| October 30, 2019 | Michael Foster-Sanders | multimedia editor |
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Tick-tock doomsday clock.
May 31, 1921. A white racist mob descended into the black Wall Street area of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Members of this mob from the other side of town pillaged, lynched people and destroyed this mecca of success for black people. The sense of entitlement and jealousy from white G.I.s returning home from World War I with nothing and struggling town folk fueled this orgy of destruction.
The irony of this is it could’ve been stopped if the National Guard didn’t wait on the edge of town on orders not to go in to help the black American citizens they were sworn to protect. This was domestic terrorism in American history, and it serves as the catalyst for HBO’s “Watchman” series.
The “Watchman” universe was created in 1986 by writer Alan Moore. The comic introduced superheroes as flawed individuals with moral struggles that fought for their reasons, and not always for the betterment of society.
The first episode is titled “It’s summer, and we’re running out of ice.” It’s a warning to the viewer that the journey they’re about to embark on is laced with gunpowder, and all it takes is one spark for the keg to explode.
The show picks up in the year 2019 back in Tulsa, Oklahoma — a world where superheroes are now a joke. The actor, Robert Redford is president, and victims of racially motivated attacks now receive Redfordations, the universe’s form of reparation for police officers.. Police wear masks to stay safe from a domestic terrorist group named Seven Kalvary, a white supremacist hate group that misconstrues one of the original Watchmen’s diaries as a reason to spread hate and cause civil unrest in the world. Both parties are unaware they’re being used as pawns by an unknown figure.
Academy Award winner Regina King plays a retired police officer who now works as the masked vigilante Sister Night.
When she isn’t playing vigilante, she is trying to balance her life while struggling with PTSD from when she was almost killed in a coordinated Kalvary attack, dubbed “White Knight,” against the police.
After another incident that shatters the illusion King’s character is built to cope, she’s ready to fight.
Writer Damon Lindelof turned down crafting the series three times due to fear of not meeting the mark set by Alan Moore. In the wrong hands, this show could be complete cannon fodder, but he crafts a tale that blends history and science fiction to challenge the viewers’ moral compass, while also showing America still has wounds from its dark past that need to be treated.
A show is nothing without its score. Trent Reznor knocks it out of the ballpark with carefully crafted synths that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror movie. They set the mood of dread and despair in this world and will make any viewer clench their teeth when it’s played.
What makes this series work is that it mirrors society in this day and age.
The show focuses on ideas such as racial tension, miseducation, the fight for reparations from ADOS (American Descendants of Slaves) and those who oppose it. These subjects will make a viewer take a long hard look at themselves and cause them to question what they have learned that shaped their thoughts and opinions.
The only people who will have an issue with this show are people who shy away from objective and critical thinking. This is must-see TV.
