Damon Lindelof's expansion of the Watchmen universe continues this week with episode 4, If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own. This latest episode trades the frenetic stride for a more deliberant installment heavy on the expansion of the mythology.
Breaking away from the last 3 weeks, this one really starts to build momentum as we get the introduction of more masked humans and a full introduction to Lady Trieu. Maintaining course, the music still continues to be one of the main reasons to watch this show. It truly sets the stage for each and every scene.
Moving forth on the same trajectory as the last three weeks, the mystery of the show is still shrouded behind Veidt's purely evil intentions while Sister Knight begins to connect the dots. Unlike the last few chapters, this week's hour long show moves at a much slower pace and trades some of the hand to hand action scenes for more drama and heavy character development. We're still not complaining. Each week, Regina King further proves her absolute star power, as she slips between her two personalities, Angela Abar and the completely kick ass, masked officer Sister Knight.
While Jeremy Irons' version of Ozymandias works feverishly to build and dial in the machine he's working on, viewers finally see more of his villainous intentions and the science behind his madness. Despite the excellent casting across the board, at this point his Veidt is the most interesting person we've been introduced to yet. Each week, his maniacal plans seem to be taking form, pointing us in the direction in which he's headed. With the help of his emotionally vacant servants, it looks like escape is in his near future. His process is inhumane and truly gruesome as he plots his next move.
So far, Watchmen has been one of the most exciting things to hit television in quite some time. With a massive production budget from HBO, carefully navigated action scenes, and a refreshing new take on this now classic comic book property, each week is almost more exciting than the last. The only thing that seemed to hold this latest one back a bit was the slow roll it takes. Some might be thrown as this episode seemed much more tame than what we've seen so far.
Hopefully ratings stay in the positive for the series. It'll be interesting to see where they keep going with Watchmen. Each passing week begins to make more connectivity back to the graphic novel. Personally, I think it's going to be amazing when Dr. Manhattan finally shows up, fully exposed.
-Chris George
