I <3 BBC America
Dr. Who and Torchwood, Torchwood, Torchwood.
I finally finished S3 of Dr. Who a couple of weeks ago with my ex-roommates, and the second half was so, so good. I missed half of the the first half of S3, so I'm idly rewatching it as it airs Saturday nights on BBC America, and it reminds me of rewatching S1 after the discovery of Bad Wolf; there's a certain name that is everywhere, and the absolute thoroughness makes me go *heart*. (The way Battlestar Galactica used to. But, god, y'know, that's a breakup best left in the past where it belongs.)
Torchwood, though, Episode 2.1, "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang." I'm going to comment as I watch. Under an LJ cut, for the sake of the spoiler-phobic.
You know, as a start? Absurdist humor is always pretty good. Blowfish in a sportscar.
Owen Harper, action hero. Man. He went to med school, but that man never really wanted to be a doctor. He wanted to be the kind of doctor you see on 'ER'. He loves this job.
...high blowfish in a sportscar. Okay, here's where you hit the thing that always bugs me RE: Torchwood. It's absurdism over the edge. I can't always tell my line before I hit it--but it looks like it's somewhere between 'blowfish in a sportscar' and 'blowfish in a sportscar, on crack'.
Awwwwwwwwww. Gay time-traveling alien/immortal love triangle. Poor Ianto. "My doctor." "came back for you." *heart*.
...okay, why, exactly, is the new homicidal bad guy wearing what appears to be a red version of the Black Parade jackets? Time Agent uniform? (Star Wars reference!)
Sociopathic ex-boyfriend? Is my guess. You know, they play up the gay so, so much in this show.
Yeah, sociopathic ex. Damn. They have the best sociopathic angry relationship soundtrack ever.
I'm in love with the sociopathic ex. He went to murder rehab. And yes, Jack needs a blonde. (Who is the wife!?!) So so awesome.
Hunh. Ianto and the SE are both so great in such completely different ways. Jack gets the best boys. (Why does Jack never have a girlfriend? Their convenient forgetfullness of the vaguely conventional facets of Jack's sexuality in the face of playing up everything unconventional is sometimes so annoying.)
Oh. Gwen. Flirting with Gwen. Way, way over-the-top flirting with Gwen.
"got a twinge in his back and had to lie down on the settee." Snerk. So glad Gwen's off the market.
Um. This may get me stoned, but is now the time to mention I kinda hate Gwen? Like, not always. Sometimes not at all. But she's often just...bothersome to me. Like a sweet, beloved borderline Mary Sue. God, I got so pissed off when she started thing-ing with Owen. I was loving them as a bickering sibling pair. But no, it's just UST. Which is nice, you know? But it gets old. And why in fuck was Gwen leading the team while Jack is away? How is the newest member of the team qualified to lead it? What is that? Why is everybody in love with Gwen?
So why'd SE kill the girl, I wonder?
Mmmm, Jackstory. Con-man, time agent, sexy bastard, all-around badass.
...wow, okay, SE? Now stands for stalker ex, instead of sociopathic ex. "He and I shared something"? Eesh.
"Proper woman", Owen? Really? You're so lucky Tosh is already in love with you.
And now you're shot. Aww.
Side note on the commercials: I have not seen the BBC series Robin Hood. But just from that one, single ad for season 2? I kind of want to. As far as I can tell, there are pretty badasses and swords. I approve.
Jack and Ianto, in an office building. Utterly failing at being a couple. Utterly, utterly failing. But, awwwwww. They're so cute at trying. They're gonna date. Awwwwwwwwwwww. I really hope the rest of this episode doesn't fuck those plans all to tatters.
Yeah, I knew it was too good to last. Stalker exes screw everything up. Aw, man, and he's a money-driven sociopath? That's boring.
Okay, he's at least partially emotionally invested in Jack. And making trouble and mess. And the splat-aftermath ought to be interesting.
Yeah. Stuff is happening, pretty people are wearing black and waving guns and spouting ridiculous techno-babble. Meh.
Oooh, what's in the jar, what's in the jar? Hee, team. Heee, splaftermath.
Is that James Marsters????!!!
OH. MY. GOD. How did it take me so long to figure out where I knew him from?
I'm glad they're going to have to save him to save the Sue. I've been liking him quite a lot.
But. Fuck. Fucking hell. That's James motherfucking William T. Bloody Marsters. I just...wow. Wow, no wonder I liked the bastard. I'm just still in WTF mode as to how it took me this long to get it. Wow. Wow, I'm slow.
