Torchwood: Miracle Day 4.02 Rendition
In which Doris Egan uses her House experience well, she said evilly. :)
Right now, Dr. Vera Juarez (got the name this time, am repentant I didn't the last time) might be my favourite of the new characters. And that whole sequence of curing Jack from arsenic poisoning on an air plane was just classic; the difference is that on House, there would not have been Gwen kicking everyone's behind, so clearly the TW version is superior. :)
More seriously, I do like Dr. Juarez best so far (competent and fierce professional woman who is not a girl anymore but in her 30s or even early 40s, hooray!), but that doesn't mean I don't like the rest of the newbies. They're doing a nice job of not making them too good to be true; Rex is smug at the start (and we get more transatlantic Europe vs US not so subtext) but by no means stupid and flexible enough to immediately adjust once he finds out new facts. Esther's is a believable mixture of bright and naive and when she figures out she's being set up, her escape isn't James Bond-y but something you can pull off. And I already adore Lauren Ambrose's Jilly in her amoral PR competence. Also during the advance publicity I automatically assumed she'd represent Osward Dane, so him turning her down first and then her approach to Dr. Juarez instead was a neat twist, not to mention their conversation was one of my favourite scenes in the episode.
Given Kai Owen's prominence in the credits I expect Rhys (and the baby) to be back rather soon, but I can see the plot sense of separating them from Gwen for the escape sequences, not to mention that it makes Watsonian sense as well (why WOULD Rex want them along?). The Gwen and Jack air plane conversation before he gets poisoned, with Gwen both ticked off and affectionate, was how I hoped her attitude towards him would be after the initial reunion, and despite the fact her Welsh Pride scene was in the trailers, I enjoyed seeing it played out. Also, LOL at her indignation at the escape car. (Also at RTD's continued effort to provide Torchwood with deliberately unglamorous escape vehicles; in CoE we had the truck and the building site thingie, and now it's this.) Mind you, seeing Eve Myles side by side with Esther, CIA woman/assassin and Dr. Juarez showcases how frighteningly thin many American actresses are. Thank God for Lauren Ambrose being an exception there, too, and keep the normal body size, Eve! (I still remember Rose Byrnes going from greatly shaped in RTD's Casanova to horribly famine catastrophe like thin in the second season of Damages, though thankfully she then regained some weight for the third season.)
Ominous triangle watching Boss is ominous, nothing more to say about that. Bill Pullman continues to have the time of his life being creepy and smart. Also I wonder whether someone - Doris Egan or RTD or both - watched Fritz Lang's M before writing this episode, because Oswald's "breakdown" was a great counterpoint to Peter Lorre's breakdown in M. With Lorre (the first memorable serial killer on screen, and what a performance that was, and what a shame poor Peter then went on to a career of caricatures in American films) the breakdown was so efficient because it was genuine and the point where the audience was first let inside the character, plus on a Watsonian level his audience of criminals did not expect it to happen. With Pullman, it's so efficient between it's fake yet in a way that makes it believable many people within the story buy it, plus it's a statement on the whole cult and ritual of public breakdowns on American tv.
Given the attention this episode draws on Jack's time travel/transport device (well, Rex and new watchers don't know what it is, but we do), which, lest we forget, is currently working, I wonder when it will come into play?
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/696007.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
Right now, Dr. Vera Juarez (got the name this time, am repentant I didn't the last time) might be my favourite of the new characters. And that whole sequence of curing Jack from arsenic poisoning on an air plane was just classic; the difference is that on House, there would not have been Gwen kicking everyone's behind, so clearly the TW version is superior. :)
More seriously, I do like Dr. Juarez best so far (competent and fierce professional woman who is not a girl anymore but in her 30s or even early 40s, hooray!), but that doesn't mean I don't like the rest of the newbies. They're doing a nice job of not making them too good to be true; Rex is smug at the start (and we get more transatlantic Europe vs US not so subtext) but by no means stupid and flexible enough to immediately adjust once he finds out new facts. Esther's is a believable mixture of bright and naive and when she figures out she's being set up, her escape isn't James Bond-y but something you can pull off. And I already adore Lauren Ambrose's Jilly in her amoral PR competence. Also during the advance publicity I automatically assumed she'd represent Osward Dane, so him turning her down first and then her approach to Dr. Juarez instead was a neat twist, not to mention their conversation was one of my favourite scenes in the episode.
Given Kai Owen's prominence in the credits I expect Rhys (and the baby) to be back rather soon, but I can see the plot sense of separating them from Gwen for the escape sequences, not to mention that it makes Watsonian sense as well (why WOULD Rex want them along?). The Gwen and Jack air plane conversation before he gets poisoned, with Gwen both ticked off and affectionate, was how I hoped her attitude towards him would be after the initial reunion, and despite the fact her Welsh Pride scene was in the trailers, I enjoyed seeing it played out. Also, LOL at her indignation at the escape car. (Also at RTD's continued effort to provide Torchwood with deliberately unglamorous escape vehicles; in CoE we had the truck and the building site thingie, and now it's this.) Mind you, seeing Eve Myles side by side with Esther, CIA woman/assassin and Dr. Juarez showcases how frighteningly thin many American actresses are. Thank God for Lauren Ambrose being an exception there, too, and keep the normal body size, Eve! (I still remember Rose Byrnes going from greatly shaped in RTD's Casanova to horribly famine catastrophe like thin in the second season of Damages, though thankfully she then regained some weight for the third season.)
Ominous triangle watching Boss is ominous, nothing more to say about that. Bill Pullman continues to have the time of his life being creepy and smart. Also I wonder whether someone - Doris Egan or RTD or both - watched Fritz Lang's M before writing this episode, because Oswald's "breakdown" was a great counterpoint to Peter Lorre's breakdown in M. With Lorre (the first memorable serial killer on screen, and what a performance that was, and what a shame poor Peter then went on to a career of caricatures in American films) the breakdown was so efficient because it was genuine and the point where the audience was first let inside the character, plus on a Watsonian level his audience of criminals did not expect it to happen. With Pullman, it's so efficient between it's fake yet in a way that makes it believable many people within the story buy it, plus it's a statement on the whole cult and ritual of public breakdowns on American tv.
Given the attention this episode draws on Jack's time travel/transport device (well, Rex and new watchers don't know what it is, but we do), which, lest we forget, is currently working, I wonder when it will come into play?
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/696007.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.