a town where, um, African Americans prospered greatly. They were very wealthy. They were, um, basically the mayors of the town, part of the, uh, the council, the city council, uh, very prosperous from a street full of Black businesses, um, and, um, white supremacist organizations and the, uh, the Ku Klux Klan, uh, came in and basically murdered people in the town. They took over the town. Um, you can kind of get an idea what happened in Tulsa during the opening of this, um, you know, of the television show. And, uh, just very sad to see, um, one of the narratives that's happening to Black Americans in, uh, America has been kind of this idea of a lot of African Americans aren't very valuable, that African Americans, uh, should be doing better, you know, than they're doing, that it is their choice that they're doing worse. But A lot of our history shapes us and makes us what we are today. And what you got to see in this true event that actually happened, you know, was that prospering Black people who had come out of slavery, which is harsh enough, was able to prosper and build and do such a great thing, feat within Tulsa, Oklahoma, only to have it destroyed by white supremacist organizations. that were jealous and envious and evil people. Uh, and it just didn't happen there. There are other areas similar to what it happened with. But I, I very much appreciate that the, the director and the writer, the show writers, chose to, to go this route with that, uh, so that we never forget the, the horrific incident and, and that we can avoid things like this in the future. So I very much appreciate that, and a lot of respect to this television show starting off like that. I also say based on a real life event, because remember in the Watchmen universe, a lot of things, it's almost like this is an alternate timeline, right? That's basically what it is. And so there's things happening in this alternate universe that doesn't happen obviously in our real life. So kind of contrast back to the Watchmen movie. A lot of people didn't like that movie. I liked the movie, but I also read the graphic novel and I understand why people thought that, um, you know, it missed out on a lot of stuff. It didn't really, you know, to its defense though, I, I think it's the really the Watchmen movie for me is what saved Zack Snyder, uh, when he went through all the Man of Steel, Justice League problems, uh, and I would always go back to the Watchmen movie and go, but you know what, you did the Watchmen, and because you did the Watchmen, Zack, you're always going to be able to kind of get a a reprieve here, even though I'm quite disappointed in how you destroyed Superman in the DC Universe. But Watchmen, you know, the differences, you know, of course, being in a graphic novel, there's this alien squid that is created by Ozymandias. And in the movie, it's a nuclear threat, right? You know, and I actually like the idea of a nuclear threat better. Some people didn't like that, but I thought that, I liked it better. But anyway, there are things that are happening in the Watchmen universe that's not happening in our universe. You know, for instance, Nixon, he became like a 3-term president. And then after that, Robert Redford, the actor, has been the president for the last 30 years. So it's, you know, so quite interesting, this world. That's based on a lot of our historical events, right? Similarities, but there are some changes there. And this happens, let's see, this actually happens about 33 years, looks like, after the Watchmen, the original Watchmen series. And so this is a sequel to that. Now, as you recall, the end of the Watchmen, you know, for those of you familiar with it, Manhattan, um, basically leaves Earth to, to save us, uh, by making himself be the threat to Earth, um, in a way that we would then basically come together, right? It's like if— imagine if a race of aliens came to Earth, it's probably likely we would at least put aside our differences to fight this, uh, alien threat, right? We have to come together as a world. And so Dr. Manhattan felt we could unite under peace, or rather That was Ozymandias' plan, you know, by making him the threat to the Earth. And then so he leaves off to Mars. And a lot of the setting of this Watchmen television show is set off that, right? So what's going on with this television show? This is kind of what I like about it, 'cause there's a lot of mysteries going on. It's not telling us a lot. So it's kind of keeping us watching. So I'm going to cover some of the good stuff and the bad stuff. So let's get our bearings here. So first, this new world is now under Robert Redford, is one that has progressed to the year— from the year 1985 to 2019. That is from the end of the Watchmen series to now the— basically the Watchmen television show in 2019. It is 2019 in their timeline, right? Uh, now as far as technology goes, Dr. Manhattan had created and left technology that they're using today, but there is also not a progression of technology like in our world. Like, they don't have the internet. You can see, don't really see cell phones. People are still using— people are using pagers, right? But then there's some, some advanced technology, like you see them flying around in Arty, right, which is Nite Owl's, um, uh, uh, hovercraft. And we're