It's way the hell easier to write a plot without cell phones.
Totally. I had a storm knock out the electricity in the book I am writing so the two leads can’t charge them. Oh and they needed new ones because of moving country. I had to keep referencing the things and why they aren’t using them...because it just ruins the plot. Thankfully it’s a bit gothic novel cum literary romance, and I have some stuff to do with photos as memories in there, so I could use it in other ways integral to the plot, but fundamentally I was just finding ways to not let the characters have access to stuff we take for granted with phones.
I think this series is gonna be running with a lot of misdirection too...right now I have a safe bet that the mentioned ‘racism’ is going to be directed not at African Americans, despite the opening, but at Asian Americans, because of the alt-history and symbolism being used (tiny bit of yolk ruins the white....Sister Night is Vietnamese...the communist flag styled Bakery signs...) and that it may be allegorically done.
I will definitely say it’s the cleverest pilot of anything I have seen in a long time, and has more thought piled into its visuals than usual. I am very curious where it’s going though, and fully imagine there will be rage in the twitter sphere before all is done if it gets a big following.
But...well, that’s not much of a surprise given the source. Loads of people just don’t get it to this day. Probably why all the grim dark shit in capes and tights media seem to be doomed to keep repeating it. (And média in general lol.) Even here there’s loads of us that think we get it, only to argue with others who have their own ‘it’ which is probably as valid.
(Rorsach! Hero! Fascist! It’s gonna run and run...)
I don’t think much of Alan Moore tbh, but he did a good job on Watchmen.
Same is true of Zack Snyder to be fair.