Special Episode 21: Watchmen
In the second of Fansplaining’s three-part “Emmys 2020” series, Elizabeth and Flourish watch Watchmen. What happens when one person has read the source material for a transformative show—and the other one has almost no knowledge of it? They talk about elements they loved and ones they were more ambivalent about, and the way the show functions as a standalone work and as a remix of the original. Plus, they discuss their disappointment with the lack of a satisfying conclusion for everyone’s favorite slippery vigilante, Lube Man.
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Show Notes
[00:00:00] As always, our intro music is “Awel” by stefsax, used under a CC-BY 3.0 license. This time, we used it for the outro music too.
[00:03:00] There was an extracanonical video for Rolling Stone in which Lube Man took off his mask and was revealed as Agent Dale Petey. He had already been pretty strongly implied in supplemental materials. However, none of this is the in-show confirmation we desired and deserved!
[00:13:13]
[00:16:43] Lindelof described Watchmen as a “remix” in a very interesting letter to Watchmen fans on his Instagram.
[00:26:00] Elizabeth is referring to Viet Thanh Nguyen’s article in the Washington Post.
[00:26:22] Flourish has learned that “God exists, and he’s on the side of America” is not a joke about Superman—it’s in the original Watchmen: “The superman exists and he’s American.” There’s a Reddit thread digging into the quote.
[00:27:47] Polygon says Gila Flats is in Arizona. The Watchmen wiki, however, as well as the actual show, confirms it’s in New Mexico. Check yourself, Polygon! (There’s a whole part of New Mexico called “Gila,” like, where the Gila Monster comes from…)
[00:34:13]
“Because the goal was to renew the figure and to work on the erotism of consent, with this idea that they would undress their mouths and the fabric on their lips would tell about their deep breaths.” — Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Céline Sciamma on the first kiss in the film
[00:35:36] Twitter actually has a really good “Event” page about Jamelle Bouie’s Black Batman thread and the context for it, which is possibly the first time we’ve ever said something like that about Twitter. But the instigating Tweet:
