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Torchwood 2x01 - Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Huh.
I can hardly believe it. Torchwood. Plainly ridiculous (in a bad way), over-angsty, over-emo, unfunny, takes-itself-too-seriously Torchwood... has actually achieved what it thought it had achieved in series 1 only really, really didn't - awesomeness. Series 1 was often overblown and disappointing. Some individual episodes were completely unwatchable second time round and the series arc was largely absent until a giant Satan monster came and sucked the life out of Jack, leaving us in no suspense whatsoever since Jack is unkillable.
However.
The series 2 premiere was the single best episode of Torchwood to date. I was sitting here riveted, with an almost permenant grin on my face because of, well, everything, just everything.
- The constant and absolutely spot on jokes. Not one fell flat or tried too hard. Every single one made me laugh.
- The TW team's subtle sarcastic remarks and expressions, most of which weren't even played for the big laughs, but were simply in the background or only given a split second's shot - which made them all the better.
- The brilliant music, fast-paced and frenetic, making me feel exhilarated, like I was there with the team on this whirlwind night trying to foil Captain John.
- Speaking of, James Marsters, speaking with a British accent, being evil, cocky, flirty, violent and occasionally deep and emo... all things that Spike was, yet really not reminding me of Spike all that much. Huge achievement on his part, since 1) I've only ever seen him as Spike and 2) I'm a huge Buffy fan and have the actor and the character almost morphed in my mind.
I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed that. Finally, the folks behind TW have found some grounding and managed to do what I'm sure they tried to in series 1. They've blended sweet and tender moments, with laugh out loud humour, with tension and antagonism, with frenzied action and a fast-paced plot, and they still managed to give every character at least a moment to shine, and made me like every single one of them.
Absolutely a 10 / 10. This was just a fantastic episode in every way. It was my favourite TW ep yet, and I think it'll be tough to top. Hopefully, they continue in this brilliant vein and easily top it, but I'm not going to get too optimistic - I'm going to be cautious and revert to default, which is not to expect too much. Series 1's opener was great too and then came the not-so-greatness of the second ep, Day One (the sex alien thing still makes me cringe and roll my eyes). That said, the trailer for the complete series looked very, very good. Excellent in fact (all the better for Martha showing her gorgeous face).
Bits that annoyed me:
- Gwen in peril. Again. Twice in one episode. I could have been Tosh that got shot or something, and the gang had to save her. Or Tosh who got handcuffed to John. Just, why did both times have to be Gwen? I really don't get why in an ensemble series, with Jack being touted as the main character, Gwen still usually gets the story development and all the focus. We know eff all about Ianto and Tosh, aside from the fact that they're emo and lonely. Looks like the only Tosh ep we'll get this series is yet again when she gets a lover... Tosh's development does not revolve around who she shags, and neither does anyone elses! I really wanted TW to learn from this particular series 1 mistake.
- John Barrowman's panto reactions. I know the guy is dramatic and flamboyant, but sometimes I wish he'd tone it down just a bit for the telly box. Less is more. Subtlety is your friend.
- Gwen, the reletive newbie, led the team in Jack's absence? I thought Owen was second-in-command? It seems like he's been there the longest as well.
Highlights of the episode:
- The entire opening with the blowfish in the sportscar, the old lady, the gang driving up in the jeep, and the aforementioned lady muttering 'Bloody Torchwood'.
- The showdown in the house with the gang and the blowfish with the Received Pronounciation accent (that made me cock an eyebrow). I thought it was unnecessary though for him to basically introduce each member of the team to the audience as if we didn't actually know them already.
- The gang working smoothly and efficiently (HOORAY FOR FINALLY ACTING LIKE PROFESSIONALS!!!) with Jack looking on, seeming caught between feeling left out and being proud of them.
- Captain John walking into the bar and deciding who should stay and go.
- His and Jack's absolutely burst-a-lung hilarious showdown - manly glares, passionate kisses, throwing punches, insulting each other like women in a cat fight... awesome on all counts!!
- Tosh getting a little spunky moment when John admired her hotness and she returned the favour, giving a little shrug and going 'Well, he's cute!'
- John going 'Your base is in the sculpture? How pretentious' when Jack was bringing him onto the pavement lift. Oh, I laughed. James Marsters has always been spot on with humour, both sutble and outrageous. Buffy's writers always wrote the best jokes, and he delivered them brilliantly as Spike, and both the writing and his delivery in this ep were on par with his Buffy days. (Going. For. A. Walk... Bitch. is still one of my favourite Spike jokes/remarks.)
