Hello, everyone. I'm Roger Jordan and this is the Serial Fanatic, the podcast for fans of everything. Welcome. Today I'm joined by Andrew bloom of the andrewblog.net to talk about the 2019 Watchmen television series.
We discuss the role the series plays in the greater Watchmen canon, if that lines up with our expectations for the show and if the show succeeds on its own merits, apart from the property. This was recorded before I read the comic sequel to Watch him, which recently included titled Doomsday Clock. After reading and dismissing that on the hands of his comic sour, I feel much better about the show than it sounds in our discussion. Regardless of my opinion, every podcast with Andrew is a good time.
On to the discussion. Hello, everyone. I'm here with Andrew bloom of the andrewblog.net and Andrew, how are you? I'm doing very well, Robbie.
I'm feeling a little different about the omelet that I ate yesterday, but I'm in good spirits. Glad to be here talking about Watchmen with you. Yeah. Omelets breaking next.
I heard. I heard a story about that. I assume it was from those egg castle creeps. They got to me.
They did. They got to me. They're pernicious like that. We're talking about Watchmen, the television show 2019's Watchmen.
Spoilers contained within for the show and the comic book. You shouldn't really listen to this. If you haven't read the comic and or watched the show, you should absolutely read the comic book. My feelings about the television show will be revealed probably very quickly, but this is a mystery box.
I can keep on one of Robbie's feelings about the Watchmen. Okay. I don't know where I'll start with this, Andrew. Before we get into the content in the content of the television show and probably content of the comic to a certain extent.
First and foremost, I mentioned a lot of things. You and I talked about comic movies a lot. That is true. And I always obliquely reference creators rights and how, you know, a lot of comic book creators who've made these characters that have earned these giant companies billions of dollars literally don't get as much of the credit or money they deserve for creating these characters because of how contracts were written about work for hire work at the time in the 60s, 50s, 40s, and later even.
And I would say that's a conversation for another day. I would. I always say, I always kick the can down there because it is a big conversation. However, I'm gonna.
I'm opening that can of worms right now. And I think it's fair for Watchmen in particular because when you're talking about Marvel characters, let's say the Avengers, Iron man, the Hulk, they're created by Jack Kirby and Stanley and mostly Jack Kirby. Jack Kirby did most of it and Stanley, for most of his life, works for Marvel. Even after he wasn't actively editing or writing any comics, he was still employed by Marvel Comics.
Jack Kirby was not. Jack Kirby passed 30 years ago at this point. But he's gone. He's gone.
You know, when I watch the Avengers, I go, oh yeah, Jack Kirby does it, but he's passed. I don't. You know, he's probably his. I know his descendants.
We're gonna talk probably a lot about legacy in this podcast, so can't imagine why. I know it's crazy, but I'm sure they care a lot about it. But it doesn't impact me as much because I know he's passed. He's passed for 30 years.
Al Moore as well. He's alive. He's still writing, writing things. Probably writing a million page book right now.
This at this very moment. I tried to read Jerusalem, his novel, which is a thousand pages or whatever, a million words. I got a 30% of the way through and I put it. It's just.
It's too long. It's too long. Alan Moore's disavowed any work that is connected to Watchmen. His name is non credit to the television show.
It's they say. I believe they credit Dave Gibbons where they say co created by for DC Comics. Dave Gibbons. No mention of Alan Moore, the other creator.
Isn't that deliberate? He specifically doesn't want his name on these. Yes, exactly. Alan Moore.
They're skimping on getting a creator. No, no, no. But it's. Alan Moore's a living creator and it was may news when this came out.
And they asked him how do you feel about it? Because it always makes news every time something washing happens. Either they have a prequel comic book, the movie comes out, this television show comes out, the sequel comic book that just ended just wrapped up its run. They asked him how do you feel about.
And he's like, I get this question a thousand times. They stole the comic. They stole it from me. And Alan Moore watching me out in 1985 and Alan Moore at that point time he knew about Jack Kirby.
It was not a secret. He knew Jack Kirby created all these characters and he didn't get paid for them for all the. Even though there's some movies really at that time. But There was action figures and Slurpee cups, says Al Mo, I think specifically mentioned Slurpee cups for some reason.
But he knew Jack Kirby to get paid. And when he created Watchmen with Dave Gibbons, he thought he was protected. He thought he would end up owning the Watchmen characters in this story and everyone involved in it. But he got swindled.
