Watchmen review: The graphic novel lays the foundation for this story

Straight off the bat, I’d like to make a disclaimer. I have not read the Watchmen graphic novel and my only exposure to the superhero franchise was the 2009 film adaptation by Zack Snyder. Honestly, I really liked the movie. So, watching Watchmen for me was more like wondering what elements of the movie will be familiar and what will be new. If you are a die-hard fan of the graphic novel, I suggest you look elsewhere as this review is from the perspective of one that enjoys superhero movies and TV shows but isn’t super into Watchmen.

The Plot: Racism, alternate history and mask are for your own protection

The plot of the show is pretty grounded, laying the foundation of an alternate history where superheroes are real and so are vigilantes. Popular names like Rorschach, Dr Manhattan, Ozymandias and more are thrown around as though they are known to people. If you have seen the Snyder movie, it's enough to get a grip on who these guys are and why you should care for them. 

The series takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA in an alternative reality in 2019 - 34 years after the comic ends. Cops now wear masks to protect their identity. This is because of a mass attack on law enforcement agents in the dead of night by a group called "The Seventh Cavalry" (wearing Rorschach masks). It is because of this incident that we are introduced to our protagonist Angela Abar (played by Regina King). A family woman claiming to be retired from law enforcement, she dons a mask to take on the "The Seventh Cavalry". 

Now the plot may not sound like a lot and that's because I’ve left the juicy bits out. It's safe to say that the first 2 episodes lay the foundation before thrusting you headfirst into a world filled with political motivation, emotional baggage and a 'cavalry' that thrives on racism. The only downside here is that you need to have seen the Snyder movie to at least have a grip on some of the iconic characters as the show does little to bring you up to speed, at least in the first 6 episodes. Amazon’s The Boys (another superhero show based on a comic) does take the time to introduce you to iconic names before the plot thickens. Same for a show like the Umbrella Academy on Netflix. But here’s the thing. Watchmen the TV show isn't based on the comic. Nor is it a direct adaptation. It is inspired by, or rather a spiritual successor, a continuation if you will and that's where I think it is important to know some of the characters that defined Watchmen.

Overall, the plot of the show is engaging and interesting. The manner in which key characters are introduced giving you enough of their backstory and motivation to keep you invested yet hiding enough to keep you guessing. This is good as it will keep you guessing and hooked. If the legacy was explained a bit, it would be better for newcomers to the franchise.

There’s the old and then there’s the new

Since the show is a continuation of the story of Watchmen, there are the old characters that we have highlighted above, and then there are the new ones. We have of course our protagonist who goes by Angela Abar in the day, faithful wife and mother. But when the mask comes on she is the ruthless ‘Sister Night’. We also have a character by the name of Panda, Red Scare, Mime and more, each bringing something unique to the table. 

Then we have a returning character from the old, Laurie Blake (played by Jean Smart). She is an FBI agent whose job is to take down the masked vigilantes roaming the streets. Her character is one that is linked to the past when the Watchmen roamed the streets and the Blue God still walked the Blue Planet. Laurie’s link to the original Watchmen is represented through one-way phone calls she made to Dr Manhattan and these sequences are the best throwbacks to the original characters. Enough said. 

There is really little more I can tell you about Watchmen without spoiling it for you. The truth is, spend your weekend catching up on some of the lore. There are enough YouTube videos to help you with that. The show is gripping, engaging and has some very interesting plot twists. Coming to the tone, the show isn’t childish like Super Girl or the Flash nor it is as gritty as The Boys. It has a dark tone to it, filled with brutal violence, good sarcastic humour and a background score that makes each key character feel like a badass! 

You can catch the first episode on November 24 on Star World at 10 PM. The show will be available on Hotstar as well starting 21 October 2019. 

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Face Unlock on Google Pixel 4 works even when your eyes are shut

The newly announced Google Pixel 4 phones, which are not coming to India, have a major security issue related to the face authentication mechanism. The new smartphones come equipped with two NIR cameras on the front, along with a flood emitter and a dot projector, which together are supposed to enable a more secure face unlock authentication mechanism. However, it seems like the option works even when your eyes are closed. The face unlock option not working when your eyes are closed is quiṭe important. This is because no one wants someone else to simply pick up your phone, point it at your face and start digging through your gallery or WhatsApp messages. However, Chris Fox from BBC discovered that the Face Unlock option works on the Google Pixel 4 even when your eyes are closed.

Even the Face ID on Apple devices checks to ascertain whether a user is alert and staring at the screen before unlocking the device. The report notes that Google’s Pixel 4 support website states. "Your phone can also be unlocked by someone else if it's held up to your face, even if your eyes are closed." The phone doesn’t ship with a fingerprint sensor, and face unlock is an easier way to quickly get access, especially with that new Soli Radar chip. However, we aren’t sure whether one would want to risk using the option since it has a considerable privacy concern.

