The Review: Watchmen Episode 1

Episode 1: Its Summer And We're Running Out Of Ice

Full of spoilers. I did not even want to give this show a chance when I first saw the trailer. I had zero interest in watching a series based off of Watchmen. Like, none. But after watching the second season of Legion and remembering how stubborn I was about that show and then ended up loving it I decided to check this out today. Holy shit. This starts off with a historical incident that I did not know even happened. It starts off in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921. This kid is watching a silent film with his mother playing piano in a theater. The kid is enjoying himself while the mother weeps and she plays. Next thing you know his dad bursts into the place with a rifle and they run off. The Black people in the streets are being dragged, shot, burned, and attacked. There was even a goddamn airplane shooting people! This was real shit that happened that I never heard of! It is known as Tulsa race riot, the Tulsa race massacre, Greenwood Massacre, and the Black Wall Street Massacre.

The kid is placed in a trunk by his father and given a note and sent on his way. The kid wakes up on the side of the road. The driver and a lady are dead. He picks up a baby and...credits. In present day this guy driving his truck is pulled over by a cop. The cop is wearing a mask that covers the bottom half of his face and the guy jokingly asks him to remove it after being asked if his truck can be searched. The cop gets a license and heads to his patrol car to get permission to get his gun. The gun is attached to a lock and they have to get permission to use it depending on the threat level. It takes three tries and by the time he gets it the guys riddle shim with bullets wearing a Rorschach mask.

Angela is a fucking warrior. She can kick all of the ass and I am getting ahead of myself. She gives a quick cooking lesson in her sons class when she starts to answer some questions as to why she is baking now and not a cop. This kid says some smart mouth shit and her son attacks him. On the way home it rains squids. She gets a call regarding the policeman that was shot from Chief Crawford. She captures a guy and interrogates the shit out of him in costume. She looks like a nun ninja. They track down this group called Kalvary that wear Rorschach masks and want to commit all kinds of hate crimes. And with that I am gonna stop recapping this episode.

I was surprised by how great this show looked. They have plenty of nods to the original comic book but managed to make this story its own thing just from the first episode. This is an alternate reality so Robert Redford is president. Cops wear masks. Dr. Manhattan is on Mars still. Vietnam is the 51st state after Manhattan won the Vietnam War. I looked ahead at the directors and writers for this series of nine episodes and was happy to see the same names repeatedly. The acting was good. That first scene with the massacre fucked me up after finding out it was real. I can't wait to check out more episode of this show.

Regina King as Det. Angela Abar

Don Johnson as Judd Crawford

Tim Blake Nelson as Wade

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Calvin “Cal” Abar

Andrew Howard as Red Scare

Jacob Ming-Trent as Panda

Dylan Schombing as Christopher “Topher” Abar

Louis Gossett Jr. as Will Reeves

Jeremy Irons as Adrian Veidt

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