- John saying Gwen could call him Vera if she liked 'cause her eyes were so pretty, and her doing so. I don't know why, but it was such a quick thing, no pause for laughs or any of that. That's what I liked about this episode - the jokes were so fluid and subtle and seemed to really flow with the dialogue like I've never seen before on TW.
- Jack and Ianto in the office. In the last year since TW went off air I have absolutely been scratching my own eyes out at the thought of Jack/Ianto appearing on my screen this series. The shippers made it so. I know, I know, sound familiar? The Ten/Rose shippers made me hate Ten/Rose and each of them individually too, and the same happened here. Any canon appearance of Jack/Ianto was just irritating to me and I grew to sneer at Ianto in general. This scene changed all that. The shoe-horned thing between them last series immediately transformed from random and pointless, to endearing and compelling. The dialogue was just brilliant - Jack's office fetish, photocopying his butt, Ianto's remark that Jack should go to the roof as he 'does well with them'. Ianto was especially brilliant - avoiding the issue, skating around Jack's date offer, and then off-handedly agreeing just before Jack left. So great.
- Owen got shot... again! In the hip! And yeah, I noticed his jeans were open when Tosh was seeing to the wound. I do have a little bit of a thing for Owen. In fact, I kind of think he's awesome. When he's bad, he's really bad, and I hate him, but when he's good, he's very good, and I love him and find him extremely hot. I also squeed a little at his and Tosh's banter about finding dates. Am I imagining it, or was that a subtle hint from Owen that he likes her and that we may see Owen/Tosh finally? Owen/Tosh was my first and only TW ship besides Owen/Gwen, which I grew tired of. Owen/Tosh is what I was really rooting for and have been since the beginning.
- John dispatching the crew one-by-one, including Jack. Jack throwing the container, saying 'bye bye', then John pushing him and saying 'bye bye' as well was a great moment. It was a really childish and vicious move on John's part, and was intriguing placed against his seemingly passionate infatuation with Jack.
- The entire end sequence with the bomb attached to John, John attached to Gwen, and the race to the rift.
- Actual foreshadowing for the win, with John's parting remark of 'I've found Grey'. I think I may be having a theory about the identity of this Grey. In 1x12 when Jack and Tosh got stuck in the 1940's, didn't Jack talk about something like, he persuaded his pal go off to war with him, and his pal died and he never forgave himself? I just cannot rememeber - I only watched each episode in the second half of the series once, because I was losing interest. It's definitely someone from his past though, his past before he become immortal and met the Doctor, or even before he became a con.
The repeated insistances from the team that they knew nothing about Jack and how he kept avoiding telling them about his past, and Jack saying over and again how he wanted the past to stay in the past tells me that along with the Grey thing, the over-arching plot is going to be about Jack's past this series. I had thought one or two episode would be, but now I'm convinced it's an entire series thing. Maybe Grey returns for revenge in the finale and Jack has to face him.
All in all, this episode reminded me that I've missed the gang without even realising. Jack and Gwen's brief heart-to-heart, Tosh and Owen's semi-flirting, Owen holding Gwen after she punched John, and Ianto and Jack's office chat basically made me go all 'aww' for our Team Torchwood. I really like these characters. Despite stupid or non-existent development last series, the writers have still managed to make me like all 5 of these miscreants.
Usually, what makes me come back to a series, is yes, a certain level of cleverness, humour and good plots, but mostly it's a good ensemble cast. I've just started watching Stargate SG-1 from the beginning and so far, each episode besides the pilot has been quite unimpressive - but it's the main cast of the SG-1 team, O'Neill, Daniel, Samantha and Teal'c that makes me keep watching. I can watch Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Roswell over and again because of the varying characters and the enjoyment I get from each of them and their unique quirks. I think Torchwood is achieving this for me. I think even in a crap episode, I will be able to enjoy these characters now.
