Torchwood
Having watched all 13 episodes of Torchwood in three weeks (including the accompanying vivid dreams), I figured it was easier to distill my overall thoughts than try to break each episode down. Especially since they're sort of blurring together.
The overall impression?
Get lives, emo people!!!!
Good god. I knew Torchwood was going to be darker than Doctor Who, but I didn't know it was going to be relentlessly grim and angsty and 'they almost never get to win' darker. My Captain Jack has lost the ability to bounce because he keeps having to make horrible decisions that everyone else blames him for making when they totally backed out on making them themselves, or had no clue whatsoever to offer as alternatives. Geez. I don't care if I would get totally retconned, I wouldn't work for that place for five minutes!
That said, there were highlights. The first 2 episodes were quite good; the next 4 I mostly just powered through on the assurance that it got better (and the grim determination that if it didn't, there were some people I was going to hurt for making me endure "Countrycide" and "Cyberwoman" under false pretenses). "They Keep Killing Suzie" was uber-dark, but really twisty and cool. Around episode nine, the writers rediscovered their sense of humor; "Random Shoes" gave us the darling Eugene Jones and a very nicely done episode. (It almost balances out the tragedy that was "Cyberwoman". Goddess bless. What were they thinking? A nifty initial idea, and god knows Ianto tried to sell it, but how over-the-top emo and stupid can you get?) "Out of Time" was a really nice character study with some outstanding guest stars, and I'll accept that they were setting up Owen to be massively stupid this far back, which wins them continuity points. "Combat" took another downswing; hugely predictable and I don't like Owen enough to care if he's emo and self-destructive for an episode. Then "Captain Jack Harkness" broke my heart into little bitty pieces (Toshiko was cool!), and "End of Days" was just incredible! (When I wasn't trying to lunge through the screen to smack the living shit out of people who desperately deserved it. I'll give the writers this much -- everyone is consistently emo and consistently self-absorbed, so it all did play out with nice continuity. For what that's worth.)
I love the concept (and the name!) of the retcon drug. I like the consequences of the retcon drug. I love the hand in the bubbly box. I like the determined continuity. There are many good things to like.
However. To quote someone or other: Captain Jack's timeline makes my head hurt. They're not big on explaining what the hell was actually going on at any point. (Can anyone explain "Countrycide"? Wait, you know, never mind. Least said, soonest purged from my memory.) Everyone behaves stupidly on a regular basis except Jack, who behaves stupidly by continuing to allow stupid people to work for him. :P And they never get to win until the very last moments of the first series. They stalemate, or they have to make Really Bad Choices (read: Jack has to make Really Bad Choices, then get bitched at about it), or someone loses someone they desperately love. No one ever gets to be happy, not ever, and there's a reason I stopped watching Battlestar Galactica, people!
Character breakdown:
Jack: Oh, I miss my Captain Jack. I see glimpses of him now and then, but mostly, he's a man who can't die but kind of wants to. It comes through in his obsession with finding the Doctor (I know what that hand is, it has to be) and how much he obviously misses him. The way Jack keeps grabbing onto people hoping they'll bring him back to himself (Stella, Gwen, Captain Harkness, Ianto) even when they don't manage to. The way he keeps trying to live up to what the Doctor would expect of him, and how you can see him feeling that he's coming up short every time. The way he protects Tosh and Gwen and tries to protect Ianto and Owen, and usually just stands there and lets them blame him for everything until he finally snaps at the end. I'm 99% sure that was the TARDIS come to take him away at the end, not another nasty trick, and I'm really happy (there was squeeing. Lots of it. And possibly a huge dopey smile for hours), because Jack needs a vacation more than any man I've ever seen. (All of the above, mind you, does not mean that sharing a little information with his team now and then wouldn't be of the good. I understand not wanting to give away future knowledge, cause paradoxes, etc. But there's gotta be a happy medium. Share!)