I missed their plan while I was WTFing. I'm sure I'll figure it out.
(Oh, come on, you have five minutes to live and you're you're telling Jack you love him? Come on, bitch, tell your fiancee.)
...why did they choose this episode to pull out the 'time reverted and it never happened' trick? That's...I mean, no one even died. That's pointless. What were they trying to do?
Oooh, hints at incipient Jackstory. I like that.
Okay, so. In summation: I really like Dr. Who, camp and all. And I really, really like Jack. There are things about Torchwood that just don't do it for me, though: two big things that are kind of a big deal. I don't like the non-Jack characters nearly enough. They're underdeveloped, which makes them really boring. And also, the infatuation everyone on the show seems to have with Gwen bothers me. Second, the emphasis on sex--and particularly on anything they can do with non-conventional sexuality--goes over the top, as far as I'm concerned. Which coming from a slasher should be shameful, I know that, yeah. But it feels like in Torchwood they're just throwing it in to throw it in. Like there's a UST quota per episode, and if it's not met, they have to re-edit the episode.
That said, I liked this one. I like Ianto and Jack, I feel like that's one place where the writers actually are trying to build character and actually create interesting, meaningful relationship. And of the team, Ianto's easily the most interesting--possibly in large part because of the relationship with Jack, and the development that actually promises for him. I'm really hoping for more Jack history coming in this season.
In any case, I should probably go looking for fic. Torchwood is (let's admit it), kinda...bad. But you know, I mean, SGA is sometimes kinda bad. And I used to watch The Sentinel. TV shows with issues, RE character development, or any flow of logic in an episode whatsoever ('They Keep Killing Suzie', I'm looking at you WTFWTFWTF), can still breed really good fic. And Torchwood is a little birthday present to any slasher ever. It's sort of like bandom like that. You can't make it up. It's already canon.
The James Marsters thing, though, is going to take a little getting over.
Hmm. I need a Dr. Who/Torchwood icon. (I need more Bandom icons. I should, like, try collecting icons at some point.)
Side note--The Graham Norton Show, which follows Torchwood on BBC America, is always...so special.
ETA: Oh. Episode 2 is already up on the 'net. See? This is what I get for doing things slowly and legitimately. Ep. 2 recap/review may or may not come up later.
I finally finished S3 of Dr. Who a couple of weeks ago with my ex-roommates, and the second half was so, so good. I missed half of the the first half of S3, so I'm idly rewatching it as it airs Saturday nights on BBC America, and it reminds me of rewatching S1 after the discovery of Bad Wolf; there's a certain name that is everywhere, and the absolute thoroughness makes me go *heart*. (The way Battlestar Galactica used to. But, god, y'know, that's a breakup best left in the past where it belongs.)
Torchwood, though, Episode 2.1, "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang." I'm going to comment as I watch. Under an LJ cut, for the sake of the spoiler-phobic.
You know, as a start? Absurdist humor is always pretty good. Blowfish in a sportscar.
Owen Harper, action hero. Man. He went to med school, but that man never really wanted to be a doctor. He wanted to be the kind of doctor you see on 'ER'. He loves this job.
...high blowfish in a sportscar. Okay, here's where you hit the thing that always bugs me RE: Torchwood. It's absurdism over the edge. I can't always tell my line before I hit it--but it looks like it's somewhere between 'blowfish in a sportscar' and 'blowfish in a sportscar, on crack'.
Awwwwwwwwww. Gay time-traveling alien/immortal love triangle. Poor Ianto. "My doctor." "came back for you." *heart*.
...okay, why, exactly, is the new homicidal bad guy wearing what appears to be a red version of the Black Parade jackets? Time Agent uniform? (Star Wars reference!)
Sociopathic ex-boyfriend? Is my guess. You know, they play up the gay so, so much in this show.
Yeah, sociopathic ex. Damn. They have the best sociopathic angry relationship soundtrack ever.
I'm in love with the sociopathic ex. He went to murder rehab. And yes, Jack needs a blonde. (Who is the wife!?!) So so awesome.
Hunh. Ianto and the SE are both so great in such completely different ways. Jack gets the best boys. (Why does Jack never have a girlfriend? Their convenient forgetfullness of the vaguely conventional facets of Jack's sexuality in the face of playing up everything unconventional is sometimes so annoying.)
Oh. Gwen. Flirting with Gwen. Way, way over-the-top flirting with Gwen.
"got a twinge in his back and had to lie down on the settee." Snerk. So glad Gwen's off the market.
