In Review: Watchmen – It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice

Synopsis: Angela investigates the attempted murder of a fellow officer; The Lord of a Country Estate receives an anniversary gift from his loyal servants.

Review: After many months of speculation and hype. Damon Lindelof finally got to air the first episode of his Watchmen series, which shows us events that take place after the movie in the city of Tulsa.

The Story

This opening episode is very much a means of introducing us to the character and the world in which they live, which is very much similar to the rather bleak and dark world that was introduced in the comic book series but with some new characters.

When a police officer is murdered by a perpetrator wearing a Rorschach mask. The police chief Judd Crawford aided by officer Angela Abar lead an investigation, which puts them on the scent of a group of White Supremacists calling themselves the 7th Cavalry who wear Rorschach masks to hide their faces.

In this world, the police have taken on the practice of wearing masks to protect their identities, but also for use as a means of intimidation.

The Acting

Regina King absolutely nails her part of Regina who will most likely be the leading character of the series and has many of the best action beats. The part where she was describing the experience of getting shot to a classroom of school children was a lot of fun but it isn’t until Regina dons her costume that thing get really serous.

Louis Gossett Jr. has very little to do in the episode as Will Reeves, but we do get to see some of his history during a flashback at the beginning of the episode. For now, his character’s part in things is somewhat of a mystery. But the fact that Gossett Jr is in this cast lends it a bit of gravitas given that the actor’s mere presence can be pretty commanding at times.

Overall

This feels like a pretty good attempt at continuing the story of the Watchmen and the fact that the Police are now using similar tactics that were used by the Vigilantes makes for interesting viewing.

I really liked the character of Looking Glass as played by Tim Blake Nelson. He has some nice scenes, but the most effective was the interrogation scene. The device of a mask that works as a mirror is really effective in that it forces wrongdoers to take a good hard look at themselves.

Overall. This opening episode was okay. We didn’t really see any of the over the top violence that we seen in the films because most of the action involved gunplay. But that doesn’t mean to say we will not see it as the series develops.

Although the episode suffered from some pacing issues. It was a fairly good introduction to the world and characters. And the first episode closes in such a way that it will escalate events in episodes to come.