Gwen: I want to like Gwen, I really do. I try to. She's so earnest and trying so hard to be likeable and to convince us that she's got this really big heart and all this compassion and really big puppy dog eyes, so we should totally be sympathizing with her. Except I'm not. I mostly just want to put some kind of emotional tourniquet on her. I want her to turn down the projectile empathy about three levels, to stop with the stupid puppy dog eyes, and to really stop using them on people she's disappointed in until she stops screwing around on her boyfriend! Rhys is an amazingly tolerant, geuinely nice guy, and deserves far better. I want her massive emotions to, just once, not completely override her capacity for logical thought (I know it's there, we saw it initially), and I want her to be a person, not a walking exposed nerve. (The aforementioned screwing around does not make her a person; it is not a flaw, it is a plot device, one we are supposed to think is okay because she's so messed up by working for Torchwood, thus proving how sensitive and wonderful she is. Not so much. Quit or get over it.) There's a really good, funny, cool character hiding in there, but I'm tired of having to dig through the layers and layers of messy emo crap to get to it. (Emotionally wrecked occasionally is good characterization. Emotionally wrecked all the damn time is 'if you don't stop pushing the button you'll break it.' That scene where she retcons Rhys during her confession would have been so much more effective if she wasn't like that so very much of the time. Instead, it just made me kind of hate her.)
Owen: Wanker. Just as emo as Gwen, but focused inward instead of outward, which at least makes him far less hypocritical, if far more annoying. He has his moments where he's almost awesome -- his concerned competance caring for Gwen's shotgun wound in "Countrycide", his very sincere feelings for Diane, the way he cradles Gwen was she was coming around at the end of "They Keep Killing Suzie". But they keep being overriden by the guy using alien date rape drugs in the pilot, the guy who cheerfully shags another man's girlfriend, the guy so absorbed in his own pain that he blames everyone around him for things they had nothing to do with and flails around trying to make everyone else as miserable as he is, capped off by opening the rift against all advice from people who bloody knew better, then shooting Jack. Multiple times. Jack forgave him. He was obviously upset, started sobbing and meant it, and we'll see next series if he's learned anything from it. Maybe he has. Until then, he's still a self-centered wanker and he annoys me.
Ianto: Speaking of emo. < shakes head > I liked Ianto in the first few episodes, all cool and competant and quietly funny. But then he got saddled with the horror story that was "Cyberwoman," with the crying and the screaming and the extreme stupidity of every action, and he was just never able to bounce back for me. He has brief shining moments of amusement or coolness (mostly with Jack), and then returns to the land of the crazy emo people, or the land of the non-emotive furniture people. The hell? They need to rethink Ianto from the ground up, and try it again. The actor is very good, and deserves better.
Toshiko: Now, Toshiko I actually do like. She's a sweet little nerd who does want to do what is right. Unfortunately, she was born with a congenital birth defect -- no spine. She can't stand up to anyone, she will almost always go with the crowd, and if she can avoid making a hard choices, she does. And she knows it. This makes her the most self-aware, least stupid character onscreen, if still not truly likeable. However, she redeemed herself for me by being completely awesome in "Captain Jack Harkness" (not to mention "Greeks Bearing Gifts", in which she behaved stupidly, but somewhat understandably, which is more than Gwen or Owen usually have going for them), focusing on getting the equation back and doing it sensibly, while remaining very aware of the risks entailed by being Japanese in 1941 London. I think she'd grown up by End of Days; I have high hopes for her next series. And I rarely want to slap her, which is a win by my standards for the show. Which is kind of sad.
*****
For all the negativity of these rambling thoughts, I think Torchwood may become my new Forever Knight. It doesn't pay to think to hard about it, and you have to hold the characters to considerably lower standards that I usually demand. But if you give yourself to it, it'll suck you in. Plus, I really have hopes that next series, people will have learned things and won't be quite as relentlessly stupid as they were this series. (I have no hope for the emo. I think that's here to stay.) Plus, once Jack gets his TARDIS-sponsored vacation, maybe he'll be okay again, or at least closer to it. And basically, I'm all about the Jack. Shocking, I know. :) As long as Jack is onscreen, I suppose I'll stick around.
