Nope… Nope… Nope

Published December 2, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Oh my, Shatters,

Ok. I have now watched the episode twice, and I am sad to say I really didn’t like it. My initial watch was filled with groans and eye-rolling about the “reveals.” I kind of want to unpack why, and offer some maybe helpful commentary that I think may help us make sense of Big Blue coming in for the Big Reveal. Here is a brief summation of my issues with Dr. Manhattan being introduced as having been “human” this entire time (which I’m sure echo your own). I get that Doc is capable of love or at least wants to have this capability. He wants to love Laurie. He wants to maintain his relationships, but he finds himself rendered totally incapable by his condition, which turns out to be much different than the human condition plaguing the rest of us. Famously, Dr. Manhattan loses his humanity, and this is a massive plot point in the source material. Dr. Manhattan is something else. He is beyond what humanity is capable of, including empathy. Does that make him a God? Does that make him a villain? I don’t know, but it is a crucial aspect of his character, and I can’t imagine him wanting to throw himself into a body of a human because he’s fallen in love with another human.

Further, Jon can see the future. He knows what his past and future will be. Thus, why would he not warn Angela about the White Night? About Joe Keene? About any of it. He would have to know that by returning in this form, it would allow Keene the ability to take advantage. If he’d just stayed on Mars, none of it would happen. It just so goes against all logic, something Doc Manhattan has in droves. And if they decide to say his view was blocked by being human, I am going to scream at the fucking TV.

Now, to some positive thoughts, because we don’t want an American Gods situation on our hands where your listeners start rebelling because, god forbid, you are honest when a show is shit or makes shitty narrative choices. One thing I do think is potentially interesting with Dr. Manhattan is his contribution to a story that is increasingly becoming about privilege versus those subject to the dominant class. If they stick with cannon, Jon Osterman fled the Holocaust before becoming Dr. Manhattan. Much like Will Reeves fleeing the Tulsa race riots and Angela surviving the racist fueled things in her past, Dr. Manhattan provides another face, another case study of sorts for what happens when humanity is at its worst.

Further, it is a powerful (albeit heavy-handed) bit of symbolism that Dr. Manhattan has donned a mask in a story about masks. And his mask is that of a black man in modern America. That cannot be a coincidence, nor can I be the only person who has noticed it. Laurie says this week that black men cannot wear masks because they are scary, so I’d love to hear what she thinks about the level of fear a black man that is a literal mask for a god like figure can produce in White America.

I think the culminating point of that, from a narrative perspective, has to be that the greatest masks we wear are those forced upon us by society. In my critical race theory introductory class I teach, I start day one by asking everyone a simple question. Do you believe race is real or a social construct? If I am successful in my teaching, when I ask the same question on the last day, almost all believe it is socially constructed…because… well it is. I’ve talked about privilege with you all before, and the greatest privilege is that of being able to decide who is dominant and why others are not. There is a fascinating book I make all my students in this course read called The Rise and Fall of the Caucasian Race. It outlines how race was determined and how the “white” races decided what made them white and what made everyone else not. To use the terminology in this show, they decided what masks everyone would be forced to wear, because they are all masks- White, black, Asian, Arabic and others from a racial perspective are given masks at birth- Masks of a socially constructed idea of race and the effect that race and mask will have on opportunity, likelihood of incarceration and early death, earning power and more. But they are all masks. Some benefit. Some harm, but they are masks none the less. So the power of Dr. Manhattan wearing a mask that casts him as oppressed is interesting, ironic and could be the only thing that is worth having this entire plot reveal at all. I’ll check in next week on this to see if its squandered.

In closing, some errant thoughts. Where the fuck is Looking Glass? Why would they play a ridiculously cheesy piano score from “Life on Mars” when revealing Dr. Manhattan (made me want to throw up), and what the fuck with the elephant?

Mini-rant over… I hope you all can make me like this more.

-Ash

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