DC used a loophole in the contract to deny him. The rights reverted back to him multiple times over. And therefore he disconnects himself from any work connected to Watchmen. David Lindelof himself said he asked Alanor to to get his blessings.
At least watch it. Do you know an armor? No, thank you. Go away.
So let me just add one detail here and correct me if I'm wrong. Doesn't Alan Moore disavow any adaptation of something he's done? At least in comic book thing that he's done? I mean, most of it is because it's owned by this stuff.
Like aside from Lee, Extraordinary Gentleman V from Vendetta. Owned not by him. Watchmen not owned by him. He's trying to think of other work.
He's like, you might not like, you may know. I don't know if you probably don't know this Edger about the other dc. He co creates one thing. Yeah.
But I'm pretty sure his name's not on that either. Right. Like he said, disparaging. He doesn't care about something.
He knows his daughter just came out. Like there's a. You don't. You're not as dilated in comic book news as I am.
But there was a bigger fuffle when the sequel comic came out. And you know, Alanore is a grumpy old man at this point and he's very tired of asking answer questions about watching probably. And his daughter came out of it and was like. You notice that he doesn't ever say anything about Swamp Thing or John Constantine, who he also co created because he knew he wouldn't own them.
He knew he was doing work for hire. He never complains that they're being used by DC for whatever reason that he's not getting a royalty cut? Of course he's not. He knows what he was doing.
Hasn't he spoken ill of them? No, not DC Comics. But has he spoken ill of later adaptations and things like that? I mean, he generally speaks ill about superheroes in total because they have.
Okay, I just want to mention all that upfront as a larger appeal that I am going to be predisposed to. Not like this. I'm gonna have A bias that has to be. Okay, look, it's good that we acknowledge our biases.
This is an important thing. But I also don't think that's a good reason to hold it against Damon Lindelof or any of the creative people who work on this show who have nothing to do with any of the business side. Well, I don't hold it against the measure. I hold this television shogunession because I did not like it.
Okay. All right. Well, mystery box opened. I just want to say that out loud.
First and foremost, Alan Moore was wronged by Warner Brothers, dc, whoever was in charge and has been in charge for a long time. He was wronged. And I don't really. Yeah, he's grumpy.
That's not a crime. Because they crushed his enjoyment of superheroes. It was his favorite thing growing up, and now he hates it because they kind of destroyed it for him. I want to let everyone know who's listening to this, know that about Alan Moore and how these companies work.
But I asper from all that you could, Alan could be perfectly happy about Watchmen and what they've done, what's done for him. I don't think the show is very good, and I don't like it. I will offer the dissenting view. I know.
Let's put this. I agree that Alan Moore is wrong, and I agree that he has good reason to be grumpy about things, if occasionally. It doesn't mean to air that grumpiness. I mean, when you get an interview, Andrew, people are going to ask you questions.
Will you say no comment 100 times? I mean, there's. As one of my favorite quotes from all of Mad Men is, there was a nice way to say that. And then there's a way you said, eh, I don't.
I'm not off. Okay. But that's the fact. I was saying this is not a here or there.
I will say. Okay, Alan Moore aside, I want to ask you a couple questions. You like this a lot, it seems. Right?
I did. I thought I walked into the series expecting to dislike it, both because I think that the original source material is somewhat sacred and didn't need a sequel to it. And we walked in very skeptical. And I walked away feeling appreciative of how Damon Lindelof and the team of writers and creatives that he put together made it their own thing, used it to not just reheat what Watchmen had already said and done, but to push it in a new direction and introduce new things in a new way.
I Walked in expecting to kind of hate this or at least be bored by it, and walked away. Maybe not loving it, but at least being very impressed at what I was able to accomplish. Okay, I want some ground rules to establish what. I'm just curious what you think about these questions.
Okay, let's do it. Do you think, do you think the show expects a viewer to have read the comic? I don't think it expects them to have read the comic. I think you can watch and appreciate the show even if you have not seen the comic book.
But it's going to make a lot more sense and have a lot more emotional resonance if you have. Okay. And is this set, is this a direct sequel to that comic book? Does it take place in the same universe, the same characters with the same canon?
Yes, absolutely. Okay. I don't know who these people are, Andrew. Okay, which people?
All of the old characters, all the new characters. Oh, okay. I don't. This first Dr.
Manhattan is unrecognizable to me. I don't know who's Dr. Manhattan is. He's a fine character.
