Mokka mit Schlag » Pop Culture

Episode 2 didn’t answer many questions but it did reinforce my feeling that every adult in this series is a bad guy: cops, terrorists, “super” “heroes”, everyone.

One new revelation: Veidt has become a narcissistic psychopath. He was always a mass murderer, but thirty years ago it was at least possible to  read him as someone who had done the math and killed millions to save billions. Now, however, he apparently is willing to burn people to death for his personal amusement. Just maybe Mr. Phillips and the other servants are all some sort of robots or not fully sentient artificial life forms—they don’t exactly act like normal human beings—but even if that proves to be the case, the simulated subtraction of Mr. Phillips’s intrinsic field seemed pointless and cruel. Frankly I’m not thrilled with this development. It seems very out of character for him.

One new question: why did Laurie Jupiter decide to take her father’s name? Hard to believe she simply got tired of explaining how to spell Juspeczyk. Not hugely important, but I am curious. Possibly the name change was also mentioned in the previews, but if so I missed it until the end of this week’s episode.

P.S. I don’t consider Doomsday Clock canonical or worth reading, an opinion I apply to pretty much everything Geoff Johns is involved with. That’s the problem with non-creator owned properties. Even if a work is a recognized classic for 25 years, eventually some corporate bean counter is going to decide to milk it for a few more dollars.

I watched the first season of Call The Midwife when it was first made available in the US, on PBS I think? I enjoyed it then and recently I noticed several more seasons were available on Netflix so I’ve been binging then. It’s a truly excellent show utterly unlike anything I’ve ever seen on American television. It is almost completely divorced from the usual tropes of TV drama, perhaps because it’s based very closely on the real memoirs of Jennifer Worth.
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I had very mixed reactions to the Watchmen premier on HBO last week. On the one hand, it’s incredibly well done and I can’t stop thinking about it, much like I was obsessed with the original comic book when it first came out in the 1980s. On the other hand, I absolutely despise every single character in this show. No one, so far, is likable or sympathetic except for the family in the opening scene; and based on the closing scene I’m not sure they’ll stay that way in the present day. In the comic book Rorschach, Nite Owl, Dr. Manhattan, Laurie Jupiter, and Veidt were all interesting people with some good qualities. Yes, they were all deeply flawed in different ways, but I didn’t detest any of them (except the Comedian, and he was meant to be detestable). Watchmen was a story about good versus good, not good versus evil. Everyone in that story was trying to do what they truly believed was the right thing, and that was the horror of it all.

So far in the TV series, it’s the opposite. I detest everyone. This is a story about evil versus evil. There are no good people, just less bad people or people who are bad in different ways. It’s really hard to root for anyone.

That said, episode 1 answered a few questions I had about HBO’s sequel and opened a few more. In no particular order:
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I binged two teen-focused series while visiting my brother’s house this Christmas, Riverdale and Runaways. The difference was striking. Runaways is everything Riverdale isn’t. Complex, conflicted, imperfect characters who aren’t stereotypes in dramatic, not melodramatic, situations. It almost completely avoids monologuing. (Frank Dean does monologue his motivations at one point early in Season 2, a scene that is jarring only because it’s so out of place with the subtext and show-don’t-tell that reveals the other characters in the series.)

In many ways this show surpasses the comic book series it’s based on, especially when it comes to the parents, who were a little cardboard in the original. This show alone will get me to sign up for Hulu at least long enough to finish watching Season 2.
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Abyss & Apex has published my latest science fiction short story, “What Does a Time Machine Cost?” in their March issue.

This story will also be reprinted in the Timeshift anthology later this year. (Kickstarter now live.)

Fiction River has published my latest short story, “Holding the Door”, in their Editor’s Choice anthology:

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