Torchwood, day 5
Well, I have to say that mostly, that felt like a giant "fuck you" to anyone who really liked season 1 and 2 of the show. I am not part of that fandom, so I don't feel personally betrayed by the way all that ended, but I totally sympathize.
That said, it had moments of really great drama and emotion, and I did really enjoy it, despite feeling that it was unrelentingly bleak just for the heck of it, rather than for plot-or-character related reasons. And I am still confused by all the plot holes.
So for example, I totally bought the idea that Jack, still in shock and grief over Ianto's death, would sacrifice Stephen, and loved the final scene between him and Alice: that's all there is, that's all there's ever going to be, because he did the most unforgivable thing, and he'll never be able to come back from it. And I buy that, having essentially destroyed his own world, he would run away. But I also feel that all that last-minute rushed research into how to defeat the 456s should have happened earlier in the story, because yes, it was dramatic, but it only happened because all the characters were too stupid to do it earlier, when it might have made a difference (like, for example, being able to walk in to confront the 456s with more than a bluff and a couple handguns, you know? But Ianto (and the whole of MI5) might have survived that scene.
I mean, I know that if you can only get to your Big Dramatic Scene by making your characters act like idiots, you need to replot. And I feel that if I know it, people who write TV shows for money should know it too.
I also would have liked to see the follow-through from the scenes of the soldiers taking away children from their parents, especially when they went into people's homes to do so (completely unnecessarily, as infinitemonkeys pointed out, since the obvious thing to do would have been to move up to the next tranche of schools until you had your 10%, but sending soldiers to chase Gwen et al. is more dramatic, see my point above). If you're going to be all gritty and realistic and claim that civilization is coming to an end, then show me some of that! What's the social and political fallout? I probably care more about that than I do about Jack's manpain, actually.
(And I would have liked to see some dissent among the soldiers, as well -- sure, their own children were at risk, but (a) would that lead to a mutiny? I mean, who was going to come get them? all the other soldiers? and (b) a fair number of men in the armed forces are in fact childless. Again with the great, dramatic scenes that fall apart if you think about them too much.)
IMHO, the non-Torchwood stuff was the best part of the series, especially Frobisher and his horrible, tragic ending. Wow. I kept thinking of those girls on Day 1 (or 2?) chanting, "we want a pony," at their parents, and then that, shot in cold blood by a father who could see no other ending. And the dreadfully plausible COBRA scenes, and the Prime Minister falling, only to be replaced by someone just as horrible.
I'm guessing that this is the end of Torchwood as we know it (or of Torchwood, full stop) and that if there is a new season it will have all new characters. But honestly, the reset button in this universe must be getting stickier and stickier. Will they reference any of this the next time we have a new Dr. Who?