gonna, we're gonna get into You know, that and Who's Who. But it opens up kind of after the Tulsa kind of intro with this scene with this police officer. And you can see it is a world— it kind of reminds me of what happens in Europe and England, the protocol that they have to go through to get a weapon. And this happens with this Black police officer In this world, the Black police officers wear masks now to protect themselves. Right. And a lot of this has happened after the Rorschach Journal, because if you remember in the first Watchmen series, Rorschach published a journal that exposed the big lie between Adrian Veidt, or Ozymandias, and Dr. Manhattan to save humanity. Rorschach decided not to compromise, and because of that, he's killed by Dr. Manhattan. However, his journal does make it to the press. Right. Um, and so it's changed the world to the point he has a— there's a Code of Rorschach now that's going around hunting police officers. And, uh, so they have to wear a mask to protect themselves and their families and what have you. So this officer, obviously, as we got to see in the opposite, that's who he's gunned down by, this— the Code of Rorschach. They're also— they're actually known as the, uh, the, uh— oh geez, guys, you guys are gonna kill me. I had the name of it. Before I start the video. It'll come to me in the 7th chapter or something like that. It'll come to me a little bit later. But then there's basically Officer Sister Knight, who we got to see, who is a vigilante by night. And of course she wears a mask because she doesn't, you know, obviously want them, you know, be in danger by the, by the cult. They're now the Cult of Rorschach. I'm just going to call them the Cult of Rorschach until I remember these guys' names. So, um, it seems like the vigilante group here is working with the police officers, like they're using them to, to bust people and maybe do some of the things they can't do. And so she's this vigilante, uh, that goes by the name Sister Night, right? And you can see that she's, uh, very well trained. Um, she grew up in Vietnam. This is also interesting because Vietnam becomes a state in this alternate timeline. You know, it doesn't tell you all that in the, in the episode, but that's what happens. It actually becomes a state, and, and that's why she grows up and she's trained as a police officer in Vietnam, although she's American. It's because now Vietnam is a state. So, um, she's out doing this, hunting these vigilantes by, uh, or being a vigilante by night and, and helping to, to bring the cult of Rorschach to justice. Now we don't see any of the Watchmen heroes, right, from, you know, from the original series yet. But we do get this kind of weird, you know, conversation between Sister Night, who's played by Regina King, the Black female police officer who's the lead. We do get this strange exchange between her and Louis Gossett Jr., who's playing somebody, the old guy sitting in a wheelchair, and he's going, He's asking her, do you believe I can, uh, lift 200 pounds? So now the thing is kind of weird. Now, is he a hero, right? Because he's asking questions like that. Is he— is he— can he really do that? Is he a crazy person? What's going on here? And also, interesting enough, is he related to the young boy in the opening scene of Tulsa? Because they got to find some way to link Tulsa and this this, this young man to, uh, the show, right? And so I'm thinking this old guy, because he would have been around during that time, right? He would have been, uh, this has probably happened, looks like in the '20s or something like that, and he's, he's young at that time. So he's, he would probably be, you know, um, you know, that, that would, that young boy would probably be him as an older man, right? But is he a hero? What is he? Is he some type of, uh, you know, a hero that, that was, um, you know, out in the hero world at some point in time. Don't know, they're not giving us those answers yet. But there is a weird scene, obviously, when he's, he's found with, um, I believe his name's Jude. He's the captain of the police, um, force. He's found hung, obviously, at the end. He's next to him. So what is going on with that? We don't really know. It's a lot of mysteries here. We finally do get to one of the original heroes who's presumed to be dead, which is Ozymandias, right? Played by Jeremy Irons. Jeremy Irons doing a great job. He has these weird servants that don't seem to function like human beings, right? They seem to be kind of artificial life or something. And that might be due to— it kind of takes you back to the original Watchmen when Dr. Manhattan leaves. He's interested in human beings as he starts to develop this godlike complex. But he says, he says, well, I'll go create life of my own. So does he create some type of human beings or had he created them on Earth before he left or something? And does Ozymandias, has he somehow got access to these people and are using them for something? Right. It is very interesting, and I don't— I do not know, but there's something going on with Ozymandias. He's always planning something. Is he now planning a way to get Dr. Manhattan back to Earth for some reason? And then we also get— we did get a scene on the news with Dr. Manhattan constructing buildings on