Torchwood thoughts
I've been offline for over a day, and it's a day that had a season finale in it and a season opener that a lot of my friends watch. Wish me luck, I'm tackling the friends list... hopefully I'll get through before the second explosion of the Who premiere!
Re: Torchwood. Judging from M's reaction, it wasn't any better if you weren't spoiled rotten for it. I liked a lot of what they did this season, and the idea that death comes early for the Torchwood personnel is a good one... but I think they could have handled concept, execution, and plot much better than they did for this episode.
First of all, they're failing the racial subtext again. This season we find out three things about the minority character:
1) She's an inadvertent black widow. Every single person she's romantically interested in dies. Oh, and as usual, she's not interested in anyone of her own racial background. Or, arguably, she appears uninterested because she never sees one!
2) Her untrustworthy actions in Greeks Bearing Gifts is part of a long-term pattern of behavior and not a moment's weakness.
3) She's dead.
Second, how is Jack sane anymore? Seriously. He was tortured by the Master for a year, and he comes back and gets to be tortured by his missing brother for over a millennia. We know he still feels pain. How is he even remotely able to cope with an extended life that has meant so much agony?
Third, I liked Captain John better when he was a nutbag. It's like the neutering of Spike all over again. James does gleefully homicidal nutbag so well, too.
Fourth, having grown up near Three Mile Island during the big blow, I apparently know a shitload more about nuclear plants than the author does. Like now anyone with three brain cells to knock together has manual/backup/generator safeties on the reactor in case the main power goes out. And how no matter what happens, it is simply impossible to VENT ANYTHING INTO A BUILDING!!!! OSHA, or the Welsh equivalent, would presumably Have Something To Say About That.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, the show did have some moments... although at this point in time, I couldn't cite any. No, one. I did like Owen raging against the second dying of the light, but there was just no way they could do anything else with the character, not after his entire life got pasted on, yay. That whole story went nowhere, and was, IMO, the beginning of the end for this season. And not in the "they're running out of episodes" definition of the end.
ETA: I can think of other moments - the Andy/Rhys interaction was brilliant. "I ask and you tell me the secret?" And the bit with the grim reapers may have been an Indy Jones ripoff, but it's still a funny one.
I am a bit amused, though, comparing the reality against the original set of spoilers that I heard and ranted about... the spoilers that said that Tosh and Owen were going to be the only *survivors* and that the show was going to become a kiddie show. We know how the first settled out, and I'm betting that the second is going to be that they're simply going to shift slightly before the watershed, with the minor changes already happening. If you go back, you can tell *exactly* what scenes will be cut by what the characters are saying. If they're swearing, it's a cut; if they're using euphemisms, it's staying. Personally, I don't see a huge difference between Gwen saying "stop handing me crap" and "stop handing me shit," so either way it goes, I'm cool.
Re: Torchwood. Judging from M's reaction, it wasn't any better if you weren't spoiled rotten for it. I liked a lot of what they did this season, and the idea that death comes early for the Torchwood personnel is a good one... but I think they could have handled concept, execution, and plot much better than they did for this episode.
First of all, they're failing the racial subtext again. This season we find out three things about the minority character:
1) She's an inadvertent black widow. Every single person she's romantically interested in dies. Oh, and as usual, she's not interested in anyone of her own racial background. Or, arguably, she appears uninterested because she never sees one!
2) Her untrustworthy actions in Greeks Bearing Gifts is part of a long-term pattern of behavior and not a moment's weakness.
3) She's dead.
Second, how is Jack sane anymore? Seriously. He was tortured by the Master for a year, and he comes back and gets to be tortured by his missing brother for over a millennia. We know he still feels pain. How is he even remotely able to cope with an extended life that has meant so much agony?
Third, I liked Captain John better when he was a nutbag. It's like the neutering of Spike all over again. James does gleefully homicidal nutbag so well, too.
Fourth, having grown up near Three Mile Island during the big blow, I apparently know a shitload more about nuclear plants than the author does. Like now anyone with three brain cells to knock together has manual/backup/generator safeties on the reactor in case the main power goes out. And how no matter what happens, it is simply impossible to VENT ANYTHING INTO A BUILDING!!!! OSHA, or the Welsh equivalent, would presumably Have Something To Say About That.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, the show did have some moments... although at this point in time, I couldn't cite any. No, one. I did like Owen raging against the second dying of the light, but there was just no way they could do anything else with the character, not after his entire life got pasted on, yay. That whole story went nowhere, and was, IMO, the beginning of the end for this season. And not in the "they're running out of episodes" definition of the end.
ETA: I can think of other moments - the Andy/Rhys interaction was brilliant. "I ask and you tell me the secret?" And the bit with the grim reapers may have been an Indy Jones ripoff, but it's still a funny one.
I am a bit amused, though, comparing the reality against the original set of spoilers that I heard and ranted about... the spoilers that said that Tosh and Owen were going to be the only *survivors* and that the show was going to become a kiddie show. We know how the first settled out, and I'm betting that the second is going to be that they're simply going to shift slightly before the watershed, with the minor changes already happening. If you go back, you can tell *exactly* what scenes will be cut by what the characters are saying. If they're swearing, it's a cut; if they're using euphemisms, it's staying. Personally, I don't see a huge difference between Gwen saying "stop handing me crap" and "stop handing me shit," so either way it goes, I'm cool.