Watchmen is a 2019 HBO series with nine episodes, which is based on the original comic book Watchmen.
Set 35 years after the end of the original comic book, after Ozymandias ‘s plot succeeded, people’s lives became brighter, but the contradictions in the society did not vanish as imagined, and the unsettled emotions fermented in the crowd, especially the concerns about impact on law enforcement and the re-enactment of racial issues. To stop retaliations for family members, police put on masks to protect themselves; Wearing Rorschach masks, the racist terrorist group known as the “7th Cavalry” was looking for revenge.
Watchmen gives us a 2019 that is different from what we know. Vietnam became an American state, and pollution from the war made the sky rain octopus. Racism was ideologically eliminated that year, but threats like the Roford Act pushed the fate of people of color to the brink. In that year, Rorschach, who only wanted to die for justice, became a totem for racist terrorists, while the police, who were supposed to be the symbol of justice, all put on masks to protect their identities and cover up possible crimes.
Beneath these seemingly outrageous world views lies the reality of our lives. The black heroes of the west depicted at the beginning of the series are real, and the Tulsa Massacre, which took the lives of hundreds of black people in 1921 and was called “the worst incident of racial violence in American history,” was not without its roots. Much of the story shows the hatred that underlies this peaceful society and drives the characters’ behavior. For a generation of audiences who lived in peacetime, the focus on racial issues and justice anxieties that still exist today is more realistic than the context of the Cold War.
Just as in the comics, Watchmen amplifies its focus, magnifying what should have been a tacit understanding into a whimsical philosophy, allowing the audiences to come up with answers. What is Watchmen trying to prove? The screenwriter doesn’t seem to depict the era as moral demoralization, dividing the world between good and evil. By fuzzy appearance image of the police and criminals, may eventually the screenwriter wants to talk to, the biggest enemy of mankind is mankind itself— who will watch the watchmen?
Watchmen takes the audience through the Tulsa Massacre, a shameful event that the rulers would rather not let more people know about. In fact, racial discrimination has always been around us, never disappeared. It reminds me of Subalterns. Subalterns lose their subjectivity and can’t speak for themselves, their voices cannot be heard. Voices means the demands, thoughts, petitions and likewise of the subalterns. The daily life, struggle and self-care of subalterns are also constructed to some extent by the voices of higher level people or institutions. I think the African Americans are the subalterns, no matter in the past or in the present. The watchmen series also reminds us that we should never forget the history and try our best to eliminate racial discrimination and social injustice.