Mars, right? So, you know, so I think we're gonna get to see Dr. Manhattan sometime in the series. I believe there are 9 episodes, right? So this, uh, the quote of Warshack, which is, which is, uh, this, um, you know, this group that's also, uh, now basically, um, uh, killing police officers, a white supremacist group. Um, you know, they've captured the Knight Sister Knight has captured one of them for interrogation and, uh, is getting all their secrets and uncovering everything, uh, about what's going on with them. Um, obviously they're declared to be domestic terrorists, as you know, as they've been interrogated, there are no lawyers coming to— so, uh, Jude, you know, uh, basically they have this kind of— they find a compound of the, of the, of the cult, and they have this big shootout scene, uh, where we get to see Artie flown and, uh, fighting some of these, um, the, the, um Kota Warshak in the airplanes, right? Um, and Artie is able to, to, to destroy them, but it's damaged on the way down. Now here's where I'm confused about that. I've seen two things that are using the Night Owl's technology, but where's the Night Owl? Is the Night Owl dead? Because I thought Jude— I thought Don Johnson's character was going to be Night Owl, but obviously he's meant to be another character, right? So it's not Night Owl. Right, unless he's using a different name or something. But it's not Night Owl as far as I know, uh, and he wasn't flying already. Somebody else was flying already. So he— so he's not— he's not Night Owl. But apparently they've got Night Owl's technology. I don't know if Night Owl gave it to them. Maybe Night Owl gave them the technology. Maybe Night Owl's dead. But also, I believe Sister Night is wearing Night Owl's goggles in one scene, uh, where she can see. And I think that might, um, where she can actually see, uh, through his goggles. Uh, no, I believe those are Night Owl's goggles. So that's going to be interesting. They obviously have his technology. Um, and so we get this, uh, you know, this very heartwarming scene with Don Johnson performing, I believe, a part from Oklahoma, uh, with his family. And, uh, you know, then you kind of see it zooms out and they're all on this ticking clock, right? He's running out of time and he's, uh, summoned off to, um, basically, uh, um, uh, where he's, he's basically led off and ambushed, uh, where he's hung, he's killed. And, and we get this, um, this, the, um, the, uh, what I believe to be the young Black boy from Tulsa, Oklahoma, uh, sitting in a wheelchair next to the police captain or Jude hanging up. So Um, what's happening with him? Is, is there some type of conspiracy going on? Was he part of some type of, uh, conspiracy? Or is it just the cult of Rorschach that, uh, you know, decide to kill him, uh, you know, because he is a part of the, the, you know, the establishment or whatever the case may be? So, you know, this obviously is going to be a series as we progress with the answers as we go. Uh, we do seem to have, uh, episodes coming up with Silk Spectre. You know, Silk Spectre from the original series, uh, was, um, actually, uh, with, uh, John or Dr. Manhattan. Then she went on to Night Owl, uh, hero herself. The— she's the second Silk Spectre. Her mom was part of the original Minutemen, uh, and so, uh, Silk Spectre, an older version of her, will be in the next episode. So that's going to be interesting, and maybe That'll give us some insight into what's happened to all of the other characters, you know, in The Watchmen series, you know, what they're doing. And maybe she may have some information. We know Dr. Manhattan's on Mars. We know Ozymandias is presumed dead, but he's very much alive, planning, plotting something. And Silk Spectre is going to be hanging out with Nightsister. And hopefully a lot of answers will be given there. And it may actually be even related to the death of Don Johnson. Now, I'm I'm wondering, I don't know why I think this, people are saying that Don Johnson's character is not Nite Owl, right? But I'm just wondering, is it really, is it that he is Nite Owl, he was just using a different name, you know, or something? And is that gonna tie Silk Spectre in? I don't really know, but it looks pretty interesting. It did kind of, in certain parts kind of drag on a little bit, just a little bit, and I didn't like that. But as far as, you know, something with the acting, I don't think Regina King's a bad actress in this. Sometimes I wonder if she might be not cast properly, but she's doing an all right job. I, I don't really have complaints with Regina's part, you know, in this. But, um, and the writing seems good. I like the story at least. But I don't know, it kind of just felt kind of dragged on a little bit in certain areas of it, you know, that, you know, I kind of was kind of, hmm, felt like I was kind of watching the clock a little bit. But other than that, I thought it was pretty good. Powerful opening scene. I like the direction it's going in. I'm definitely going to stay tuned to The Watchmen. Guys, tell me all what you think about The Watchmen. You know, DC Comics fans, did you like it? You know, what didn't you like about it? Tell us, let us know. Uh, and if you like content like this, as always, don't forget to like and subscribe. And until next time, take care.