I liked it.
Spoiler:
I like the idea of the police acting as vigilantes in a super authoritarian regime. The masks and them having to get authorization for firearms (and the consequences of that) were great. The police may be the protagonists, but they're definitely not "good guys".I loved the Rorschach neo-nazis using his journal as a manifesto (dude sent his journal to an alt-right newspaper at the end after all).
I'm guessing the Sheriff who died at the end and adopted Regina King's character from Vietnam is Nite Owl. Dude had the Owl mug and piloted the police Archie (if the police have Nite Owls tech, he was either caught and had it all confiscated, donated it, or Nite Owl himself became the sheriff after he outed himself).There's also him having the first Nite Owls book on his desk in the precinct. The blood dripping onto his badge was an obvious parallel to the Comedians death, so I'm thinking they killed off Nite Owl to further parallel the source materials kick off (in which case, pretty good start). It's also possible that he's just a completely new character who mirrors Comedians purpose in the source material.
I'm excited to see what the deal is with the wheelchair executioner. He was watching that silent film of the vigilante lynching the corrupt sheriff during the intro, so I guess that implies Judds character is somehow corrupt (or at least perceived to be corrupt by the wheelchair executioner). I read a solid theory online concerning his identity that I wish had put together myself. It almost seems obvious in hindsight.
Irons/Ozy and his weird defective lab grown servants are interesting. I'm wondering what his goals are. So far, he faked his death and created life. I'm guessing he's trying to clone himself or something? New age Ozy? New age lab grown Watchmen? He has to have picked up on the fact that the Rorschach Neo Nazi's claims are a little too close to the truth, so maybe it has something to do with him preparing for the inevitable fallout from that stuff getting out.
Loled @ Nixon on Mt. Rushmore
The raining squid weather phenomenon was insane (byproduct of Ozy's original squid event I guess?).
Looking Glass is probably the coolest vigilante introduced so far. I love his sensory overload interrogation tank, and I'm looking forward to seeing more from him.
Regina King is a great actress and I can't wait to see her get more into her role. That said, I'm not entirely clear on her role yet. Is she supposed to be a payed/outsourced vigilante/merc? She's not a cop, but she gets brought in for more important cases. She's seems pretty corrupt if she's abducting and torturing people off personal intuition (or Looking Glass' interpretation). I'm not really routing for her character, but I'm curious.
The Tulsa Race Riot/Massacre in the intro was f*cking fantastic, and possibly the best part of the episode. I had no idea this was even a thing before I saw this so the imagery definitely set the tone. How the hell have I never even heard of this? Also, I got some pretty hardcore Krypton/Planet Vegeta vibes from this scene.
Lastly, it's worth mentioning that the soundtrack was pretty great.