Tick-tock, Watchmen fans. The countdown to the HBO show may be over, but the doomsday clock is still dangerously close to midnight, as Meg and Mike have learned in this breakdown of the show's premiere, Episode 1, It's Summer Time And We're Running Out Of Ice.
Set in an alternate 2019, 30 years after the world was forever changed by the harrowing events of the graphic novel, HBO's Watchmen stars Regina King as Angela Abar, a detective in a very, very different Tulsa, Oklahoma. In this reality, the police were attacked in their homes by a white supremacist militia called the 7th Kavalry and have since begun wearing masks to protect their identities. Uniformed police wear yellow sleeves to obscure their faces, while plainclothes detectives like Angela have adopted full-on superhero alter-egos for themselves. Angela works as Sister Night to track down and round up the members of the 7th Kavalry, who have also adopted masks to hide their identities--a very specific mask, and it's one you'll probably recognize. Rorschach, the paranoid vigilante from the graphic novel, has become the 7th Kavalry's idol, thanks to the posthumous release of his journals.
And all that is just the tip of the iceberg. The course set for America by Ozymandias and his psychic squid massacre back in 1985 has taken the country down a bizarre and complicated path where cars are all battery-powered, cell phones don't exist, and Robert Redford (yeah, the actor) has remained the president for the last 30 years.
But don't panic if you weren't able to catch all of that on your first viewing. Watchmen is a show loaded with details, from subtle references and Easter Eggs to tiny clues and worldbuilding, all hidden in the background of virtually every shot. So join us as we break the episode down, scene by scene, and comb through every potential hint as to what, exactly, may be going on.