We have seen demonstrations of the face unlock authentication mechanism on Android, where it has been spoofed by simple print out of a person’s face. It took a 3D model of a face to fool Apple’s Face ID and while it is a given that face unlock is not extremely secure, it is a great feature to have on any smartphone for relatively faster phone unlocking. Google did tell BBC: "We will continue to improve Face Unlock over time," and that the face unlock feature on its Pixel 4 phones can’t be fooled by masks or photos. 

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Netflix released a list of their most watched movies and TV shows of 2019

It’s clear that Netflix is a power player in the world of OTT streaming platforms. The streaming giant have released hit after hit in the form of bankable franchises like Stranger Things, Mindhunters, The Haunting of Hill House and many more. Netflix is notoriously tight-lipped regarding its numbers, whether it’s the viewership data or hit shows. But now, the company has released a list of its most watched shows and movies. This took place at the company’s Q3 investor earnings report for 2019. Q3 covers the time period from the first day of July to the end of September. The list covers both movies and serialized shows and going through the list, there are a few surprises that we didn’t expect.

Here are the most watched movies on Netflix for 2019:

*Note: Bird Box is on the list because the data tracks the viewership numbers for the first four weeks after the films debut. Bird Box released on December 14, 2018.

Bird Box (80 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Murder Mystery (73 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Triple Frontier (52 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. The Perfect Date (48 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Tall Girl (41 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. The Highwaymen (40 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Secret Obsession (40 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Always Be My Maybe (32 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Otherhood (29 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here.

Up next, we’ve got a list of Netflix’s most watched TV shows of 2019 and its no surprise here which show has crushed it in terms of viewership numbers.

Stranger Things: Season 3 (64 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. The Umbrella Academy (45 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Money Heist: Season 3 (44 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Sex Education (40 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. You (40 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Our Planet (33 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Unbelievable (32 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. Dead to Me (30 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here. When They See Us (25 million viewers) Check out the trailer, here.

As far as we’re concerned, it’s the best time to cut-the-cord, so to speak and start getting on one of the three major streaming services in Netflix, Hotstar and Amazon Prime as each service has a few more shows that are scheduled to be released over the next two months. We’ve gone ahead and listed a few that you should definitely check out.

The Witcher (Netflix)

We’ve all played the games and spent countless hours wandering the open world of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and now we’ve got ourselves a TV show to sink our steel blades into. Although the lackluster trailer, Henry Cavill’s casting as well as a few race swapped characters have soured most fans to the Netflix show, we’ll have to wait and see if the show is any good. The Witcher premiers sometime later this year.

Watchmen (HBO/Hotstar)

Even though the Zack Snyder film kind of missed the point of the original graphic novel, it looks like that hasn’t stopped HBO from trying their hand at expanding the universe of The Watchmen. Even though the graphic novel was perfect in its 12-issue run, we’ve got more to watch out for with this year’s Watchmen which looks as tone-deaf and ultra-woke as the cookie cutter shows on the CW.

His Dark Materials (HBO/Hotstar)

An adaptation of Philip Pullman’s series of novels, His Dark Materials tells the magical and inter-dimensional tale of two children and their coming of age adventures as they travel through various dimensions and parallel universes. The series will premier on November 4 on HBO, which means that we here in India will be able to watch it on Hotstar.

The Crown: Season 3 (Netflix)

 The Crown is one of Netflix’s best shows. The first two seasons were highly rated by critics and this third season seems to be heading in the same direction. The Queen is a little older and a little wiser as she heads into the 70’s and all the trouble it brings.

Daybreak (Netflix)

Love post-apocalyptic shows and movies? Well, Daybreak is right up your alley. The story follows a group of high school kids who suddenly find themselves the rulers of their town after a nuclear attack leaves all the adults either dead or worse than dead. The trailer looks quirky and zany and we expect it to deliver in spades.

 

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OpenAI trained a robot hand to solve a Rubiks Cube

Artificial Intelligence or AI is being developed at breakneck speeds. While this is not particularly a bad thing, many are worried that we might lose control over AI, if it is not properly regulated. There are certain organisations that are keeping watch over the development of AI, like the Elon Musk founded AI research organisation, OpenAI. The company works on many subsets of AI and most of us might know about it by its achievement of besting some of the world’s best DOTA players. Now, the company has taken a step towards introducing human-level dexterity in bots by training a pair of neural networks that enable solving the Rubik’s Cube with a single robot-hand. 

