I thought it was a very compelling debut episode--looked and sounded great, very nice costuming, solid acting (Regina King is marvelous), great pumping score by Reznor and Ross, and an intriguing story that updates some of Alan Moore's themes for 2019 and our modern, Orwellian post-fact era. Why was it raining squid down from the sky? Is this some kind of residual phenomenon from the "alien attack" created by Veidt in the original book?
I read a few of the Before Watchmen comics, and found them mostly pointless outside of Darywn Cooke's great Minutemen series. Read about 4 or 5 issues of Doomsday Clock, and found it promising and intriguing (the new Rorschach shows up in the batcave), but it started to get slow and I forgot about it (I will read the collected version eventually). It's like DC / Warner Bros can't help flogging the Watchmen concept, and a lot of it has to do with how acclaimed the original Moore/Gibbons series still is. Funny how Moore resents DC retreading his ideas (though he has done the same with other literary characters in his latter series), and won't allow his name to appear in credits for these offshoots. I'm glad Gibbons is involved at least--there's a video online of him designing Regina King's Sister Night costume: "Watchmen": Dave Gibbons Illustrates Regina King's Sister Night [VIDEO]
not knowing about 'the squid thing', I've been reading around.... weird...that, in the movie, they have a bomb going off in NYC, and I always thought that slo-mo weightlessness of the people on the street was part of an attempt to be 'comic-book-like'. so, I was surprised it wasn't part of the book!
Oh yeah, the Snyder-directed movie streamlined a lot of the comic’s plot (when it wasn’t missing the point of the source material entirely).
Moore’s original 12 issue series from the 1980’s was more subtle and ambiguous. It also wasn’t too self-important and was partially satire. I agree more could be political, although he at times brings up some valid points he is sometimes wrong (especially V for Vendetta) and paranoid. He comes across as an anarchist of sorts and misanthropic. The original Watchmen slaughtered 3 million for “peace” but after Watchmen was written the cold war ended in “peace” without a shot being fired. An interesting point and irony about Watchmen and the squid - Reagan (Moore wasn’t a fan) used an alien invasion analogy at times to argue that the two sides (US and, at the time, the Soviet Union) could come together and end the cold war. The squid in Watchmen, if I recall, was used to have the two sides sue for peace, if you will. But 3 million were killed in the process. The squid idea seemed rather Lovecraftian to me, but an alien invasion scenario to end the cold war wasn’t an original idea - there was an Outer Limits episode from 1963 (The Architects of Fear) that as it’s plot had scientists planning to use a staged alien invasion to unite people against a common foe. Reagan may have (maybe not, I’m not sure) known about this episode. There was some controversy over whether Moore knew about this episode or “borrowed” the idea, but I think DC (I don’t recall with certainty) did give some credit to The Outer Limits in one of The Watchmen episodes. A DC editor supposedly objected to Moore’s insistence on the use of this alien theme for the Watchmen ending and quit over it.
Another Easter egg of sorts: spotted the Under The Hood book by the character Hollis Mason on Don Johnson’s character’s office desk.
Beyond racism and the rise of vigilantes I really don’t see much of a political agenda here. I don’t see anybody pushing any political agenda here what I do see is a series that is focusing on the consequences and outcome from the film (and the initial source). I’m interested in seeing what they do here. Just because the source ends doesn’t mean that they can’t explore more options in the same universe. One could argue the point that even the film and comic had their own political agenda but with the series I think it’s too soon to tell what, exactly, that will be. I do think that there’s certainly a hint that DL is continuing much of what was a bit more subtle in Moore’s work but, well, that’s me and I haven’t read it in a longtime. .
the other option is you might get used to the narrative structure and the presentation. Anything new is bound to set take a bit of getting used to in terms of the structure of the show itself.
Dave hasn’t however. I think that Alan will distance himself from anything of his adapted and not owned by him. Phil Dick the same thing with Blade Runner but Ridley Scott was able to charm him and, by involving him the process by showing him the visual effects footage and some rough cut material) pulled him in. I think he would have been proud of the result and it does examine the themes of Dick in a different but valid way. I do think that Alan just needs to get over it and try to be involved and having a say in what is created rather than give up and pretend they don’t exist. It is still one of his children even if raised by different parent. Maybe I just don’t understand why his extremist reaction since he refuses to be consulted or involved continues. Then again we all saw Extraordinary League of Gentleman and the mess they made of that property.