I am eagerly, eagerly looking forward to the rest of the series. I don't think I even enjoyed an episode of Doctor Who series 3 like I enjoyed this one. Probably only Smith and Jones and Utopia match up in excitement and squee-stakes. I think I will probably faint when Martha enters the Torchwood domain. I kid you not. What with TW being this good, me loving the team... Martha Jones will simply cap it all off. And there's the added bonus of no douchebag Time Lords harshing my squee.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles 1x02
Episode one was well above average, at least 8 / 10, only brought up by the brilliant last ten minutes though. Episode two, is unforunately idling at around 6 / 10. It had no shocks, no twists, no particularly clever bits. Nothing to make it stand out. That said, it continued the plot very well, with some nice character moments and storylines. It brought me more John and Sarah Connor goodness, and as a T2 nut... this is a very, very good thing.
I like Lena Headey as Sarah a lot, maybe more than Linda Hamilton. She's kick ass. Sarah Connor is a kick ass character in and of herself, but Lena brings a new feel to her. In T2, it was sometimes blatantly shown and suggested that Sarah only freaked out over John's safety so much because he was John Connor, Future Saviour of Mankind and that her mother's care came second.
In this, I feel more that Sarah deeply loves her son, because of this brilliant man he becomes, but more because he's her baby. Also, in T2, there was a lot of distance between them. John was in foster care, Sarah was in an institution. John didn't believe her stories and he thought she was a schizo. They had no connection (at least until the end). Here, John and Sarah's bond is the basis of the plot for me. The chemistry in a room changes when they are together. Sarah's entire life is based around keeping him alive and teaching him how to stay alive, so I love it when John steps forward a little and does something brave and take-charge or thoughful and smart, like finding the hidden wall safe and thinking of the code, or worrying over Cameron even though he knew she'd be okay... and y'know, she's a robot.
I liked Cameron and Sarah's bitch fights. I do wish Cameron was more human though. I know, I just said myself she's a robot, but they keep touting that she's different to other cyborgs, but I don't really see it. At the beginning of the pilot when she was pretending to be a student and flirting with John she was totally natural at fitting in, but when it's revealed that she's a robot, she then acts like a blank Arnold clone. She doesn't understand phrases, she repeats silly sentences, she copies other people's movements... If she's so different then she should know all this already - and it's been proven she does, since she managed to fit in at a school - so why the backward and forwarding? She's either more human or she's not.
Enrique! That's the same guy who played Enrique in T2, isn't it? So cool. I love, love, love the continuity between T2 and this series, what with the mentions of Miles Dyson, visiting his wife and now seeing Enrique - with the same actor playing him. I can't believe he was a snitch and told the FBI about Sarah! I really liked him, damn it!
Also, Sarah's fiance is back! Yay, I not only like him, but that plot line intrigues me no end. His fiancee runs off, disappears for 8 years and then pops up again on TV. Plus, now he's actually seen John thanks to the kid's reckless breaking-and-entering. Though I was curious why the fiance (I have GOT to find out his name) didn't ask why John hadn't aged in the last 8 years. Now to me, Thomas Dekker looks anywhere from the age he's playing, 15, to early 20s, so I guess the guy could've thought he'd simply not aged much in 8 years... but that's unlikely. Being 15 and being 23 as John should've been in 2007 are way different. I kept expecting that Gandalf line from Fellowship to Bilbo - 'You haven't aged a day.' It would've been apt here.
Something I didn't get and I found really stupid was this - the highway the three of them ended up on after the time jump was where the bank they were in in 1999 used to be. Sarah nuked the bad Terminator before the jump. Obviously the bank was torn down and the road was built, but 8 years later, the Terminator's skull is STILL on the site, just lying about to be picked up by a trash collector? HOW is that even possible? The robot was inside the bank, it would've been mixed up with rest of the debris. Plus, why did it suddenly switch on, 8 years after it'd been destroyed? And killing that man and putting his head on over the skull looked really stupid, although I do like the idea of a Terminator skeleton, with no outer human skin, walking around.
Also... what was that with John and Cameron near the end? As she passes him, she carresses his bare neck, camera closeup on this, then his flushed and / or longing look after her. Are they really going to pull a human / cyborg ship?
I do have a distant fantasy of Cameron being revealed as far more human than they've suggested. As in, she's basically the Bionic Woman. My far-fetched idea is that she was a freedom fighter who had a deep bond / lots of sex with Future John, but she got irreversibly injured in a battle. Future John can't bear to see her die, so like in Bionic Woman, gives her robot parts. This is ridiculous though, because Cameron clearly has the trouble with understanding human ways thing I mentioned and the new Terminator logged her as an 'Unknown Cyborg' in his computer vision. Sigh. How is my John/Cameron ship ever to float if she's a bloody robot?