How ‘Solar Opposites’ Takes A Page From ‘Watchmen’
by Frank Martin
Creating stories within stories can be a useful storytelling tool. It’s a way to take the focus off of the main narrative for any number of reasons. A notable story within a story is the “Tales Of The Black Freighter” comic book featured in Watchmen. Although Watchmen is a famous superhero story, “The Black Freighter” focuses on a pirate. His journey is meant as a symbol and reflection of the themes within the larger work. But a story within a story doesn’t have to be always be that poignant. Solar Opposites, which stars Thomas Middleditch, also has a story within a story. In fact, it has two. And they both exist for no other reason than to entertain.
The most prominent secondary story in Solar Opposites involves the wall. This is a hamster-like play area populated by various people the aliens have shrunk. The wall has its own ecosystem and society that undergoes many transformative changes across the show’s four seasons. It’s more or less detached from the larger narrative, and is a wild epic in its own right. The tertiary story is about a human that the aliens flung into space. He eventually entered into a galactic police force that’s a play on DC’s Green Lantern and goes on his own adventure completely separate from Earth.
It has yet to be revealed if these two other narratives will ever interact with the main storyline in an impactful way. But they don’t necessarily have to. They are both very good all by themselves and can exist as separate story lines with their own conclusions. What’s interesting is to compare how they are presented in contrast to the secondary storyline in Watchmen. In both instances, the purpose and tone of the secondary storyline is vastly different. Even how they relate to the main narrative is different as the auxiliary storylines in the Solar Opposites still exist in the same framework as the main one. In Watchmen, “The Black Freighter” is just a fictional tale within that universe. Still, the fact that two different works can be so different and yet utilize the same tool is noteworthy.
Solar Opposites is now streaming on Hulu.
