What I’m Watching: Watchmen

Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 5 “Little Fear of Lightning” (B+)

I love the way that this show introduces and explores its characters’ backstories, and, the more I learn, the more intrigued I am. Tim Blake Nelson is a fantastic actor, most recently very memorable in the opening segment of “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” and he also has an upcoming role in the film “Just Mercy.” Additionally, he’s actually from Tulsa, which is cool. Learning that he was religious and was prophesizing the end of days before being left naked in a hall of mirrors so that he survived that crazy squid attack on New York City was definitely unexpected, and it helps to contextualize him a lot. He hides a lot of his anxiety well at work under that reflective mask, which apparently helps to shield him from a future attack as he executes countless drills at home to prepare. I recognized Paula Malcomson from “Ray Donovan” and “Sons of Anarchy” as Renee, the woman he met at his support group who led him right to a group of 7K followers, including none other than Senator Keane, whose voice Wade immediately identified. The subtle mentions of differences between this world and ours are fascinating, like how, in this reality, Steven Spielberg made a movie about the squid attack instead of “Schindler’s List.” I’m still mystified by the video of Adrian predicting the future and what that means, but Wade made a choice presumably to save Angela by having her arrested by Laurie. We’ll see if that leads anywhere good, but color me just as confused and compelled as ever.