Thoughts on Torchwood: Children of Earth
Fair warning: in the end, I really liked it. I can see why people might not, and certainly I don't mind if you disagree ... but I did.
I had to process for a while to really figure out how I felt about it, because wow, that was DARK. I like me some dark, but it's been awhile since I've seen something that dark.
But the more I process, the more I like it. In some of the comments to my last entry, I wrote that I didn't think Torchwood was a good enough show to carry that much darkness (regarding the deaths of 3/5 of the team). I take it back, though. It really is that good. This was damn good television and very good sci-fi. It made me think -- heck, I'm still thinking, because they gave us the unambiguously horrible actions of the government, and then had Jack do the exact same thing, and now I'm doing a whole lot of musing on "end justifies the means" and where exactly do you draw the line between "this is worth it" and "this is too much of a line to cross"? One child? Five? Five thousand? Is it better to hold to your principles and watch the world die around you?
I really appreciate that, if Torchwood is going to kill people, it makes you feel it. When was the last time you watched a sci-fi or action movie or show that didn't kill someone? It's a running joke with Star Trek and its descendants -- that guy's the redshirt, he won't survive the show! I really do like Torchwood's greater, I guess, emotional honesty, that they don't just kill a building full of redshirts, they kill a building full of redshirts plus a character that we're attached to. They don't just sacrifice some random person for the good of the planet -- it's Jack's grandchild, and we aren't allowed to pull back and go, "Oh, it's okay, it doesn't matter and everything ended happily even though some people are dead."
I grew up on classic scifi, and even though I don't think Torchwood is a show that I'm going to be able to relate to in a fannish kind of way (and I really do feel for people who do, or did; I remember the gut-punch of Tosh and Owen's deaths, and I know you're going through the same thing), this miniseries hit me in that same way as some of those old stories ... a good way, even though it's horribly dark. I think I actually gave a little shriek out loud when Frobisher walked into the room with his wife and children, and you saw the gun and knew that the show was really going there. Actually I still get little shivery chills thinking about it. I love it when a story does that to me, as awful as it was, including the bitter irony that in this case, in the end, things would have turned out all right for his family if he hadn't done that. And I loved that, even while some people were doing horrible things, we saw other people reach down inside themselves for courage and strength -- the whole scene with the mob fighting back against the armed soldiers, "because someone has to", was brilliant, and so was the bit with Frobisher's admin assistant (I can't remember her name) and the contact lenses. And even though it hurts to think about, that little bit at the end of Ianto's death scene when Jack leans down and kisses him very gently -- that was good. So much better than the over-the-top grieving scenes at the end of season two.
So yeah ... I liked it. I think it holds together really well -- okay, the aliens' motivations make less and less sense the more I think about it, but they're really just a plot device to play out a story about fascism and human nature anyway. I thought the "Owen's death" arc in season two was some of the best sci-fi TV I'd seen, for all its implausibility, and the last half of this arc is right up there, despite the occasional cheesy and contradictory bits.
Even though I do feel for you guys on my f'list who are (as one person noted yesterday in their reaction post) feeling like you've been shivved with a rusty butter knife. *hugs you all*
I had to process for a while to really figure out how I felt about it, because wow, that was DARK. I like me some dark, but it's been awhile since I've seen something that dark.
But the more I process, the more I like it. In some of the comments to my last entry, I wrote that I didn't think Torchwood was a good enough show to carry that much darkness (regarding the deaths of 3/5 of the team). I take it back, though. It really is that good. This was damn good television and very good sci-fi. It made me think -- heck, I'm still thinking, because they gave us the unambiguously horrible actions of the government, and then had Jack do the exact same thing, and now I'm doing a whole lot of musing on "end justifies the means" and where exactly do you draw the line between "this is worth it" and "this is too much of a line to cross"? One child? Five? Five thousand? Is it better to hold to your principles and watch the world die around you?
I really appreciate that, if Torchwood is going to kill people, it makes you feel it. When was the last time you watched a sci-fi or action movie or show that didn't kill someone? It's a running joke with Star Trek and its descendants -- that guy's the redshirt, he won't survive the show! I really do like Torchwood's greater, I guess, emotional honesty, that they don't just kill a building full of redshirts, they kill a building full of redshirts plus a character that we're attached to. They don't just sacrifice some random person for the good of the planet -- it's Jack's grandchild, and we aren't allowed to pull back and go, "Oh, it's okay, it doesn't matter and everything ended happily even though some people are dead."
I grew up on classic scifi, and even though I don't think Torchwood is a show that I'm going to be able to relate to in a fannish kind of way (and I really do feel for people who do, or did; I remember the gut-punch of Tosh and Owen's deaths, and I know you're going through the same thing), this miniseries hit me in that same way as some of those old stories ... a good way, even though it's horribly dark. I think I actually gave a little shriek out loud when Frobisher walked into the room with his wife and children, and you saw the gun and knew that the show was really going there. Actually I still get little shivery chills thinking about it. I love it when a story does that to me, as awful as it was, including the bitter irony that in this case, in the end, things would have turned out all right for his family if he hadn't done that. And I loved that, even while some people were doing horrible things, we saw other people reach down inside themselves for courage and strength -- the whole scene with the mob fighting back against the armed soldiers, "because someone has to", was brilliant, and so was the bit with Frobisher's admin assistant (I can't remember her name) and the contact lenses. And even though it hurts to think about, that little bit at the end of Ianto's death scene when Jack leans down and kisses him very gently -- that was good. So much better than the over-the-top grieving scenes at the end of season two.
So yeah ... I liked it. I think it holds together really well -- okay, the aliens' motivations make less and less sense the more I think about it, but they're really just a plot device to play out a story about fascism and human nature anyway. I thought the "Owen's death" arc in season two was some of the best sci-fi TV I'd seen, for all its implausibility, and the last half of this arc is right up there, despite the occasional cheesy and contradictory bits.
Even though I do feel for you guys on my f'list who are (as one person noted yesterday in their reaction post) feeling like you've been shivved with a rusty butter knife. *hugs you all*