1. You Can Already Feel The Tension Beginning To Build
HBO
One of the most important visual motifs of Watchmen is the Doomsday Clock, a symbolic instrument fashioned by scientists to illustrate how close humanity is to a man made catastrophe. Time is central to the story, but in the HBO show, time takes on a different kind of menace - the tick tock of a pocket-watch.
The pilot sets the stage for a burgeoning conflict, and the presence of Adrian Veidt implies that grander dangers await the series as it edges forward. The tension is made ever more palpable, however, by the decision to include the sound of a pocket-watch during the last few minutes of the episode.
Even while Crawford relaxes with friends and family, the sound of the watch loudens and quickens. The Seventh Cavalry's earlier declaration ended with a menacing chant of "tick-tock, tick-tock", and with the first episode ending in such a devastating fashion, it's clear things are about to get a lot worse before they get better.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
