this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2023
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I keep telling people to watch the HBO show from 2019. It has some obvious flaws but Regina King is always fire and IMO episode 6 is still some of the best TV I've seen.
It also came out the year before the BLM protests of 2020 and damn was the subject matter relevant. Almost prescient.
My wife and I had never heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre at the time. We were debating whether it was in poor taste to write such a disturbing/racist/violent event in fiction. Then we actually looked it up and realized how we had been failed by our grade school educations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
Great show, but as a Tulsan the show was hard to watch because it's a nice city now, but still with some racial tensions. The Tulsa Race Riots were depicted pretty fairly; it was an absolutely heinous event in American history that gets little attention even here.
It was honestly mind blowing to learn that most white Americans legit didn't know what the US was like in the 1900s.
That realization played a large part in me investigating how white Americans basically lied themselves into believing the US gov/white Americans made amends for their crimes towards blacks during the period called Reconstruction - in reality, most gains black Americans made after the civil war (e.g. the surge in black politicians, the ability to get educated/start schools, etc.) were immediately taken away by means of terrorism, disenfranchisement, and bs legislation.
The movie/doc Exterminate All The Brutes does a great job detailing the stories Americans used to tell about themselves and how they had to deal with savage natives/tribes and whatnot. It's hard to watch but it really shows how we've all been victims of very effective propaganda. I mean, we literally recite a pledge of allegiance as children. The bs goes deep.
It's a good show but it feels like it has barely anything to do with Watchmen. The main villain was so weak compared to what the comic was going for, and the main character is a raging asshole while the show acts like we're supposed to be sympathetic to her.
So… like the comic?
That's what they were going for, but missed completely. In the series it feels like she gets rewarded for being that way, the ending especially sucked.
You are assuming a “just world” framework that is explicitly rejected by the work.
I thought it was very tastefully done. But that’s obviously a matter of taste.
Yeah, literally everyone who liked the HBO series went in skeptical that they would even attempt such a thing. It’s so good though.
I found that show by accident and decided to watch. WOW. It was great.
Too bad there’s only one season, but oh well. It works if you think of it as a miniseries.
Watchman is a franchise with an intense blessing when so many seem cursed. The movie was made by someone who didn't understand the comic at all and it turned out fantastically, despite that. Easily the best Snyder product, and I do generally like his goofy ass.
Then, over a decade later, it has a weird HBO TV show, made by the creator/writer of Lost, someone who did at least understand very well the comics. But someone with a controversial track record, and making a show entirely out of original material. And it SLAPS. I tend to market it as "what if lost was rated R, 1 season long, and perfect". Still got my fingers crossed for another season, but it doesn't need it at all.
The Leftovers was also great. Lost had an eh ending, but I wish I could watch Watchmen, The Leftovers, and Lost all over again for the first time. I'm definitely a Lindelof fan.
I like that the series came out when the Doomsday Clock comic came out. They both feature a different continuation of Doctor Manhattan's story.