OPEN THREAD: Let’s Talk About WATCHMEN’s “She Was Killed By Space Junk”
We are now three episodes into HBO's Watchmen, and so far this series shows no signs of slowing down: if the first two episodes of Damon Lindelof's highly-anticipated series were our introduction to the Watchmen 2019 reality, episode three ("She Was Killed By Space Junk") is where the show really starts mirroring the experience of reading Alan Moore's classic comic series.
A lot of that has to do with the structure: the bulk of Watchmen Ep 3 revolves around a phone call being placed by Laurie Blake (Jean Smart) to Doctor Manhattan, who's still kicking around the surface of Mars doing who-knows-what. If you're wondering how Laurie Blake might be making a direct phone call to Mars, well, it appears that, in this reality, speciality phone booths have been set up to give human beings a direct line to Manhattan, who hasn't made an Earth-side appearance in over three decades. It's one of the many cool little world-building notes baked into this version of Watchmen, and the way they've layered Blake's phone call throughout the episode - which flashes forwards and backwards in time, on an as-needed basis - strikes me as a very Watchmen-esque bit of writing. Well done on that front.
And well done to Jean Smart, absolutely killing it in the role of Laurie Blake. Watchmen readers already know that Laurie's the daughter of the Comedian (and, of course, the Silk Spectre), and boy do they let that shine through in Laurie's writing: though constantly at the ready with a smart-assed reply, this Laurie Blake is every bit the formidable opponent both of her parents were, and it's intriguing to learn that - all these years later - she's gone to work with the FBI (also intriguing: the hilariously oversized Dr. Manhattan vibrator we see her assembling at one point).
Meanwhile, Jeremy Irons' character is confirmed to be Adrien Veidt, and the increasingly weird goings-on at his residence (wherever, or whenever, that may be) remain one of this show's greatest highlights. Each time we check in with Veidt, things get a little weirder, a little more troubling. I love that each episode of Watchmen takes the time to just...cut away to Veidt's predicament for twenty minutes, without providing any further context as to how his various experiments have anything to do with what's going on back in Tulsa. Let me tell you: having seen the next three episodes, shit is only gonna get stranger on the Ozymandias front. Buckle up for that.
Anyway, there's so much to discuss about last night episode - the disaster at Judd Crawford's funeral, Regina King's brilliant reaction to Laurie's "I eat good guys for breakfast" speech, that car plummeting from the sky in the episode's final moments - but I'd like to turn the reins of that conversation over to you. What'd you think about Watchmen E3? Are you as blown away by this show as we are? If not, how come? Got any predictions for where this is all headed? What is Ozymandias up to, anyway? Sound off in the comments below, and stay tuned for more on Watchmen as further updates become available.