If it wasn't Dr. Manhattan. I don't recognize him as Dr. Manhattan.
I don't recognize him, Ozymandias for that matter either. I think you could. You could shortcut away some of Ozymandias weirdness because the fact he's locked in that on Europa for eight years apparently. But still, I don't reckon.
I don't know who this character is. I love Jeremy Irons and I think Jeremy Myron. I think all the performances are great, honestly. Except for maybe the senator guy.
I don't like that. Don't like Bob Benson. I agree. Because he's.
He doesn't do. He's not terrible, but he doesn't do a great job. I think some of it's just the writing. I don't think it's his fault some of the time.
But some of the choices in his performance I don't like. But other than him, I have no complaints about the actors. They are all well cast. Something really smart casting in a lot of ways.
I don't recognize this Osmanias I don't recognize as Dr. Manhattan. I guess Night Owl has vanished off the face of the planet. He's not in this thing.
We don't even if he's mentioned aside from his ship once and he's in Laurie's joke that she tells to the blue phone. But he's in prison. They go through that in the Laurie episode. He's in prison.
Yeah. They talk about that when she's having a conversation, I can't remember who she's talking about. I think it's probably. It may actually be the senator guy where he says, you know, maybe if things go right here, I can help your wing a friend out of prison.
If you read the PDPEDIA materials or whatever it is, they go into more explicit detail that basically Laurie and Dan Driburg were at some point arrested after returning to mass adventuring, cut a deal to join the FBI, and Dan refused to do anything. And so he's in prison to this day. Okay, I like. Laurie's fine.
I don't have complaints. Laurie is great. Laurie is not fine. Laurie is amazing.
No, I mean. I mean, other. She's. I can recognize her as the same character as from the comic book.
I just. The plot heavily is about Dr. Manhattan. It relies a lot on Dr.
Manhattan and I. You talk about this in your review of the final episode about love and his love of Angela and the relationship. And maybe if it was a different character, I would feel differently. If it was a separate.
Not someone I didn't acknowledge. This is Dr. Manhattan, because Dr. Manhattan is not this person.
I don't know who this man is. This. I mean, God is, I guess, this demigod. I don't know who it is.
I can't. This isn't Dr. Manhattany. It's not even close.
It's just some weird version of him. Like, I can't. I can't make that connection. He's like a lot of people having a kid, even in, out.
I mean, I get what you say. Of all the characters in the HBO Watchmen, I think Dr. Manhattan is the one that I struggle with the most. Where he does feel the most different from his comic book alternative.
That said, I like what they do with him. And I like that he is still this detached demigod. He is still acting, if not in every respect as to the comic book counterpart, then at the very least somebody who is operating on the same principles and doing so in an interesting way. Okay, I'm going to ask you a question.
And I missed the thing about Night Owl, so maybe I missed this, too. And I don't want to. I don't want the answer. Oh, because.
Because he had to. That's not a good answer. Okay. Why does Dr.
Manhattan walk into that bar? Because he loves Angela. But why does he love Angela? I know.
Because she rescues him at the end and experiences time all the same time. However, that. That's another paradox. They use that trick multiple times in this And I don't like it at all.
Oh, that's how I love that part. I love the layered storytelling that makes it work. And I love how it reflects the idea that love is not just this linear progression, but that it is this bundled, jumbled thing that we experience in different ways. I think that's the most beautiful part of this entire series.
It's clever, Andrew. This show is clever in its construction, but it's smarter than it, it's not as smart as it thinks it is. I just can't. It's trying to do so much and as it should.
It should. It's. None of these people are Alan Moore. As much as people rag on Alan Moore and as much as people want to criticize him and try and pull down on what, you know, how canon and how important Watchmen is, Watchman is important.
Watchman is a masterpiece of a comic book. It is the, and it still is integral to the history of that medium. And these people, I'm sure that they're very talented, clearly. Like, I think most of the writing is very good, but it's, I, I, my problem is foundational, where they're, they are, they're like, oh, well, because Dr.
Manhattan experiences things at all times. We just have it so that he's in love with Angela and then he's, because he's in love with Angela in 2019, he's also in love with her in a bar. So he walks into that bar where she's at. Except I, I'm not.
I, I, I really like the Manhattan episode where we experience time closely to how he experiences it because it reminds me of that. The one good episode of Castlefox season one. Oh God, let's go back there. The one, there's that one great episode and I, that's, it reminds me of that.