Um. This may get me stoned, but is now the time to mention I kinda hate Gwen? Like, not always. Sometimes not at all. But she's often just...bothersome to me. Like a sweet, beloved borderline Mary Sue. God, I got so pissed off when she started thing-ing with Owen. I was loving them as a bickering sibling pair. But no, it's just UST. Which is nice, you know? But it gets old. And why in fuck was Gwen leading the team while Jack is away? How is the newest member of the team qualified to lead it? What is that? Why is everybody in love with Gwen?
So why'd SE kill the girl, I wonder?
Mmmm, Jackstory. Con-man, time agent, sexy bastard, all-around badass.
...wow, okay, SE? Now stands for stalker ex, instead of sociopathic ex. "He and I shared something"? Eesh.
"Proper woman", Owen? Really? You're so lucky Tosh is already in love with you.
And now you're shot. Aww.
Side note on the commercials: I have not seen the BBC series Robin Hood. But just from that one, single ad for season 2? I kind of want to. As far as I can tell, there are pretty badasses and swords. I approve.
Jack and Ianto, in an office building. Utterly failing at being a couple. Utterly, utterly failing. But, awwwwww. They're so cute at trying. They're gonna date. Awwwwwwwwwwww. I really hope the rest of this episode doesn't fuck those plans all to tatters.
Yeah, I knew it was too good to last. Stalker exes screw everything up. Aw, man, and he's a money-driven sociopath? That's boring.
Okay, he's at least partially emotionally invested in Jack. And making trouble and mess. And the splat-aftermath ought to be interesting.
Yeah. Stuff is happening, pretty people are wearing black and waving guns and spouting ridiculous techno-babble. Meh.
Oooh, what's in the jar, what's in the jar? Hee, team. Heee, splaftermath.
Is that James Marsters????!!!
OH. MY. GOD. How did it take me so long to figure out where I knew him from?
I'm glad they're going to have to save him to save the Sue. I've been liking him quite a lot.
But. Fuck. Fucking hell. That's James motherfucking William T. Bloody Marsters. I just...wow. Wow, no wonder I liked the bastard. I'm just still in WTF mode as to how it took me this long to get it. Wow. Wow, I'm slow.
I missed their plan while I was WTFing. I'm sure I'll figure it out.
(Oh, come on, you have five minutes to live and you're you're telling Jack you love him? Come on, bitch, tell your fiancee.)
...why did they choose this episode to pull out the 'time reverted and it never happened' trick? That's...I mean, no one even died. That's pointless. What were they trying to do?
Oooh, hints at incipient Jackstory. I like that.
Okay, so. In summation: I really like Dr. Who, camp and all. And I really, really like Jack. There are things about Torchwood that just don't do it for me, though: two big things that are kind of a big deal. I don't like the non-Jack characters nearly enough. They're underdeveloped, which makes them really boring. And also, the infatuation everyone on the show seems to have with Gwen bothers me. Second, the emphasis on sex--and particularly on anything they can do with non-conventional sexuality--goes over the top, as far as I'm concerned. Which coming from a slasher should be shameful, I know that, yeah. But it feels like in Torchwood they're just throwing it in to throw it in. Like there's a UST quota per episode, and if it's not met, they have to re-edit the episode.
That said, I liked this one. I like Ianto and Jack, I feel like that's one place where the writers actually are trying to build character and actually create interesting, meaningful relationship. And of the team, Ianto's easily the most interesting--possibly in large part because of the relationship with Jack, and the development that actually promises for him. I'm really hoping for more Jack history coming in this season.
In any case, I should probably go looking for fic. Torchwood is (let's admit it), kinda...bad. But you know, I mean, SGA is sometimes kinda bad. And I used to watch The Sentinel. TV shows with issues, RE character development, or any flow of logic in an episode whatsoever ('They Keep Killing Suzie', I'm looking at you WTFWTFWTF), can still breed really good fic. And Torchwood is a little birthday present to any slasher ever. It's sort of like bandom like that. You can't make it up. It's already canon.
The James Marsters thing, though, is going to take a little getting over.
Hmm. I need a Dr. Who/Torchwood icon. (I need more Bandom icons. I should, like, try collecting icons at some point.)
Side note--The Graham Norton Show, which follows Torchwood on BBC America, is always...so special.
ETA: Oh. Episode 2 is already up on the 'net. See? This is what I get for doing things slowly and legitimately. Ep. 2 recap/review may or may not come up later.