Tartans Watch the Watchmen Professor Newman's Media Class

For our final episode Professor Newman led a discussion with more than half the class. We talked about what it was like to have a class on a popular television series and how we went about making the podcast in a few short weeks. At the end, Professor Newman asks each student to talk about at least one thing they learned from someone else in the class.


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Brace yourself for an egg pun, or more, because Watchmen is FULL of egg references. From the egg shaped space ship that brings Adrian Viedt back to earth, to the egg farm that Lady Trieu buys from the Clarks, to the egg that may (or may not) contain Dr. Manhattan's residual powers, Watchmen has a thing for eggs. CMU student Anna Toutain brings her interest in egg symbolism to a really interesting discussion with her fellow classmates Nate Roblin and Elle Smith. Nate takes on the tricky subject of Nostalgia---both the fictional prescription drug that Angela ODs on in episode six---as well as the more subtle ways that Watchmen engages with themes of remembering and forgetting. Elle Smith takes on the topic of legacy in another way, by discussing how Watchmen showrunner Damon Lindelof may have projected some of his own issues surrounding legacy onto HBO's Watchmen.


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In this episode CMU students Baris Denezli and Elle Norman get deep with their philosophical musings on HBO's Watchmen. Baris applies the radical skepticism of the Greek philosopher Pyrrho to the concept of morality in Watchmen, showing how difficult it is for the audience to judge any character as wholly "good" or "evil," given their complex actions and motivations. Elle references a similar concept from Friedrich Nietzsche, the concept of Nihilism, but she spends more time on another of Nietzsche's ideas, that of eternal recurrence. Elle sees that Dr. Manhattan's unusual perception of time---his ability to live simultaneously in the past, present and future---as having some similarities to Nietzsche's notion of time as a flat circle.






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The creators of HBO's Watchmen did a great job of subverting a lot of comic book story tropes. Instead of a plot that just revolves around literal good guys and bad guys, the lead character in the series is the badass African American Angela Abar, played by Regina Knight. Angela is a bakery owner and an ex-cop who moonlights as the vigilante Sister Night. In this podcast episode, three badass CMU students, Caroline Holmes, Clyzte Sun, and Cristina Pullen go under the hood to show the ways in which the show's creators fell into some unfortunate gendered and racial stereotypes when it came to the leading ladies of Watchmen: Angela Abar, Lady Trieu, and Laurie Blake.


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No doubt, the mask worn by Looking Glass in HBO's Watchmen was a technological marvel. But what were some of the discarded mask designs along the way? Find out in this episode, as MARZ designer Anthony De Chellis talks with CMU student Ana Sabater about what it was like being on the team that created Looking Glass's mask. In the second part of this episode Ana Sabater gets philosophical with Professor Newman about Looking Glass's character and traumatic backstory. Please note: spoilers ahead!


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What would YOUR superhero costume look like, especially if you had to make it at home? That was one of the questions that Sharen Davis was asked by show runner Damon Lindeloff when she was given the job of designing Angela Abar's Sister Knight costume for HBO's Watchmen. In this episode of our podcast, Emmy winning Watchmen Costume Designer Sharen Davis is interviewed by CMU students Victoria Avery and Soumil Mukerjee. Davis talks about the challenge of creating realistic costumes for a series that is both realistic and speculative at the same time. Following the interview, Victoria and Soumil probe the symbolism of a variety of costumes and masks featured on the show. They explore the notion suggested by HBO's Watchmen itself---that masks are used to hide trauma, and, also, as Adrian Viedt proclaims, the idea that masks can "make men cruel."


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