I still haven't watched the last 5 or so eps of DW, although I've been fairly thoroughly spoiled. :P Those are up next, mostly so that I can read the fic.
The overall impression?
Get lives, emo people!!!!
Good god. I knew Torchwood was going to be darker than Doctor Who, but I didn't know it was going to be relentlessly grim and angsty and 'they almost never get to win' darker. My Captain Jack has lost the ability to bounce because he keeps having to make horrible decisions that everyone else blames him for making when they totally backed out on making them themselves, or had no clue whatsoever to offer as alternatives. Geez. I don't care if I would get totally retconned, I wouldn't work for that place for five minutes!
That said, there were highlights. The first 2 episodes were quite good; the next 4 I mostly just powered through on the assurance that it got better (and the grim determination that if it didn't, there were some people I was going to hurt for making me endure "Countrycide" and "Cyberwoman" under false pretenses). "They Keep Killing Suzie" was uber-dark, but really twisty and cool. Around episode nine, the writers rediscovered their sense of humor; "Random Shoes" gave us the darling Eugene Jones and a very nicely done episode. (It almost balances out the tragedy that was "Cyberwoman". Goddess bless. What were they thinking? A nifty initial idea, and god knows Ianto tried to sell it, but how over-the-top emo and stupid can you get?) "Out of Time" was a really nice character study with some outstanding guest stars, and I'll accept that they were setting up Owen to be massively stupid this far back, which wins them continuity points. "Combat" took another downswing; hugely predictable and I don't like Owen enough to care if he's emo and self-destructive for an episode. Then "Captain Jack Harkness" broke my heart into little bitty pieces (Toshiko was cool!), and "End of Days" was just incredible! (When I wasn't trying to lunge through the screen to smack the living shit out of people who desperately deserved it. I'll give the writers this much -- everyone is consistently emo and consistently self-absorbed, so it all did play out with nice continuity. For what that's worth.)
I love the concept (and the name!) of the retcon drug. I like the consequences of the retcon drug. I love the hand in the bubbly box. I like the determined continuity. There are many good things to like.
However. To quote someone or other: Captain Jack's timeline makes my head hurt. They're not big on explaining what the hell was actually going on at any point. (Can anyone explain "Countrycide"? Wait, you know, never mind. Least said, soonest purged from my memory.) Everyone behaves stupidly on a regular basis except Jack, who behaves stupidly by continuing to allow stupid people to work for him. :P And they never get to win until the very last moments of the first series. They stalemate, or they have to make Really Bad Choices (read: Jack has to make Really Bad Choices, then get bitched at about it), or someone loses someone they desperately love. No one ever gets to be happy, not ever, and there's a reason I stopped watching Battlestar Galactica, people!
Character breakdown:
Jack: Oh, I miss my Captain Jack. I see glimpses of him now and then, but mostly, he's a man who can't die but kind of wants to. It comes through in his obsession with finding the Doctor (I know what that hand is, it has to be) and how much he obviously misses him. The way Jack keeps grabbing onto people hoping they'll bring him back to himself (Stella, Gwen, Captain Harkness, Ianto) even when they don't manage to. The way he keeps trying to live up to what the Doctor would expect of him, and how you can see him feeling that he's coming up short every time. The way he protects Tosh and Gwen and tries to protect Ianto and Owen, and usually just stands there and lets them blame him for everything until he finally snaps at the end. I'm 99% sure that was the TARDIS come to take him away at the end, not another nasty trick, and I'm really happy (there was squeeing. Lots of it. And possibly a huge dopey smile for hours), because Jack needs a vacation more than any man I've ever seen. (All of the above, mind you, does not mean that sharing a little information with his team now and then wouldn't be of the good. I understand not wanting to give away future knowledge, cause paradoxes, etc. But there's gotta be a happy medium. Share!)
