Torchwood audiodramas
I've listened to several more of the Big Finish Torchwood audiodramas over the last few weeks. I still think the first two I listened to (the Gareth David Lloyd-written ones, The Last Beacon and Dinner & a Show) are my favorites - see review here - but I've really been enjoying (most of) the others as well. Here are my favorites and not-so-favorites of the next batch.
Favorites
Moving Target (Suzie) - I didn't expect to love the Suzie ones so much, but they're among the best of the bunch! I think it's partly that Indira Varma is terrific fun to listen to (she makes the best annoyed noises) but also that Suzie is so different from the other characters; she's very ruthless, driven, and isolated from her co-workers, and she has absolutely no compunctions about shoving people under the bus if she has to (quite literally, in one case). In this one, Suzie is on the run with a civilian who is being chased by alien hunters. It's part awkward buddy-movie and part action, very funny with some dark/sad moments and good character insights, and overall very enjoyable.
Sync (Suzie) - I didn't enjoy this one as much as Moving Target, but it was still fun. It's essentially the same plot (Suzie on the run with an unwanted companion, in this case a "handcuffed together" type of situation) but I found the secondary character much less charming and the plot somewhat muddled, especially at the beginning. It was still fun, though, and I liked the end enough to redeem some of my less-favorite aspects of the rest of it.
The Hope (Owen & Andy) - This is the second in a series of audios that teams them up (see review for the first one below, which I liked, but was way too dark for me to really love). This one, though, I thoroughly enjoyed. There's a pleasantly creepy, occasionally funny, very Stephen-King-esque plot involving Owen and Andy undercover in a prison, also featuring a serial killer and zombies, and it ended on a particularly lovely note that made me think I'd like to write a tag scene, which I almost never find myself compelled to do with tie-ins.
Cascade (Tosh) - This was SO FUCKING CREEPY. But very good! Tosh is investigating a haunted torrent download that seems to be killing people, and the audio itself takes the form of a "corrupted download" that mixes up past and present and occasionally pleads with the listener to stop listening because everyone who listens to it dies. And Tosh is completely delightful.
The Office of Never Was (Ianto) - This is really good and really entertaining, very funny in places, and also horribly bleak at the end, but, well, Torchwood. Ianto's dry, sarcastic narration is great.
Didn't enjoy that much
Corpse Day (Owen & Andy) - This is the first of the audios in which they work together, and actually is very good, but it is DARK AS FUCK. Like, imagine the darkest episode in the actual show, and then multiply it by 50x and a whole lotta trigger warnings. The plot involves a cult leader who abducts women, brainwashes/stockholms them into thinking and behaving as if they're his daughters, and conditions them to submit to being repeatedly raped by his adopted Weevil "son" in an attempt to produce interspecies incest babies, a process the women often don't survive. I saw a review of this on Tumblr that was basically "I never want to hear the word 'daddy' again" and I can see why. Unlike "Believe," I didn't hate it - the characters are actually in character and aren't responsible for the dark content, and it has a lot of neat moments, especially with Owen getting to be awesome and empathic and hero-y, but ... SO DARK. GOOD LORD. I enjoyed listening to it once, and will probably never want to listen to it again.
Believe (entire team) - Okay, so this one ended up being a DNF. I'll get around to the rest of it eventually ... probably ... but I hated some of the plot. Jack is a giant asshole who lies to everyone, and there is a horribly squicky subplot in which Owen bullies and emotionally manipulates Tosh into having sex with someone they're surveilling to get information, overriding her repeated "no". Then she retaliates by leaving the mic open while she goes through with it, Owen is wildly jealous, and Tosh is almost killed because he stops listening and therefore isn't around to back her up when things go south. I hated every minute of it, to the point where I don't think I want to listen to anything else by this writer ever again if I can help it. The only part of the plot I did like was Ianto going undercover in a cult, but unfortunately that was also mixed up with the "Jack is a huge asshole who never tells his team anything" aspect. I mean, it's nice to hear the entire team interacting with each other but NOT LIKE THIS.
Tropical Beach Sounds & Other Relaxing Seascapes - The concept (a haunted relaxation tape) is more compelling than the actual execution, which bored the heck out of me. Apparently I'm mainly in it to hear the characters' voices, and the third-party second-person POV combined with the extremely soporific narration style (I mean, it IS a relaxation tape, if a homicidal one) was really not my thing.
