re: WATCHMEN Season Long Thread - S1, EP9 (season finale): "See How They Fly"

another nod to superman with the 1st issue of Action Comics

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What part of this week's episode did you like best?

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I liked the inclusion of the Action Comics #1, even though they had already gotten the point across about Will Reeves being the Superman of this Universe. It was also a nice shoutout to Snyder's movie where he included imagery from the Golden Age Batman in a scene.

I liked that Bass Reeves movies were Will's inspiration and his namesake. That's popped up in DC before, with Ollie Queen saying that Errol Flynn's Robin Hood was an inspiration of his, and Batman's career beginning after he'd walked out of seeing Zorro at the theater.

I liked the revelation that Sister Night's eye makeup disguise mirrored that of her grandfather's Hooded Justice disguise. And that she wears a hood similar to what Bass Reeves wore in that old film.

The isolated color in the black and white segments is nothing new, but I liked how as Laurie Blake tried to break through to Sister Night, there were extremely subtle appearances of color in her lips and hair. Only there for a fraction of a second and nonexistent as Sister Night slipped back into her dream state.

I liked how they showed the Minutemen without showing them. Shadowy glimpses of them in the background. Giving the background story in a drug induced memory was a great way to tell the important parts without getting bogged down in the details of the Minutemen that are spelled out in the Hollis's novel portion of the original books. Even as blurry figures I got a kick out of seeing them all.

And while they threw away all subtlety by cutting to HJ and CM in the sack, Hooded Justice's sexual preference was always in question or hinted at in the original series. Hollis noted that while Hooded Justice and Sally Jupiter were a "couple", he never saw any affection between them. And then you had the famous rape scene where HJ beats the crap out of The Comedian until Blake laughs at HJ for getting off on it. The Comedian telling him that he knows his secret. Again, not subtle, but they tempered Reeves from being the perfect guy to being someone who had sexual issues (as in the comic). Funny that Hollis' book resulted in outing his partners to the point that their homosexuality was the focus of their history (with the TV show and the gay porn floating around).

Giving Hooded Justice's hangman's noose a secret origin of being a lynching noose doesn't really bother me. In 86' it was just a hangman's noose, but in today's society every noose is now associated with lynching. I can see how they couldn't pass up that opportunity to rationalize a superhero wearing a noose around his neck.

I'd still like more info on the Chief and why Will killed him. His having a robe in his closet doesn't seem enough for Will to single him out.

They really didn't show enough of him being a bad husband/father for his lady to leave him. They would have an incredible bond, growing uo together in those circumstances. I don't see her ever leaving him and I have no idea why she would ever go back to Tulsa. But hopefully they explain that more later..

It felt like she knew what he was doing with Captain Metropolis and that’s what drove them apart.

I did feel like they could’ve done a better job making Will Reeves more intimidating or more angry before he decides to be HJ. He looked like a pretty average dude before taking on the mask when it was well documented that HJ was a massive human being. He just kind of turned into a dude with super strength without much back story on that.


Also according to the Petey files, Metrotropolis left all his wealth to Will Reaves after his death

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Pretty sure the “mind control” is going to come back into play somehow. He took that projector with their tech.

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That's what that flashlight was that he used on the Chief.

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The gayness didn’t bother you but the interracial aspect did?

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No. He had ever reason to hate white people. He was a good dude so he wasnt letting it get to him, but there was an internal struggle they showed. There was absolutely no story telling to build up to it. Do you not think that given his life story, and that he is still hated by white people, his co-workers, that there would be a lot of resentment towards white men? "White men killed my family and that's affected my entire life, I dont even like talking to my girl about how we met bc of it, I just got beaten up and hanged by my white co-workers, but yea, I barely know this white guy so I want to hit it from the back." Great story telling.

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But HJ and Capt. Metropolis meet and the the very next scene he's pounding him away.

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As I said, they were pretty abrupt with that cut, but we'd had the gay porno and the "outing" in the TV show within a TV show, so their being gay wasn't completely out of the blue. They just went for the shocking/humorous cut (which is right out of I Love You Philip Morris).

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No wonder Alan Moore didnt want anything to do with this.

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Well, he doesn't want anything to do with anything. It's not like he read the script and decided to stay away.

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Seems to me he hates racists, not white people.

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Thats clearly the case. Doesnt change the fact that they did absolutely nothing to lead up to it. I love the novel, one of my favorites of all time, I like the series, I like Lindelof, I really liked that episode up until that point, but lazy story telling knocked it down quite a bit.

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The first couple he saved right after almost being lynched were white and they thanked him for his help despite having no white makeup on.

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i dont think the implication was that the people he saved wouldnt be thankful. it was the larger public opinion would be shaped differently if it was known he was black.

kinda like how Charlie Pride's record company didn't release publicity photos of him because they were afraid the public would turn and stations woudlnt play the records if they knew he was a black guy singing country.