S01.E03: She Was Killed by Space Junk

[Mr. Sparkle]

He'll always be Tobias from Oz for me. I totally didn't recognize him in this role. 

[BeatLA24]

I'm loving this show, so far and was delighted to hear some Devo in the episode. It seems that the title is a reference to "Space Junk," which is a different Devo song than "Mongoloid," that actually was played in the episode. They are both from the same album, though.

[Chicago Redshirt]

15 hours ago, Lemons said:

Do some people watching already understand dr Manhattan?  I don’t. 

As we saw in the snippet from Ozymandias's play, "The Watchmaker's Son," Dr. Manhattan was born Jon Osterman and is a physicist who was transformed into a near-god by a science accident. He is (as far as we know) the only superhero who has actual powers. 

Among his known abilities are teleportation of himself and others, synthesis of elements, size-shifting, splitting his consciousness across multiple bodies and energy blasts. He also experiences time differently such that he is living in the past, present and future simultaneously. 

He has a personality that Spock and Data would consider cold and logical.

His abilities/presence are basically what led to the Watchmen universe to diverge from our own. America had an unanswered lead in the Cold War and won Viet Nam because of him. 

In OG Watchmen, Ozymandias was fearful that nuclear holocaust was inevitable and so came up with a plot in the 1980s to trick the world into uniting to fight a fake threat. Dr. Manhattan was dating the character now going by Laurie Blake, but she broke up with him because he was too disconnected from her and humanity. Ozymandias gave cancer to several people associated with Dr. Manhattan to make him think he was the cause and to isolate him further from humanity. That worked and caused Dr. Manhattan to exile himself to Mars. Laurie convinced him to care about humanity once more, but they were too late to stop Ozymandias's plot. At the end of OG Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan was talking about going to another galaxy.

But HBO Watchmen seems to be saying that he has been living on Mars since then.

[Tryangle]

On 11/4/2019 at 8:11 PM, rmontro said:

I take it you haven't read the comics or saw the movie?  The nudity was all presented very matter-of-factly.  Dr. Manhatten is blue, but no, he was not the size of that dildo.

In the comic, it was understated. In the film, it was enhanced. Now this behemoth... yikes. From "grower not a show-er" to that... anyway

I hadn't seen much of Jean Smart since Designing Women. I have to say, wowsers. She's freaking awesome.

And we get a face to 'Petey', which is appreciated. Still looks like someone you kind of wanna slap.

[Catfi9ht]

19 hours ago, Tryangle said:

I hadn't seen much of Jean Smart since Designing Women.

Jean Smart was excellent in Legion, which was another wonderfully weird and great show. I like to describe the first season as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but in reverse. If that's up your alley, I highly recommend it.

[Affogato]

On 11/4/2019 at 10:30 AM, Superclam said:

I'm not sure I want to know why that dildo is so big. 

And awkward. They are missing an opportunity to sell a lot of merchandise. 

[Lemons]

On 11/7/2019 at 12:16 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

As we saw in the snippet from Ozymandias's play, "The Watchmaker's Son," Dr. Manhattan was born Jon Osterman and is a physicist who was transformed into a near-god by a science accident. He is (as far as we know) the only superhero who has actual powers. 

Among his known abilities are teleportation of himself and others, synthesis of elements, size-shifting, splitting his consciousness across multiple bodies and energy blasts. He also experiences time differently such that he is living in the past, present and future simultaneously. 

He has a personality that Spock and Data would consider cold and logical.

His abilities/presence are basically what led to the Watchmen universe to diverge from our own. America had an unanswered lead in the Cold War and won Viet Nam because of him. 

In OG Watchmen, Ozymandias was fearful that nuclear holocaust was inevitable and so came up with a plot in the 1980s to trick the world into uniting to fight a fake threat. Dr. Manhattan was dating the character now going by Laurie Blake, but she broke up with him because he was too disconnected from her and humanity. Ozymandias gave cancer to several people associated with Dr. Manhattan to make him think he was the cause and to isolate him further from humanity. That worked and caused Dr. Manhattan to exile himself to Mars. Laurie convinced him to care about humanity once more, but they were too late to stop Ozymandias's plot. At the end of OG Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan was talking about going to another galaxy.

But HBO Watchmen seems to be saying that he has been living on Mars since then.

It's amazing to me that people can follow all this!

[Johnny Dollar]

On 11/4/2019 at 4:32 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I already loved having Regina King kick ass the first two episodes so it was great to see Jean Smart come in and be awesome too! I really love that our two female characters are (1) over the age of 25 and (2) weigh over 95 pounds. I feel like tv and movies are inundated with waiflike girls with questionable acting skills so it's great to see some amazing women like Regina and Jean in these roles.

I believe what you have described is called “The CW”. 

For those who want a good summary of the original comics, with spoilers though, check out Alt Shift X on YouTube. They provide an almost scholarly recap of the events leading up to this series, so you will at least know who and what they are referencing in this show. It doesn’t contain any spoilers for this current iteration. 

[Morrigan2575]

On 11/4/2019 at 3:31 PM, BrooklynRat said:

Why did the Mr Phillips clone freeze to death and where did he go to that was just a rope’s length away? Is Veidt trapped on Mars on a short leash within a tiny habitable biosphere created for him? 

OMG that's actually kind of brilliant. I hope this is the case

[kay1864]

 Anyone notice that the end of the funeral scene was the opposite of the iconic image from the comic? (below)  Instead of rain falling down, well...

[Morrigan2575]

I don't think I was paying close enough attention to this episode. I didn't realize Nite Owl was in prison, I thought he might have been Will's friend in high places. Even the end where the car falls at Blake's feet, i thought oh she's going to think it's Manhattan when really it's Dan (even the gold light looked more like that Hawk Vehicle than something from Doctor Manhattan).

I'm also curious to all the anniversary's for Ozy, seems like he's been in prison for 4 years at this point.  I think the Game Warden will end up being another clone of Mister Phillips (hopefully with a beard because I don't like Ichabod without the beard).

Final thought, this cast is really good.

[phoenics]

Is it just me - or did it look like Mars vanished at the end when Laurie looked up at the sky, laughing?

I had a split second of thinking Dr. Manhattan blew Mars up or something.

[pasdetrois]

Quote

The brick joke bit with Laurie talking to Dr. Manhattan throughout the episode, telling a classic "brick joke" works on so many levels.

Thank you for the explanation. I am already confused by the story, and when the magnificent Jean began telling jokes I gave up.

I'll keep watching for the acting, occasional jolts (falling cars) and the fact that this series is based on the Tulsa riots. I knew about them, but not about the Black Wall Street.

Random thought: I watched "Live PD" for a while, where Tulsa PD is heavily featured and one of the show's talking heads is a Tulsa vice cop. So my mind has tried to connect the two shows.

Also: Magnificent Jean has gams for days.

Edited December 11, 2019 by pasdetrois

[Anela]

I've only seen Jean Smart in a couple of things since Designing Women. I never pictured her like this, but I do love her.

I'm going to have to watch all of this again, when I'm not distracted by other things.

The only things I remember from the movie, were Laurie and her mother (played by Carla Gugino, who wasn't much older than the girl who played Laurie), Laurie leaving the blue guy for Patrick Wilson, and that her father wasn't a good man.