And I think it's very cleverly structured and framed. But, but he still does things for reasons other than he knows they happen. That's not all the reasons. He still has some human habits.
And it's not like he just randomly picks a woman and then meets her and then they are in love, you know, simultaneously for 50 years or whatever it is, 30 years. But Dr. Manhattan experiences time, experiences causality so different from the rest of us. I think it's a feature, not a bug.
And it is one of the trickiest things in the world to try to capture in a linear medium the expression of causality and the expression of affection in a non linear way. Andrew, please. I understand. It's well put together, you know, how you get around it.
You include a show, you make a show that doesn't have Dr. Manhattan in it. Okay. But that takes away what I think makes this better than just a garden variety buff story.
I. It is exactly a garden variety love story. I disagree. I disagree.
I appreciate the messiness of it. And I feel like that's how it captures. It was something I said in my. Right.
Episode. I think that love is messy and that cause and effect are messy. And that by jumping back and forth in time through different experiences and different events, this show conveys that through Dr. Manhattan's perspective in a way that would be almost impossible if you were just telling A, from point A, point B to point C story.
I felt nothing. Okay. Well, I mean, you know, different things are going to lead different people cold. And I.
I get it. I get there's things that are going to connect with some people and not with others. I don't think it's fair to slay it for doing what is at least a very creative method of storytelling to convey a very complex idea. Well, I brought that up.
Not because I thought it was corny and terrible. Because you hate love. I hate love, yes. It's all these.
Dr. Manhattan is not a hero. He's not a good guy. That was integral to the comic.
These are all flawed. Even as a guy, he's not good. None of them are. And I don't think he's a hero here either.
He lets himself die because he knows that in that causality chain it ends up with no one becoming a God. I. I disagree with that. Both that premise and that conclusion.
Why does he let himself die then? Because he loves Angela and that he thinks she's going to become the God he knows she's going to become a God. I. He hates being a God.
He hates it. Does he hate it? Does he. Does he experience hate?
Yes. Yes, he does. He experiences, like, literally. It's canon in the comic book.
They quarter him in a talk show and accuse him of giving cancer to one of his old girlfriends. And he literally gets angry and disappears and turns off all the power. That's. I would call that anger.
I'll give you that. He has human emotion. He's not suddenly emotional. He's not Spock.
He's not. He's emotionally stunted. His emotions are severely repressed because he's been massively detached from humanity. He's.
Well, he leaves humanity in the first place because he hates being around them because they're so disparate from him. And I don't think that's a. That's necessarily. I feel like that's an indictment of his powers and what he is.
And when you have him, like, literally the first time we see him is coming back into a bar with a bunch of people and talking to this woman. It's fundamental. It's a fundamental difference between the character in the comic book and the character in this television show. And if you're gonna.
If you say this is. This is the same characters, if they are exactly the same, I can't rationalize any world where, oh, he just got tired of living on Mars, so he set up a decoy nick into Earth and impersonated a human. Okay, wait, wait, wait. He didn't just set up a decoy on Mars and get tired of it.
He tried to create life. He had that experience and ended up feeling empty from it, so went searching for greater connection. Can I ask why he did that? Because it was a influence of the moment of pure joy that he had experienced as a child.
He tried to reflect that and replicate it for himself. They made. Okay, they made that up again. Yeah, It's a story.
You make things up. I understand that, but this is a sequel. He's gone through experiences since he saw him in Watchmen, and those experiences have changed him and given him different things, different emotions, different. Involved his childhood.
They establish new facts about his child in this series, which is. Changes what he was in the original, which changes that. That is what I'm saying. Mildly.
Mildly. That part does. All it is, is him. He sees joy.
It impacts it. Of all the scratches to the canon that this series does, that is, at least in my estimation, by far the mildest episode. I don't mind. There's.
Yes, there's other retcons in this. I don't mind them because they're interesting and they don't like. Like, actively affect what is a character that the plot hinge is upon. If Dr.
Manhattan's not in this. In this story, there is no story because he's a MacGuffin. Literally. That's what the people.
What the guy. Everyone wants both the Seventh Calvary and Lady True. I don't mind Hooded justice being Angela's grandpa, which. That is a retcon.
He's pretty. They try and play off like the original comic, you know, they never actively confirm his identity in the original comic, but it's said without saying it. It is a German guy who had connections to the Nazis. I don't care if they erase that and make it a black man and he's been like, actively dig into the fact that, you know, all of our superheroes are immigrants or immigrant metaphors like Superman, which they mention in the show.
