Watchmen
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Watchmenis interested in how we gaze upon the world and the world gazes back.
The plays that challenge us.
The films that enchant us.
The television that lulls us.
A young black boy no older than 5 sits alone in a theater watching a Western with rapt attention.
On the screen, a black hooded figure captures a scoundrel with panache.
Then with grand gestures, he reveals himself to be Bass Reeves, one of the first black U.S.
Marshals who went on to have a lengthy, famed career working primarily through Oklahoma and Arkansas.
This, he must bear witness to as well.
The young boy is sent along with friends who cant make room to take the parents.
Be strong, he advises his son.
The young boy wakes in a field surrounded by dead adults.
The only other survivor is a baby he soothes as they head down the road to an uncertain future.
But the dynamics here are different.
This black man is a cop.
Soon all the whores and race traitors will shout Save us!
and we will whisper, No.
Threading together our understanding of this world and its history is Angela Abar (an electrifying Regina King).
At first blush, she lives a simple life.
Shes in a loving marriage to Cal (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) with three adopted kids.
Shes starting her own bakery.
Shes a committed mother and wife.
The only thing is, she hasnt retired.
Instead, shes adopted the moniker of Sister Night.
Violence comes into Angelas life as certainly as the tide, and she relishes it.
It isnt just Angela that finds some sort of comfort and thrill in violence.
Fellow detectives Red Scare (Andrew Howard) and Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson) do, too.
Learning more about the police and their methods muddles the shows perspective on racial violence in this first episode.
If I defecated on the American flag, how would that make you feel?
Looking Glass asks at one point.
But the images that remain with me most are of Angela in motion.
One of the most scintillating moments comes after Angela suits up in her Sister Night attire.
But I didnt think theyd fade so violently or swiftly.
Big oak tree out on Rolling Hill, something you oughta see there.
I know who you are.
Dont wear no goddamn mask.
But whats most bruising for Angela is overhead: Judds body hanging from the tree.
How will witnessing this kind of violence, so close to her home, change Angela?
Will she succumb further to violences allure, or shun its numbing effects?
Under the Hood
Veidt officially declared dead, a headline reads.
But of course, that isnt true.
What does it mean?
So, does this suggest its an inside job?
One of the things I wondered going into this series was if it would take itself too seriously.
