Torchwood

[iainjclark]

Brief thoughts.

Comments

[fba]

I liked it - I liked the stylistic similarities to Angel, but I felt it was enough its own animal. You are right about the supporting cast (I don't think we are *supposed* to like Owen - he's an unreconstructed arsehole) but I think expecting five fully rounded characters within two episodes is possibly a little unfair...

As for the similarities between 'First Day' and 'Lonely Hearts' - I suspect they are superficial at best (I think I'm going to have to watch LH again to see)...

[iainjclark]

The Angel parallels are superficial, certainly, but I think it's interesting that both Angel and Torchwood are spin offs from youth-oriented TV that are establishing themselves as a darker variation on the same universe. Seems sex and death are the way to go! Torchwood is actually darker than I expected in places and the sex was more 'explicit' in relative terms - unusually so for the genre

[abigail_n]

Yeah, this sounds about right (I was also reminded of "Lonely Hearts"). What's keeping me interested right now is Jack's backstory - the gap between being abandoned on Satellite 5 and ending up in Cardiff and, of course, the fact that he can't die, which is an interesting twist (if, again, a little derivative of Angel) but could be problematic from a storytelling standpoint. I assume he's hanging around in the hope that the Doctor will need to charge up the TARDIS again.

In terms of quality, it's not far off "Rose" (although Jack doesn't have magnetic presence of the Doctor in that episode, which puts the dynamic between him and Gwen off-kilter), but there's very little sparkle. I can't help but wonder whether the desire to move towards 'dark' squashed the fun out of the formula.

[iainjclark]

Yes, Jack in particular seems lacking the joie de vivre that made him appealing in the first place, and while the banter is there between the team there's nothing to make me think they're nice people that I'd want to spend any time with. If this is part of a longer term game plan involving the characters growing over time then I'm fine with it - and to be fair there has been some signposting in that direction - but I suspect that the show is trying to have it all ways: edgy, unlikeable characters with dark secrets who are at the same time quirky and instantly loveable. If so, it has a way to go to convince me.