Watchmen Season 1 Review: "Watchmen" Is The Weirdest Show On TV And I Love It!

The strange trip that is HBO's "Watchmen" has come to an end. How do you even begin to describe this crazy series? We enter a world where Robert Redford is president (without term limits). An interdimensional giant squid attack has killed millions in New York City. There is not internet. The police and superheros wear masks to hide their identities (so criminals dont attack their families). Firearms are only released if Article Four is invoked (and the majority of the police believe their lives are in imminent danger). White supremacists (called the Seventh Kavalry) are at every turn. They all wear the same face mask previously donned by Rorscach. Many racists live in trailer parks called Nixon-villes. Vietnam is now the 51th US state. This is due to intervention by Dr Manattan who violently ends the war. This causes lots of resistance by those who are not happy with the outcome.

Angela Abar (Regina King) is the glue that ties the series together. We see in flashbacks that Angela's parents were killed in Vietnam by a bomber when she was a child. Her secret identity is the masked habit wearing Sister Night. Angela adopted her superhero personal after growing up in an orphanage. Angela is married to Cal (Yahya Abdul-Mateeen). They have three adopted children whose parents were killed during the "White Night"(when the Seventh Kavalry tried to wipe out all police officers). Most were killed except for Angela and her boss and friend Chief Judd Crawford (Tom Johnson).

At the beginning of the season, Angela finds Crawford hanging from a tree and an older man named Will (Louis Gossett Jr) in a wheelchair near him. He says Crawford was killed because he was a racist. And we're off to the races.

We also meet Adrien Veidt/Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons). He is actually responsible for the giant squid attack. But no one believe this except for a few right wing conspiracy theorists and their followers. He created the squid hoax because the US and USSR were going to start a nuclear holocaust. Yes, he killed 3 million people but also saved billions more (or so he thinks).

Adrien is presumed dead but is actually living on Europa (a moon of Jupiter) where he was exiled by Manhattan. It looks eerily like an English estate. He is attended to by numerous clones who all look alike because they are based on two people-- Mr Phillips and Ms Crookshanks Dr Manhattan (previously Jon Osterman) is believed to be on Mars and has not been heard from in years. Lady Trieu is a gazillionaire who is working on some sort of clock. Her daughter and assistant Bian turned out to be Trieu's cloned mother. She used a sperm sample from Ozy's stash to impregnate herself.

It is eventually revealed that Will is actually Angela's grandfather. He was the child we saw saved during the Tulsa Massacre from the first episode. In a flashback we learn that Will was the first superhero Hooded Justice. He was a police officer that the other cops tried to kill. After narrowly escaping death, Will donned the mask to help others.

Besides Sister Night, the other masked vigilantes are:

Looking Glass/ Wade Tillman
Silk Spectre II/ Comedienne/Laurie Blake (Jean Smart)- She now works for the FBI and is assigned to Tulsa. She was previously Dr Manhattan's girlfriend. Her parents were both superheros.
Lube Man/Dale Petey- an FBI agent that works for Laurie. Check out the Peteypedia which was a great addition to the show here
Red Scare
Pirate Jenny
Panda- A guy with a giant Panda head for a disguise.

It's impossible to know who to trust in this town. Joe Keene (senator and presidential wanna be) is actually a big ole racist. He is working with the 7th Kalvary/Cyclops-- as is the deceased police chief's wife. Angela figured out as much when she saw a KKK type hook hidden in Crawford's house.

Angela takes the drug Nostalgia and is able to relive her Griffiths past. This helps her understand them better. She is sent to Lady Trieu's for detox. Trieu is all cryptic and tells her she is about to complete her life's work.

In the biggest twist of the series, Dr Manhattan is not on Mars. We see he/Angela meeting 10 years earlier. He has tired of being a blue god. She picked a body for him to inhabit and, at his request, she wiped his mind. So Angela knew all along she was married to Manhattan but Cal didnt know because his memory was wiped.

Now Lady Trieu and the Kalvary know Manhattan's true identity. Angela "awakens" him but he tells her he must die. It is already done. Remember, when they first met, he said they would have 10 good years together and then tragedy. Dr Manhattan knew what would happen to him since he experienced the past, present and future all at the same time.

In the end, Lady Trieu double crosses the white supremacists. Instead of gaining Manhattan's powers,Keene becomes a puddle of goo. Viedt, Laurie and Looking Glass are teleported by Manhattan back to his old office. Ozy decides to freeze the squid he previously randomly rains down on the citizens. This will pulverize everyone in the area and prevents Lady Trieu from absorbing Manhattan's powers. Adrien says his daughter will not rest until everyone on Earth is prostrate before her. "She's a raging narcissist. It takes one to know one."

Lady Trieu is killed (we think) when her Millennium Clock falls on her (thanks to a pounding from the squid). Even though Adrien saves the day, Laurie says she's going to turn him in the Feds. He did kill 3 million people after all.

After the devastation of her husband's death, Angela returns home with Will (he agrees to stay for a few days) and the kids. She sees the broken eggs on the kitchen floor from when she and Cal were last there. There is one unbroken egg. Did Manhattan insert his essence into the egg? Angela goes outside. We see her foot inching towards the water in the pool. Does she have Manhattan's powers now? Can she walk on water? And fade to black while the Beatles "I Am A Walrus" plays.

So what is the series trying to tell us about power? Several characters have (or want) powers which could be used to devastating effect-- Manhattan, Adrien, Trieu and wanna be Senator Keene. Will tells Angela upon their return home after Manhattan's death "He was a good man... but considering what he could do, he could have done more". Adrienne killed 3 million people in order to save billions more. Lady Trieu wants to destroy all the nuclear weapons and end starvation-- but would she success or become drunk on her own power? If Angela is a god now, how will she handle her new powers? I think one of the themes of this series is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The power to change the world is too much for any one being-- even if they have good intentions to start with.

Grade: 5 Monsters (out of 5). HBO's "Watchmen" is the weirdest show on television and I love it! There's nothing like it in terms of visuals or plot. This new interpretation of the source material really gives us something to think about-- systemic racist, generational trauma and the corrupting effects of great power. As we learned from Spider-Man "With great power comes great responsibility". And I know Regina King already has an Oscar, two Emmys and a Golden Globe but she needs some more awards for this. Her believability and depth of character really sold the show for me. I dont think they will do a sequel to "Watchman" but if they did, I'd be all in just based on her return.