I think it's very interesting. I love the. I guess the flashback episode, the nostalgia episode. That's very interesting.
Like, there's a lot of really interesting things I don't think. Like, I think this is bad. I think it's interestingly bad and very well done. It's beautiful.
That's something. It's beautiful. Interestingly bad. It's beautiful.
I like that. I wish it was. I wish that Dr. Manhattan wasn't in this, which Ozymandias was in this, because those are the things I think this gets wrong.
I don't know who Ozymandias is either. He's some bumbling fool. Some bumbling, rundown, bumbling fool. Yes, I agree with that characterization.
He's played for last. He's a comedy character. I mean, when he's stuck on Europa, when does he get off Europa? Andrew, what episode?
Episode nine. Okay, then I guess. Wait, is it the end of episode eight? No, it's not episode.
It's episode nine. You see flashbacks to him in episode eight where he has this conversation with Dr. Manhattan. And I would not characterize him as a bumbling fool in those interactions.
80% or more for Springtime is he. And okay, the last time we see him, he's getting hit on the back of the head with a wrench by Conspiracy nut Cop Man Looking Glass Mirror Guy. Think you mean Tim Blake Nelson, One of the best characters and performances out of this whole damn thing. He's great.
He is. But he's not smarter than Ozymandias. I mean, Ozymandias at least did go through some crazy shit just now and is maybe not in Best Mind I. It's.
It's just like the smartest man in the world. Doesn't have to mean unbeatable or, like, can't get whopped upside the head with a wrench when he's not looking. Again, he. That is the why he's such a.
Such so awful in the original comic book. I'm gonna keep coming back in the original comic. That's why he's so awful. It's because he's the villain.
He's the villain in Watchmen. He's a hero and he's the villain because he's handsome and he's a narcissist. He's an egomaniac, even. He's borderline sociopathic.
He's also the smartest man alive. And he's never wrong. He's also, what, 80? And has been living on an isolated planet with nothing but clones for eight years.
Why is he in this story? I guess for several reasons. He serves the character of Lady Drew in explicating the themes of legacy that this explores. I think that his escapades on Europa are basically the curse of the Black Freighter for this show in a lot of ways that it's some seemingly weird stuff that ends up being thematically relevant for what the purpose of the show is and what the theme of the show is.
I think he is there to help allow Lindelas Watchmen to grapple with the legacy of the comic book in some ways, and that he is a vital ingredient to that and to try to. I mean, maybe not answer the question, but at least explore the question. Did what Ozymandias did in the comic book end up saving the world? Was it for the better or was it for the worse?
And what kind of a man would do that? And to continue those questions, what kind of man would live with that? And how would they live with that? I hate all the erpocenes.
I hate them. They're not funny. I knew exactly what was happening after the second episode. The mystery did nothing for me.
I was like, okay, he's isolated somewhere. How could that possibly happen? It was Ash Manhattan. These are all clones.
Obviously. Like, I like giving. So I didn't pick it up until, I think, episode three or four at the earliest. Even then, I had different thoughts as to why, like, was Dr.
Manhattan punishing Ozymandias? You know, I got that they were clones, but why were they clones? What was the purpose? Eventually it ties into the Dr.
Manhattan creation story. I spent a lot of this joke going, what the hell is going on in cosmic. And what was the point of all this? But then felt satisfied with the answers that we got in the end.
They both, A, worked on a plot level for me, but B, worked on a thematic level as well. I, again, I just. He ultimately doesn't matter. I disagree with that entirely.
How does he. How does he impact the plot? He results in the death of Lady True, who is otherwise poised to become Dr. Manhattan.
Like, I get it, but I mean, it's a big thing. It's a super big thing. Any, but they could have anyone kill Lady Trieu in any variety of clever ways. Okay, he makes it.
I mean, again, for any story, there's alternate ways you could tell the story, but he matters to it. He's also the one who creates the device that allows Dr. Manhattan to become Cal avar. Which I'm sure is not your favorite.
You know, it helps Dr. Mahattan's turn out your favorite answer. But at least something that's plot relevant to matters. I mean I.
I love the fact that they cast a Black man as Dr. Manhattan and made him become a black man while he's a human. If they're do that, I think that's the like for all the things. Like it's all foundational.