Gwen: I want to like Gwen, I really do. I try to. She's so earnest and trying so hard to be likeable and to convince us that she's got this really big heart and all this compassion and really big puppy dog eyes, so we should totally be sympathizing with her. Except I'm not. I mostly just want to put some kind of emotional tourniquet on her. I want her to turn down the projectile empathy about three levels, to stop with the stupid puppy dog eyes, and to really stop using them on people she's disappointed in until she stops screwing around on her boyfriend! Rhys is an amazingly tolerant, geuinely nice guy, and deserves far better. I want her massive emotions to, just once, not completely override her capacity for logical thought (I know it's there, we saw it initially), and I want her to be a person, not a walking exposed nerve. (The aforementioned screwing around does not make her a person; it is not a flaw, it is a plot device, one we are supposed to think is okay because she's so messed up by working for Torchwood, thus proving how sensitive and wonderful she is. Not so much. Quit or get over it.) There's a really good, funny, cool character hiding in there, but I'm tired of having to dig through the layers and layers of messy emo crap to get to it. (Emotionally wrecked occasionally is good characterization. Emotionally wrecked all the damn time is 'if you don't stop pushing the button you'll break it.' That scene where she retcons Rhys during her confession would have been so much more effective if she wasn't like that so very much of the time. Instead, it just made me kind of hate her.)
Owen: Wanker. Just as emo as Gwen, but focused inward instead of outward, which at least makes him far less hypocritical, if far more annoying. He has his moments where he's almost awesome -- his concerned competance caring for Gwen's shotgun wound in "Countrycide", his very sincere feelings for Diane, the way he cradles Gwen was she was coming around at the end of "They Keep Killing Suzie". But they keep being overriden by the guy using alien date rape drugs in the pilot, the guy who cheerfully shags another man's girlfriend, the guy so absorbed in his own pain that he blames everyone around him for things they had nothing to do with and flails around trying to make everyone else as miserable as he is, capped off by opening the rift against all advice from people who bloody knew better, then shooting Jack. Multiple times. Jack forgave him. He was obviously upset, started sobbing and meant it, and we'll see next series if he's learned anything from it. Maybe he has. Until then, he's still a self-centered wanker and he annoys me.
Ianto: Speaking of emo. < shakes head > I liked Ianto in the first few episodes, all cool and competant and quietly funny. But then he got saddled with the horror story that was "Cyberwoman," with the crying and the screaming and the extreme stupidity of every action, and he was just never able to bounce back for me. He has brief shining moments of amusement or coolness (mostly with Jack), and then returns to the land of the crazy emo people, or the land of the non-emotive furniture people. The hell? They need to rethink Ianto from the ground up, and try it again. The actor is very good, and deserves better.
Toshiko: Now, Toshiko I actually do like. She's a sweet little nerd who does want to do what is right. Unfortunately, she was born with a congenital birth defect -- no spine. She can't stand up to anyone, she will almost always go with the crowd, and if she can avoid making a hard choices, she does. And she knows it. This makes her the most self-aware, least stupid character onscreen, if still not truly likeable. However, she redeemed herself for me by being completely awesome in "Captain Jack Harkness" (not to mention "Greeks Bearing Gifts", in which she behaved stupidly, but somewhat understandably, which is more than Gwen or Owen usually have going for them), focusing on getting the equation back and doing it sensibly, while remaining very aware of the risks entailed by being Japanese in 1941 London. I think she'd grown up by End of Days; I have high hopes for her next series. And I rarely want to slap her, which is a win by my standards for the show. Which is kind of sad.
*****
For all the negativity of these rambling thoughts, I think Torchwood may become my new Forever Knight. It doesn't pay to think to hard about it, and you have to hold the characters to considerably lower standards that I usually demand. But if you give yourself to it, it'll suck you in. Plus, I really have hopes that next series, people will have learned things and won't be quite as relentlessly stupid as they were this series. (I have no hope for the emo. I think that's here to stay.) Plus, once Jack gets his TARDIS-sponsored vacation, maybe he'll be okay again, or at least closer to it. And basically, I'm all about the Jack. Shocking, I know. :) As long as Jack is onscreen, I suppose I'll stick around.
I still haven't watched the last 5 or so eps of DW, although I've been fairly thoroughly spoiled. :P Those are up next, mostly so that I can read the fic.