Torchwood versus Atlantis
Over the past two weekends, I've ended up watching two first seasons, one of which I'd put off forever, certain it would be crap, and the other of which I staked out on Youtube because there was no way in hell I was going to wait for it to maybe be released to Amercian TV/DVD. And of course, I ended up loving the one I'd expected to hate and hating the one I'd expected to love.
Granted, Stargate: Atlantis wasn't quite as good as SG1 had been in its first few seasons, but the fact that I literally found myself sitting on the edge of my chair for sixteen hours straight tells me that's still pretty damned good.
Torchwood, on the other hand... I don't get it. I don't get how the writers could screw up so badly, and I don't get why people are writing fanfiction and making vids and really getting into it. Am I missing something? Is there something I should be getting that would make this fandom open up for me?
Let's start with the team dynamic. It's not entirely clear what everyone's jobs are, or why they're the best people for those jobs. Owen's technically the doctor, but Tosh is just as likely to be doing an autopsy. Tosh is the hacker, but the computers are brilliant enough that everyone else seems able to stand in for her when she's not there. And why they need Ianto to play butler is beyond me; he really doesn't seem to contribute in any way. And it's not just the jobs; usually on a show you'll have dynamics and histories between various characters that help show you who these people are and why you should care. Aside from the storyline of Gwen cheating on her boyfriend with Owen, there's no consistency week to week about how these people interact, no Jack-and-Daniel banter, no Cordelia Chase cutting-but-ditzy truths. Even Gwen, who is put forward as the sympathetic character, cheats on her boyfriend pretty readily. She's absent the same morals as the rest of the team, she just gets upset and expects to be comforted afterwards.
Then there's Jack. Captain Jack Harkness. He's cold here, uses people, closer to who he was when he first appeared on Dr. Who than when he left it. I might be able to understand that if he felt he'd been "dumped" by the Doctor and was trying to keep Earth from suffering the kind of abandonment he did. But the few times he does refer to that time, he always gets a wistful tone when he says he's trying to find "the right kind of Doctor." So I'm really clueless there; the character makes no sense and rubs me the wrong way.
But the thing that bothers me the most is the complete lack of a sense of wonder. We first meet our heroes reviving a murder victim, not to catch the killer but just to see if they can do it. Several characters talk about how filthy the alien life they see is, and how isolating and miserable they find their jobs. Fox Mulder didn't like his job, but we discovered pretty quickly that he wanted to find his sister and he enjoyed baiting Scully. Frodo didn't like his job, but he felt it had to be done and he loved the Fellowship. The Torchwood crew, on the other hand, hate their jobs, can't stand each other, and don't like themselves all that much, either. I just don't understand the appeal.
Granted, Stargate: Atlantis wasn't quite as good as SG1 had been in its first few seasons, but the fact that I literally found myself sitting on the edge of my chair for sixteen hours straight tells me that's still pretty damned good.
Torchwood, on the other hand... I don't get it. I don't get how the writers could screw up so badly, and I don't get why people are writing fanfiction and making vids and really getting into it. Am I missing something? Is there something I should be getting that would make this fandom open up for me?
Let's start with the team dynamic. It's not entirely clear what everyone's jobs are, or why they're the best people for those jobs. Owen's technically the doctor, but Tosh is just as likely to be doing an autopsy. Tosh is the hacker, but the computers are brilliant enough that everyone else seems able to stand in for her when she's not there. And why they need Ianto to play butler is beyond me; he really doesn't seem to contribute in any way. And it's not just the jobs; usually on a show you'll have dynamics and histories between various characters that help show you who these people are and why you should care. Aside from the storyline of Gwen cheating on her boyfriend with Owen, there's no consistency week to week about how these people interact, no Jack-and-Daniel banter, no Cordelia Chase cutting-but-ditzy truths. Even Gwen, who is put forward as the sympathetic character, cheats on her boyfriend pretty readily. She's absent the same morals as the rest of the team, she just gets upset and expects to be comforted afterwards.
Then there's Jack. Captain Jack Harkness. He's cold here, uses people, closer to who he was when he first appeared on Dr. Who than when he left it. I might be able to understand that if he felt he'd been "dumped" by the Doctor and was trying to keep Earth from suffering the kind of abandonment he did. But the few times he does refer to that time, he always gets a wistful tone when he says he's trying to find "the right kind of Doctor." So I'm really clueless there; the character makes no sense and rubs me the wrong way.
But the thing that bothers me the most is the complete lack of a sense of wonder. We first meet our heroes reviving a murder victim, not to catch the killer but just to see if they can do it. Several characters talk about how filthy the alien life they see is, and how isolating and miserable they find their jobs. Fox Mulder didn't like his job, but we discovered pretty quickly that he wanted to find his sister and he enjoyed baiting Scully. Frodo didn't like his job, but he felt it had to be done and he loved the Fellowship. The Torchwood crew, on the other hand, hate their jobs, can't stand each other, and don't like themselves all that much, either. I just don't understand the appeal.