It's all the very bottom layer of this. I think like working their way up. They made right choices. But this Ozymandias is an idiot.
He's a moron. I don't know about that. He's a moron. He's an idiot.
And like he's not the only one, Andrew. I think he figures out how to signal his daughter from a gilded cage a bazillion light years away. He figures out how to defeat her even when he's been beamed out of the fire zone. Yes, the catapult's very, very exciting.
You work with the tools at your disposal. Sure. But he's not. Okay.
I think Angela is. Could be a very interesting character. But the more I think about it, the less I like her. The character.
Not because she's. Because she's unlikable or anything. It's like she's. I can't.
There's like, what is she? What like where. I can't. I can't grab what her character is.
I don't know who Angela is. She's a cop. And because cops were nice to her after her parents were killed by a bomber and she, she's the person, one of the, you know, she's like our closest connection to one of the. People wear mask.
I know they want it and we're getting the masks. Oh God. But I'm going to ask you a question, Andrew. Okay, let's hear.
Did she forget she was married to Dr. Manhattan until we knew it? No, she knows the whole time. Okay.
At least my re understanding. No, I. I know, I understand. This is.
I understand. It's a leading question when a trillionaire. A trillionaire? Yeah.
She says Lady True says she's a trillionaire. I don't. Which, I'll take her word for it. She seems to be very smart.
When a trillionaire moves into Tulsa, Oklahoma and starts building a giant compound. Maybe it might be connected to your God of a husband. I don't know. Honestly, if she had figured that out before the true reveals, it would be one of those.
Was Angela reading the script moments. And I guess it's also impacted by the fact that you can't exactly, you know, just pop open the can that is Callie or ask Dr. Manhattan what he thinks and then shoves him, shove him back in. Like, if she.
If she takes this step, she is completely blowing up her life. I just. It is just a huge thing. I just keep going, like, wait a minute.
She obviously knows her husband is a God, the most powerful man on Earth. If he even once knows that he has his powers, he immediately becomes the most powerful man on Earth. And I'm not going to expect her to assume the seventh Calvary is going to try and kidnap him and let a senator become a God or whatever, but when you have a trillionaire, a person who is, I'm assuming, famous because they're rich beyond anyone's wildest dreams has enough money to build whatever that thing is in the millennium clock. Yeah, sure, the millennium clock.
But it's actually like her transporter thing. Right? Right. There's whatever.
Who cares? Science section, machine, double feature. It's the thing that does the thing. Presumably she's this, you know, incredibly famous person and she's incredibly rich and she's moved into Tulsa, Oklahoma, bought up a lot of land.
And I would, if I had a God for the husband who at a moment's notice, if found out would be the most, like, the biggest news story in the world. I would probably be very wary of things. I don't know. I.
It's just, I. I mean, that assumes so many leaps. It assumes that somebody knows that Dr. Manhattan is with her, which nobody would have reason to.
It assumes. I mean, there's some level of purpose. It also assumes, again, that maybe, even if Angela is suspicious of Lady Drew, which arguably she is, based on their limited interactions even before the big reveal happens. Even if she's suspicious, the only.
She has one choice. She has one choice in this whole situation, which is take his freaking skull and introduce it to a hammer. Well, I mean, they can't have gone to Antarctica or something else. But they don't have a lot of options if she's wary of this, which she seems to be.
Why can't you just put the thing back in? I mean, you can. You can put Dr. Manhattan into another body, but his is.
I mean, the Calabar one is wrecked. I mean, I. I thought they just. He just patted himself after that body.
He didn't actually take the body. I guess I read it as him actually patting the body. There's no corpse after she Hits him in the hammer. But then, I mean, I think he's.
He's still functional. But I mean, there's the whole point of when I can't remember the exact scene. I think it's talking. Yes.
When she's talking with William Reeves and he says, maybe I'm Dr. Manhattan. And it's like, Dr. Manhattan can't change horns.
It's not a power of the past. He needed that body to look like Galior. And I will also say that this is not an actual serious complaint. I just thought this as the credits were rolling.
Basically those kids, like, are all like happily sleeping the same night that their dad. They found out he was one Dr. Manhattan and two is dead. I mean, do they know either of those things yet?
I mean, I presume they know that their dad's Dr. Manhattan. I don't think that he's dead. Okay, I.
But look, I don't disagree. It's probably not the most coherent thing but it's a pretty minor standard grant scheme thing. I guess I'm just. I just been willing suspension display.