So on the whole, a few of them have failed to land for me, but there have been a lot more hits than misses! And there are still a bunch I haven't listened to yet. This entry is also posted at https://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1342499.html with
comments.
Favorites
Moving Target (Suzie) - I didn't expect to love the Suzie ones so much, but they're among the best of the bunch! I think it's partly that Indira Varma is terrific fun to listen to (she makes the best annoyed noises) but also that Suzie is so different from the other characters; she's very ruthless, driven, and isolated from her co-workers, and she has absolutely no compunctions about shoving people under the bus if she has to (quite literally, in one case). In this one, Suzie is on the run with a civilian who is being chased by alien hunters. It's part awkward buddy-movie and part action, very funny with some dark/sad moments and good character insights, and overall very enjoyable.
Sync (Suzie) - I didn't enjoy this one as much as Moving Target, but it was still fun. It's essentially the same plot (Suzie on the run with an unwanted companion, in this case a "handcuffed together" type of situation) but I found the secondary character much less charming and the plot somewhat muddled, especially at the beginning. It was still fun, though, and I liked the end enough to redeem some of my less-favorite aspects of the rest of it.
The Hope (Owen & Andy) - This is the second in a series of audios that teams them up (see review for the first one below, which I liked, but was way too dark for me to really love). This one, though, I thoroughly enjoyed. There's a pleasantly creepy, occasionally funny, very Stephen-King-esque plot involving Owen and Andy undercover in a prison, also featuring a serial killer and zombies, and it ended on a particularly lovely note that made me think I'd like to write a tag scene, which I almost never find myself compelled to do with tie-ins.
Cascade (Tosh) - This was SO FUCKING CREEPY. But very good! Tosh is investigating a haunted torrent download that seems to be killing people, and the audio itself takes the form of a "corrupted download" that mixes up past and present and occasionally pleads with the listener to stop listening because everyone who listens to it dies. And Tosh is completely delightful.
The Office of Never Was (Ianto) - This is really good and really entertaining, very funny in places, and also horribly bleak at the end, but, well, Torchwood. Ianto's dry, sarcastic narration is great.
Didn't enjoy that much
Corpse Day (Owen & Andy) - This is the first of the audios in which they work together, and actually is very good, but it is DARK AS FUCK. Like, imagine the darkest episode in the actual show, and then multiply it by 50x and a whole lotta trigger warnings. The plot involves a cult leader who abducts women, brainwashes/stockholms them into thinking and behaving as if they're his daughters, and conditions them to submit to being repeatedly raped by his adopted Weevil "son" in an attempt to produce interspecies incest babies, a process the women often don't survive. I saw a review of this on Tumblr that was basically "I never want to hear the word 'daddy' again" and I can see why. Unlike "Believe," I didn't hate it - the characters are actually in character and aren't responsible for the dark content, and it has a lot of neat moments, especially with Owen getting to be awesome and empathic and hero-y, but ... SO DARK. GOOD LORD. I enjoyed listening to it once, and will probably never want to listen to it again.
Believe (entire team) - Okay, so this one ended up being a DNF. I'll get around to the rest of it eventually ... probably ... but I hated some of the plot. Jack is a giant asshole who lies to everyone, and there is a horribly squicky subplot in which Owen bullies and emotionally manipulates Tosh into having sex with someone they're surveilling to get information, overriding her repeated "no". Then she retaliates by leaving the mic open while she goes through with it, Owen is wildly jealous, and Tosh is almost killed because he stops listening and therefore isn't around to back her up when things go south. I hated every minute of it, to the point where I don't think I want to listen to anything else by this writer ever again if I can help it. The only part of the plot I did like was Ianto going undercover in a cult, but unfortunately that was also mixed up with the "Jack is a huge asshole who never tells his team anything" aspect. I mean, it's nice to hear the entire team interacting with each other but NOT LIKE THIS.
Tropical Beach Sounds & Other Relaxing Seascapes - The concept (a haunted relaxation tape) is more compelling than the actual execution, which bored the heck out of me. Apparently I'm mainly in it to hear the characters' voices, and the third-party second-person POV combined with the extremely soporific narration style (I mean, it IS a relaxation tape, if a homicidal one) was really not my thing.
So on the whole, a few of them have failed to land for me, but there have been a lot more hits than misses! And there are still a bunch I haven't listened to yet. This entry is also posted at https://sholio.dreamwidth.org/1342499.html with
comments.