Torchwood, oh Torchwood
I don't even quite know where to begin on this show. Problems, potential, *Barrowman*. It's all kind of a mishmosh of thoughts in my head. Let's go for the obvious for now. There were too many episodes, and too little content. This is an obvious complaint, said time and again, but I don't even feel like they had as much to go on as Children of Earth. Our main, inescapable points are
A) Jack's past relationships (lives) have lead to this terrible issue
B) There is a cabal of three families who have been manipulating history since the 20's
C) The Miracle Day requires a jesus-like sacrifice from Jack to be undone
D) Human beings will exploit any situation they can to be shit to each other.
The A) episode was really well done, and managed to make me plead for and condemn a man I'd never met before in one go. It was probably the highlight episode of the whole series for me, because it was the most fully formed.
The B) plot line, and it's ongoing aspect, I think has a lot of potential. Why they waited until 7/10 episodes to really even mention these guys was an incredibly poor decision. Still, they pose a challenge beyond even that of CoE, as they would be harder to depose than a single government.
C) Such tired imagery, and Jack didn't even fuck up in any way to make his sacrifice symbolic
D) So close and yet so far! Yes, they were burning comatose (and occasionally non-comatose) people alive. But where were the horribly burned non-cadavers? Where were the potential suicides who didn't die? Where was anything as twisted as what we saw in the first two episodes? Even the dark character development was constantly defused, what with Rhys's bloodlust and Gwen's backstabbing just totally swept under the rug.
Even if you devote an entire episode to D, and still bring in an inexplicably failure-prone american team, we're talking 5 episodes of content. I'm thinking 3 would have been ideal, without any non-expendable American team members (including Rex). Of course, this would eliminate the Bill Pullman arc, and he had some of the most gripping moments on screen in the whole of Torchwood. But why was he there? Was he the best-written afterthought? Was he the only way they could think of to blow up another building? It doesn't fit together at all! As an excuse to introduce Kitzinger, maybe I can understand it, but so much effort was put into this character that got such a half-assed redemption in the end.
This is so totally rambly. I may give it another go to explain what else I'm thinking about the show. It's fascinating in a "I just woke up and can't describe my dream well enough to keep my thoughts around" sort of way. Maddening.
*Barowmaaaaan*
A) Jack's past relationships (lives) have lead to this terrible issue
B) There is a cabal of three families who have been manipulating history since the 20's
C) The Miracle Day requires a jesus-like sacrifice from Jack to be undone
D) Human beings will exploit any situation they can to be shit to each other.
The A) episode was really well done, and managed to make me plead for and condemn a man I'd never met before in one go. It was probably the highlight episode of the whole series for me, because it was the most fully formed.
The B) plot line, and it's ongoing aspect, I think has a lot of potential. Why they waited until 7/10 episodes to really even mention these guys was an incredibly poor decision. Still, they pose a challenge beyond even that of CoE, as they would be harder to depose than a single government.
C) Such tired imagery, and Jack didn't even fuck up in any way to make his sacrifice symbolic
D) So close and yet so far! Yes, they were burning comatose (and occasionally non-comatose) people alive. But where were the horribly burned non-cadavers? Where were the potential suicides who didn't die? Where was anything as twisted as what we saw in the first two episodes? Even the dark character development was constantly defused, what with Rhys's bloodlust and Gwen's backstabbing just totally swept under the rug.
Even if you devote an entire episode to D, and still bring in an inexplicably failure-prone american team, we're talking 5 episodes of content. I'm thinking 3 would have been ideal, without any non-expendable American team members (including Rex). Of course, this would eliminate the Bill Pullman arc, and he had some of the most gripping moments on screen in the whole of Torchwood. But why was he there? Was he the best-written afterthought? Was he the only way they could think of to blow up another building? It doesn't fit together at all! As an excuse to introduce Kitzinger, maybe I can understand it, but so much effort was put into this character that got such a half-assed redemption in the end.
This is so totally rambly. I may give it another go to explain what else I'm thinking about the show. It's fascinating in a "I just woke up and can't describe my dream well enough to keep my thoughts around" sort of way. Maddening.
*Barowmaaaaan*