Sure. Kids, they're like, you know, they're made out of rubber. They just bounce when you drop the news of terrible death in their family. Oh yeah.
Sleep at some point again. I think by the time that they go to. That Angela goes to the theater where they're sleeping. They don't know.
They know that he's Dr. I don't think they know that he's dead. Okay, that's fine. I.
I just. It's just there's a lot of things where I. Like a person who would know if you're trying to lay low because your husband's a God and doesn't realize it. There's a lot of decision trees where I go, why would she decide to do that?
Why would she decide to do that? Why would, Wouldn't you just. Why wouldn't she just really just like, toe the line and be quiet and just do what she's asked and did they give. Why did she not take in her grandpa and arrest him right away?
Because he seems to know things and she wants to figure it out. But she's. She doesn't seem to. She likes me.
She, like. I think she would say a cop is part of her identity. Being a police officer is part of her identity at the very beginning of the show at least. She doesn't seem to like, want to break the rules necessarily.
Like, at least not the unwritten rules that seem to function in this particular office. A way that in Oklahoma. In this Weird world works. But she doesn't seem like a rogue agent.
Like, oh, I gotta. I gotta do this. So I o. It feels like, well, I found a suspect for the murder.
I'm gonna take him in. I don't know who's my grandpa yet. I'm just gonna take him in. Okay.
I watched the first six episodes back in November, so some of the details are a little fuzzy for me. But doesn't she find out pretty quickly that he's related to her? I can see that being something that would mess up your perception, at least make you give you good reason to take a different approach than you might normally. I mean, later on.
Yeah, but she literally, like, goes to where the. She gets a call that, you know, that they hung the. What's his face? Don Johnson.
I don't remember his. Judd. Judd. She remembers she got a call that they.
That the Judd's at a place or whatever. And she goes there and she finds her grandpa, Will. And he doesn't tell her right away that they're related. He just says, oh, I put him up this tree.
And I mean, he did technically. And she doesn't believe him. So she takes him to her bakery instead of to the police. And instead of formally arresting him, she takes him to her little hideout.
I don't know why, she just does. And then she gets much information from him and figures out, oh, he's related to me. And then we go down that whole rabbit hole of her trying to hide stuff from Laurie. So I guess we see, I think in the very first episode that she takes, you know, one of the suspects into an off site room so they can.
She can work on him without some of the legal oversight. So maybe it has something to do with that. But she's somebody, you know, I think I wouldn't characterize Angela as somebody who is willing to break the rules or have to break the rules. But I do think there is a stretch that you see of these police officers thinking that in some instances, justice supersedes regulations.
And perhaps this is a reflection of that. What she's taking. She takes William Reeves to her personal hideout so that she can interrogate him the way she wants without needing to avail herself of the rules and regulations that the police are subject to, particularly having seen him involved, if not the perpetrator of the death of her very dear friend. Or at least so she thinks.
And it's not that. It's just that I don't like, I. I don't really like. I don't know, I look back at the comic book.
And you look at all the main characters and they're all terribly flawed people. Osmania, as we already talked about, Dr. Manhattan, even as a God, he is uncaring and distant and can barely make himself, like, do anything for anyone that's human because he doesn't. He's not connected to humanity anymore.
The comedian is a monster who is an assassin, murders people for money and, you know, a rapist. The Night Owl is literally impotent. Figuratively. Literally impotent.
For a lot of the time. Rorschach is a sociopath. Laurie is the Silk Spectre too. She's like the most innocent of the bunch and she's also like the least written character.
So that's like, probably why I like her character in this so much is because they actually give her stuff and it's something. They even address the way that she was a bystander in a lot of ways in the original comic. Yes. And that's like.
So I don't, you know, Laurie's good in this and probably because she's very unwritten in the comic book. But even so, she's also great as has a great performance from Gene Fart supporting her. Yes. All performances.
Again, I have no complaints about any performances. They get as much as they possibly can from this stuff and I think largely manage the tone very well as well. Their performance is not handing up too much, but getting enough aim in there when they feel like it needs to be there. But Angela is good.
She's like, what? Like she doesn't have flaws. I disagree with that. What are they?
I think she has a couple of flaws. Flaw number one is that she is somebody who is definitely willing to believe that the ends justify the means. When we see her take that. That guy into a far away room so she can beat the crap out of him away from the cameras.