I don't know if any of this is already known to some of you, but I just listened to a podcast segment about the pilot that offered background on a few incredibly interesting points that help establish a bit more context for this world. There's a series tie-in website called "Peteypedia" (
https://www.hbo.com/peteypedia), which hosts four documents that essentially establish the points I've outlined below. The documents, two of which I've linked directly to, also feature many more fascinating details not included in my summary, so I recommend reading for yourself when you get the chance. For now, however, here are the broad strokes in advance of tonight's episode...
- The reason there are no cell phones and no internet in the 2019 version of the Watchmen world goes back to Doctor Manhattan. In the '70s/'80s/original graphic novel, Manhattan helped to develop all kinds of new tech with his powers, but once Ozymandias framed Manhattan (in the events of the graphic novel), and convinced the world that exposure to Manhattan was giving people cancer (which was obviously a lie), the government took control of all new technologies. That, and for a "public beset and traumatized by catastrophes... suddenly so wary of technology... it led to luddite behaviors in the nineties that crippled and destroyed entire industries." So now the government only rolls out certain technologies after extensive tests, carcinogenic scans, etc. In other words, there is apparently no free market for big tech and thus a much slower progression of technology in Doctor Manhattan's absence. However, on August 29, 2019, the month before the pilot takes place, the government finally began to slowly roll out the internet for the first time, starting with government databases and the like.
- Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias, made his last public appearance in 2007 and apparently disappeared in 2012. Now, after a seven-year global search, the FBI has officially declared Veidt "presumed deceased." This is what the newspaper headline we get a brief glimpse of in the pilot, on September 9, 2019, is referring to. So, the FBI has no direct confirmation of Veidt's death, rather, it is merely a concussion reached after a seven-year, three-continent search. Of course, Jeremy Irons' character is almost assuredly Veidt/Ozymandias, so we know he's not dead, but rather "hiding out" at his estate. You can read the article in-full here, which is extremely informative and does a nice job of filling in certain gaps from 1985 (the end of the graphic novel) to 2010: https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/01/veidt-declared-dead.pdf
(SIDE NOTE: I assumed Veidt's two servants were somehow his creations, based on the male servant thinking that a horseshoe was the proper tool for cake cutting, as if his programming needed refining. I assumed they were some kind humanoid/Westword-ish robots, but an interesting point was brought up in the podcast segment that I forgot about was Doctor Manhattan, at the end of the graphic novel, saying that he might go create some life of his own. Could Veidt's servants someone be connected to Manhattan in that way? Did Doctor Manhattan create Veidt's servants or did Veidt? Were they created at all? Either way, I'm extremely interested to see where that whole plot line leads.)
- Rorschach's journal was, in fact, released to the public in 1986. According to the Veidt article above, the "New Frontiersman published excerpts from a journal allegedly written by Mr. Kovacs filled with outrageous claims against Mr. Veidt, including accusations of murder and an intimation that he was responsible for both the D.I.E. [note: the "Dimensional Incursion Event," i.e. the killer squid] and Dr. Manhattan's exile from Earth. The journal was dismissed as either a hoax or the expression of mental illness, though it remains an object of fascination for fringe artists and anti-government extremists." One of those "anti-government extremist" groups are obviously the Tulsa white supremacist group The Seventh Kavalry we see in the pilot, and now that Veidt has been declared dead, his "death" is seemingly the catalyst for these extremists emerging again - because they believe Rorschach's journal wholeheartedly, and now the man responsible for the cover-up is seemingly/finally out of the picture. So it's interesting that the "conspiracy theory" believed by the presumed villains in the pilot is actually true in this instance. Further, some members of the FBI seem to buy into the "conspiracy theory" as well, as noted in this extensive memo written by FBI Agent Dale Petey, dated September 1, 2019, which does an incredible job of summarizing many of the big-picture events in the graphic novel from a different perspective, while simultaneously dissecting the validity of Rorschach's journal: https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/01/rorschachs-journal-memo.pdf
- Also noted in the memo above is that Dan Dreiberg - aka Night Owl - is currently in federal custody. So the pilot gave us a brief glimpse of Doctor Manhattan on Mars, along with a sequence featuring who we can assume to be Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias. Future episodes looks to reintroduce us to Silk Spectre II - aka Laurie Jupiter - now an FBI agent who goes by "Laurie Blake" (played by Jean Smart), as she has since taken the last name of her father, Edward Blake, aka The Comedian. And we now know that Dreiberg is in federal custody. In other words, all living/primary Watchmen characters are now accounted for, we know Dr. Manhattan makes his return to Earth later this season, and Dreiberg will presumably make appearance at some point as well (if not the season, possibly next).
As you can see, all of this seems to be connected in some way. We're picking the story up in 2019, right at as the internet is being rolled out by the government and the FBI is finally declaring Vedit dead, the latter of which is seemingly spurring the Rorschach extremists into action. Again, this was all somewhat evident, but it's nice to see how it's all likely connected, and to have more context going forward, much of which I'm sure will be reinforced in the coming episodes.
Cannot wait for tonight.