Not familiar with Transmetropolitan - I've added it to my Comixology wish list though. Will investigate! Beyond Alan Moore's work, I'm something of a neophyte when it comes to comics & GNs. I read Watchmen along with Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman back in the 1980s, but didn't have the means to explore much further and my local library had nothing at the time. I did read X Men for a time in the 90s but the multiple cross overs and sheer number of titles one needed to buy to keep up defeated me. (Marvel Unlimited has been a fantastic, unbelievably valuable resource for catching up on Marvel stories if one is only bothered about reading and not collecting physical books. Reading every last issue of Civil War and its tie ins was immensely fun!) Watchmen (obviously) still stands up. It's the only comic/GN I've bought one of those oversized hardback/slipcase Absolute editions of. Sandman I'm 1/3 of the way through rereading, having just finished the 3 of 10 TPB. DKR still holds up pretty well. Do not do Dark Knight Strikes again though, its awful. I've not bothered with DK Master Race on account my having issues with Miller's own positions on a number of issues. His Batman Year One though is wonderful; recommended. Otherwise my own favourites since returning to comic & GN reading a few months back and from back in the day: Alan Moore's Lost Girls. VERY explicit. Dorothy (Wizard of Oz), Wendy (Peter Pan) and Alice (Wonderland) meet as adults and share their respective stories, which turn out to be (as Moore describes it) compensatory fantasies about their formative experiences. Not for the faint hearted, but Moore brings a literary quality to a genre that previously had next to none. Geoff John's Batman Earth One. The Earth One books (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman etc) retells their characters original's stories outside of DCs own continuity, Batman in particular drops all of the paranormal and fantastical elements that weaken the main continuity (The Lazarus pits in Hush ruined that otherwise good story for me). I'm currently reading the New52 continuity Batman: Court of the Owls which, other than Earth One, is the best Batman story I've read in years. Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X Men. Runs with a single narrative thread, doesn't cross over with any other titles. Has Joss' now trademark humour and understanding of what makes these characters tick. Alan Moore's America's Best Comics run. League of Extraordinary Gentleman is best know. Tomorrow Stories is a wonderfully inventive anthology series - if you've ever read Moore's Future Shock stories for 2000AD, you know what to expect. Tom Strong returns to a simpler age of hero comics, as light an breezy as Watchmen is nuances and dense. Promethea started strong but ultimately turned into Kabbalah Illustrated. Top 10 is the story of a police station in a society where *everyone* has super powers; hi jinx ensure. LXG, Tom Strong, Tomorrow Stories and Top 10 are all highly recommended. I'm otherwise open to suggestions from anyone as to wider comic/GN reading, especially as between Kindle, Marvel Unlimited and Comixology together with my iPad Pro, the medium has never been so accessible or so affordable. Minutemen was easily the best of the Before Watchmen series, delving into the formation of the team and the events and issues that drove them apart. Other than that, each book was a by the numbers retelling of what the original story already made plain about each character. I've always enjoyed Straczynski's writing (Babylon 5, Sense8 and about to ready Superman Earth One), and his writing on Nite Owl and to a lesser extend Dr. Manhattan was good, itself just that the entire concept of Before Watchmen was a =t best superfluous and worst, ill conceived. Doomsday Clock is ok (up to issue 11 here) but the story ultimately matters more to the DC universe than it does to that of Watchmen. That might change with the last issue, will find out in December. If nothing else, Moore has been as good as his word and has had nothing nothing to do with the film and TV adaptations. No credit, no payment nothing. He's also been equally clear that he has no issue with his artists/collaborators receiving credit and (hopefully) payment if they want to be involved in the same adaptations. Moore may well be an old curmudgeon these days, but I wouldn't have him any other way.
It's no co-incidence that Moore is a huge Lovecraft fan, from nods throughout his works to an overt Cthulhu Mythos story in The Courtyard & Neonomicon. From what I remember, the Before Watchmen Ozymandias story has Adrian watching that exact episode of Outer Limitsand being 'inspired' to his plan in Watchmen itself.
2 graphic novel recommendations that are easy to make If you haven't read them, prepare to be amazed!