The robot-hand developed by the company is called Dactyl and as to how OpenAI managed to train it is quite interesting. The old-fashioned way of training a neural network is to let it practice a task for years at an accelerated pace. When we talk about learning how to beat opponents in a virtual game, this approach is feasible as the software can spend time learning everything it needs to at hastened speeds. However, in Dactyl’s case, letting it practice with a Rubik’s Cube for years was not an option and hence, the company used simulations to train it. 

“The system can handle situations it never saw during training, such as being prodded by a stuffed giraffe. This shows that reinforcement learning isn’t just a tool for virtual tasks, but can solve physical-world problems requiring unprecedented dexterity,” says OpenAI. While Dactyl’s dexterity and sharpness when solving the cube is nowhere near humans, it is a great way to demonstrate how simulations can be implemented and to lay a foundation for general-purpose robots.

As per OpenAI, the biggest challenge they faced while training the network was creating simulation environments that are diverse and unique. The simulations needed to capture the physics of the real world, which include attributes like elasticity, dynamics and friction, along with a model for complex objects like Rubik’s Cubes or robotic hands. The company developed the Automatic Domain Randomization (ADR) technique, which is said to endlessly generates progressively more difficult environments in a simulation. 

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Red Dead Redemption 2 PC 4K 60fps Trailer Showcases Game Ahead of November 5 Release

Rockstar Games has released the first trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2’s PC version that will be out on November 5.

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NASAs much-awaited all-female spacewalk is happening today, heres how to watch it live

NASA is all set to conduct the first ever all-female spacewalk from the International Space Station. The walk, which will involve American astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir stepping out into space to perform maintenance activities on the space station for up to six hours, will take place at 5:20 PM IST today (7:50 AM EDT). This all-female spacewalk, which was originally planned to happen in March this year, is expected to set a milestone in women's history in space as the world has never seen an all-female ensemble during spacewalks in the past.

How to watch the spacewalk live

Since NASA is beaming a live broadcast of the spacewalk, you can catch it on NASA's own website here, and on the agency's YouTube channel here. Visit either website at 5:20 PM IST today to start watching. Koch will be wearing a white spacesuit with red stripes on it. Views from her helmet camera will have the number 18, explains NASA in its briefing. Meir's spacesuit is plain white and views from her helmet camera will have the number 11.

Mission Details

The short story is that the two astronauts are stepping out into space today to change a broken battery charging unit on the space station. The long story is that a BCDU (battery charge/discharge unit) aboard the station failed to turn on after new lithium-ion batteries were installed on the station's exterior structure earlier this month. During the walk, the two astronauts will be assisted by Commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency and NASA Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan.

“The unit is one of several that regulate the charge put into the batteries collecting energy from the station’s solar arrays. Though the unit's failure has not affected station operations or crew safety, it does prevent the new batteries from providing increased station power,” writes NASA in its briefing. Today's spacewalk will also mark Meir's first EVA (extra-vehicular activity), and Koch's fourth.

Previous Attempt in March

The all-female spacewalk, involving Christina Koch and Anne McClain, was originally scheduled to happen on March 29 this year as part of Expedition 59. Following an unexpected unavailability of spacesuits two days before the spacewalk, NASA was forced to pair Koch with Nick Hague for the scheduled walk. McClain was slated to walk with David Saint-Jacques later in April. You can read more about that here. Today's spacewalk is part of Expedition 61.

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New NVIDIA Shield TV streaming stick leaked online

A new streaming stick from NVIDIA has leaked online and as of writing this story, the leaked post has been removed. However, with the power of the internet, we still have the leaked information available online. The leaked NVIDIA Shield TV has a cylindrical form factor with one end housing a power port and an Ethernet port and the other end housing an HDMI port and a microSD card slot for storage expansion. The Stick is said to stream in 4K with support for HDR including Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The listing of the NVIDIA Shield was first spotted by Newegg and has since been removed.

Coming back to the new NVIDIA Shield TV, the device is said to be powered by the Nvidia Tegra X1 Plus processor, which offers 25% faster performance when compared to the previous Shield TV streaming devices. Information circulating the internet suggests that this will be the entry-level model of the Shield TV family of devices. The NVIDIA Shield TV Pro is expected to be spruced up version of the streaming device. 

The streaming stick comes with a remote control that has a triangular design. The remote control has a power button, menu button, playback controls, volume controls, a mic and a home button along with a dedicated Netflix button. 

There is no price or launch date for the device but you can expect more information to pop up about the upcoming device soon. 

With TVs getting smarter, it is getting harder to justify the need for a Streaming Stick. The previous-gen NVIDIA shield ran a slew of games and also let you stream games from your PC to the TV via the Shield, making it an interesting proposition.

Source

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