Bent TV

[rosamicula]

I was half way through this when events intervened. Late as ever.

Torchwood was almost life-changing TV. It nearly changed my life as it was almost enough to turn me homophobicI thought the first episode was ropey but pretty engaging, though I am just not enough of a fan of any TV programme to watch every episode (I have only ever recorded

Comments

[blue_condition]

Pretty much WSS. I loved eps 1-2, but after that the only ones I liked were the PJ Hammond one about the evil fairy girl, and the plane-in-a-timewarp one. The cyberman one *could* have been good but sucked.

John Barrowman is great fun to watch when he's being John Barrowman. Captain Jack is *boring* though, and on the few occasions where he actually tries to behave like the CO of a clandestine unit it just doesn't work.

Gwen? Ugh. Not a good character for the audience to identify with. If I wanted to see a Cardiff fishwife bawling people out I'd go back a few years in my own life ;P

[yaruar]

John was a great stage musical performer and it shows, he just can't do subtle. his talent is wasted on tv/film

[rosamicula]

I can imagine that. He always looks as though he's about to burst into a torch song. Theatrical acting and physicality does not translate well on to the small screen.

[despina]

What upset me about the GAY aspect of Torchwood (as opposed to all the other aspects of Torchwood which upset me, which are numerous!), is that it seemed a bit like halfway through the series the writers thought "fuck it, let's make Jack GAY!" and he spent the rest of the series being stupidly camp.

It really fucked with the mystique. I liked it better when no-one knew what to make of him in any respect.

[rosamicula]

I agree. It was all so shallow and painting-by-numbers. They clearly had the means and the money to do so much better.

[despina]

What kept me watching (well, in addition to it being very hard to avoid, as another commentator said), was the brief flashes of brilliance some of the episodes had. There was a lot of potential. Which makes it all the more galling that it was such tosh.

[stevegreen]

it was such tosh

Hey, I liked Tosh!

[webcowgirl]

You're going to hate this but this makes me want to go back and see what I've been missing.

On the other hand, I think I'm on the right track with the not-watching TV thing.

Sketching?

[strange_complex]

Plot and concept-wise, I almost managed to enjoy Torchwood by holding onto the concept that it was meant to show how (more or less) ordinary people would cope with the consequences of contact with alien life-forms, without quasi-divine interventions by Doctor Who to save them.

However, as it gradually transpired that the answer was, 'By consistently displaying levels of competence and emotional maturity that would embarrass kindergarten children, and failing to develop in any way whatsoever as a result of their experiences', I rather lost interest. Needless to say, the poor acting, scriptwork and sense of coherence between episodes didn't do anything to help.

Nonetheless, I watched every episode faithfully (although I probably wouldn't have done if it had been repeated so much and available for free on cable 'on demand' services), and I miss it now it's gone. I guess I stuck with it in the fangirlish hope of encountering back-story which would illuminate wider Who-related issues - but if so, I was disappointed. Let's just hope that

[mr_flay]

Did they ever bother to explain that pteranodon, or was it, in the end, purely a half-arsed attempt at synergy with Walking With Dinosaurs? I only ask because you bothered to watch it and I gave up (with an audible sigh of relief) after the cyberbint episode.

*applause* for your outpouring of vitriol, by the way.

[strange_complex]

Apologies for jumping in, but having watched all of it I can categorically state that no, they didn't. There was some stuff on the website about it being an example of one of the sort of things that pops through the rift every now and then (like the historical characters in the last episode), but nothing in the series itself. I can only assume that they cut any explanation that was planned, and decided it would be good enough to just stick it on the website instead.

[mr_flay]

That's mildly interesting; I distinctly recall wading through the website for any hint of an explanation when I saw the cyberwoman episode, and there wasn't one then. Presumably enough people bitched to the beeb about the incongruity of it.

Personally, I'm cheesed because they could probably have given me a good 10% rise per annum based on what the CG would have set them, back....

[mr_flay]

Ack! Rogue comma ghastliness!