I found the first show good but lacking something as a standalone episode. Trade reviews seem universally glowing but they had the context of six episodes. So I'll stick with it based on that.
...I always thought that, for music usages, the movie should have set the Eighties scene by using Night Ranger's " Sentimental Street " and Regina's " Baby Love "!
I found DK3: The Master Race to be a great read. Miller got his story back on track (seconded on Dark Knight Strikes Again being awful, as was what I read of his All Star Batman & Robin), and the art by Andy Kubert is stunning. Highly recommend it. Check out Dark Knight: The Last Crusade one-shot along with it. You may want to add Hoopla Digital to your iPad--it's free with a library card if your local library supports it--15 or so digital borrows a month, eBooks, audiobooks, movies, TV and tons of graphic novels. https://www.hoopladigital.com/ It's like they had some great teams on all the Before Watchmen books, but not much to say. It was a chance for creators to play around with the characters. Incidentally, I'm quite a big fan of Straczynski's writing and his 7 year run on Amazing Spider-Man. I've seen Moore get slammed for mining existing literary characters for his later work, for mining the Charleston Comics characters for Watchmen, and seen him recently accused of outright mocking Steve Ditko's belief in Randian Objectivism with the character of Rorschach. I do admire Moore for his stance against DC retreading his ideas, however.
I have to say that I was unimpressed with the first episode, but it looks well done and I'll stick with it and see how it plays out as there are enough references to the original to show that they are fans of the source material. There was a weird scene that showed Doctor Manhattan through a TV or computer monitor destroying / uncreating a building, it looked like he was on Mars or something, it was brief and I'm trying to figure out what this might foreshadow but the scene was to music and made me think something was going on there, but it also looked like a Civ type video game. Also, they seem to lead you to believe that the mystery person is Veidt, but the story that he is scripting makes me think that he's another specific character and there will be some reveal. Or I could be completely wrong, the butlers were either clones or robots and I think Veidt would surround himself with a more intelligent species if it is actually him.
I can't really judge the series yet after one episode as it depends on where it goes but the score was absolutely brilliant. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
I thought episode one was well made, but uninteresting. Alan Moore's Watchmen is all about superhero comics and their form, and playing with the possiblities of the comic form. It's also about being a British person looking at America, which puts it at one remove. The new series is an American person looking at America, which is not the same thing at all. That's something we see all the time. I'm less interested in that, unless the creator can be really insightful. On the basis of this first episode, the creator of TV Watchmen has nothing new to say. But then I see it's the writer of Lost, Prometheus, and Star Trek into Darkness, all of which I hated. And, as with the feature film (which also wasn't very good), the TV show kind of genuflects towards comics, but is much less effective as translations than (say) Robert Rodriguez's Sin City or his Alita Battle Angel. Because neither film nor TV show really cares, not like Rodriguez cares. I once thought Alan Moore was overracting, taking his name off everything to do with Watchmen. But when the end credits of the TV show came up, I understood. I wouldn't want to be associated with this either. It's just cynical money making exploitation, pretending to be something more serious. Everything they've come up with to milk Watchmen, the spin off comics, the film, now this, none of it is anywhere near as good as the original series, and none of it adds to the original series. I've started reading Alan Moore's novel Jerusalem. It's clearly going to take a while to get through, and it's also quite irritating in palces. But I think about it a lot, and I'd rather spend my time reading through it, than watching this series.
The show seems closer to the spirit so far of the comic more than Zach Snyder's Cliff's Notes movie version of the original graphic novel (which had the bone-crunching violence, but completely missed the boat on some of Moore's bigger themes like destiny vs fate and how that played into the creation of someone like Doctor Manhattan).
having just watched it i agree with your first two sentences, but not the rest. my understanding is that the show sort of pivots in the second episode, so looking forward to seeing that. but man i'm just not sure this material is workable on the large or small screen. this pilot episode feels like an episode of lost + the leftovers with unexplained costumes thrown in. i like lindelof, actually, but i'm not sure how a series was sold on the merits of just that episode.
To the poster asking about comic series/graphic novels that may appeal along the same general lines as Watchmen, I would highly recommend “Planetary” by Warren Ellis and fantastic art by John Cassaday that ran for 27 issues ending just over a decade ago. Along with Preacher, my favorite comic series of the past 25 years.
