The Big Squid Secret Squirrel Origin Story
Hello!
Here is the introduction for the scripts that I am publishing over at the Big Squid Patreon site that cover the HBO series and graphic novel Watchmen. Consider this the secret origin of the Big Squid Podcast. I’m going to publish all 21 scripts over the next few weeks so if you’d like to check it all out click on the link here.
So without further ado….here’s me!
Whoever said that the Big Squid podcast was a fascist regime quite clearly is out to get me. This isn’t a dictatorship! You voted, I listened and as of today we’re returning to simpler times. You remember simpler times as a concept at least, right? All we had to worry about was a Trump presidency, the ongoing climate change debate and how can we reconcile loving Harry Styles even if he did begin his career in One-Direction?
I had pitched the idea of Big Squid as an after show for Foxtel with the working title We Watch the Watchmen. They’d just finished producing a Game of Thrones after-show and I thought this was the best time to pitch a similar idea for the new HBO series that I felt was going to be an absolute winner. I was basing this on the fact that the Watchmen series was being made by a large percentage of the creative forces behind the cult hit The Leftovers and coupled with the source material and the first trailers, it was looking promising.
The meeting was fine and I even managed to hide my cringe when some of the Foxtel executives were telling me they were reading Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen graphic novel for the first time.
“Wow,” some dude in a suit said. “It really is like nothing I’ve read before.”
A fair enough response from someone who didn’t have an interest in comics…I guess. I explained that I read the graphic novel when it was a 12-part series published monthly (well…it started monthly before being delayed) back in the mid-80s and was one of the first comics along with Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns that I used as examples in my “comics aren’t just for kids anymore” arguments. I wasn’t just across the series; it flowed in my veins and I had read it so many times I could conjure images and dialogue in my head with little effort.
Then another dude in a suit told me that their Game of Thrones after show was a failure so why would they go with this? I probably exhibited too much hubris in this moment and explained that their failure stemmed from launching their after show in the final season of Game of Thrones. If you wanted an after show, by that stage you already had one. I didn’t watch it because who gives a shit what any of these people had to say? I hadn’t heard their thoughts in the lead-up, why start now?
As you can guess I never heard back from Foxtel and to that I say: THANK YOU! I can only imagine the dumb-arse reality TV stars and banal celebrities that would have been foisted upon me if they’d said yes to my pitch. It would have been a disaster! I still had a gut feeling the HBO series was going to be a hit and I figured rather than pitch it to TV I would return to the world of podcasting.
My original podcast Can You Take This Photo Please? had run for seven-years and also run its course. It had stopped evolving and I can’t bear to be stuck in a work situation where you’re repeating the same patterns over and over again. I had quietly put it to one side and moved on. Now I felt excited at the prospect of launching a new podcast that would allow me to break down and discuss this event with the people I liked and respected.
I also changed the name. “We Watch the Watchmen” always felt like a placeholder and it was while I was in the middle of cooking dinner that the words BIG SQUID hit me right in the cerebrum. Never underestimate your subconscious to do a better job for you when you’re busy concentrating on cutting carrots. I retrieved the old podcasting equipment, reacquainted myself with the whole production process, booked my OG guests and then sat down to watch the first episode the moment it aired.
And I was totally wrong. It wasn’t great.
It was mind-blowing.
Then after the episode finished I had a mild-panic attack as it took me three hours of writing and research just breaking down the first 7-minutes of the opening episode. What had I gotten myself into?! That moment passed though because this was everything I want in a series and while the work that went into that first season was much more than I expected, I loved every second of it.
I loved doing the research.
I loved recording with my friends.
I loved being back in the world of podcasting.
I loved everything about it.
The podcast was only supposed to last the length of the TV series but as you are well aware, it has evolved into something much more and I’ve never been happier. If you haven’t seen the HBO series, I recommend going back to our original podcasts and listening to each one after you’ve watched an episode. It will help you catch the energy and excitement we all had at the time and hopefully you’ll be caught up in that too.
For those of you who have already seen it but would like to brush up on all of the Easter Eggs and the thoughts we had week-to-week, you can just read these scripts and keep in the back of your mind the cold-sweat that would immediately envelope me as I sat down after each episode to begin work.
A lot of love went into this podcast and I can’t thank enough the friends who inspired me to break it down and come up with interesting angles for us to discuss. Also a big shout out to Damon Lindelof and the team for not ruining the graphic novel and finding a way to build upon the foundations in a way that you can integrate or ignore, depending on your love for the original work. And as always I will forever be in debt to Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons and the rest of the team for creating Watchmen in the first place. I know it has become a symbol for everything that went wrong with creator rights back in the day, but as a kid who had no idea what was going on behind the scenes, it was revelatory and inspirational for decades to come.
Finally thank you to you for being part of this and I hope you get a kick out of the scripts for not only the series but also the graphic novel over the next few weeks. This podcast was only supposed to be only 21 episodes and look where we are now!
Hammo!
Surry Hills
2022