Torchwood: Cyberwoman. Initial Reactions.
Nov. 5th, 2006 08:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fangrrl_squeesAlrighty then. I mostly enjoyed Cyberwoman, but...
I'm really hoping that this was the first one up on their shooting schedule (as opposed to the broadcast schedule, obviously) because everyone - especially John Barrowman - seems very stiff and uncomfortable. Dialog rang false - verbose and artificial - delivery was occasionally terrible and the scenery is suffering from a few bite-marks.
I noticed that the script really shied away from the word kill (no doubt there's some weird BBC policy behind that) and it made the occasionally clunky dialog even clunkier. Sigh.
The directing also seemed a bit ham-fisted. Again, I like to think that maybe this was early-shooting jitters in effect. I laughed out loud at Burn Gorman's delivery of "I'm deadly serious". Geeze, lay it on with a trowel much, guys? Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto) wasn't faring any better, either. Gods, the grimacing, the playing to the camera, the melodrama! My eyes were starting to ache from all the rolling around.
I think I much prefer Jack's version of the Kiss of Life over the usual sort. On a similar note, the Gwen/Owen moment was one of the better ones in the episode. I'm sure the Owen haters are unhappy, but I liked it. Having Owen admit that he felt a bit embarrassed in the aftermath, having survived and all, saved the incident from inanity.
The director of photography took way too many cues from the CSI/X-Files playbook. I hope we'll be seeing less of that over time. I'm all for a bit of funky lighting design, being a fan of both of those shows, but damn. There were scenes that I don't think my color-blind husband could have tolerated.
I liked the idea of the story, of a person having survived partial conversion, and that person being the SO to a Torchwood staffer. I even kinda dug Lisa's damfool costume once I realized that there was clearly a whole Metropolis homage going on with it. I liked certain moments - Ianto taking Jack to task for not really giving a shit about him (or, by extension, anyone in the group), Owen and Gwen in the morgue, Rhys calling Gwen and asking her to record Wife Swap for him tonight... The last fifteen minutes were, imho, the best - Ianto's oh so anguished scenery-chewing aside, that is. I blame the director for that. But the rest of the eps? Meh. Definitely not as strong as Ghost Machine.
I'd like to see the shooting schedule for Torchwood, as that would tell me whether or not I'm barking up the right tree with my little theory...
(tangent: and I was just joking when I fic'd the idea of feeding people to the pterodactyl...)
Please, please, please no more end-of-episode homilies between Jack and Gwen. Please?
I'd be feeling disheartened about the possible quality of future eps at this point but, honestly, next week's trailer looked a hell of a lot better. I'm chalking Cyberwoman's mediocrity up to excessive fanwank, possibly early-production jitters and hope for improvement from now on. I'm nothing if not forgiving of my shows. ;)
(Edited to add: I see Jack's still drinking water. Maybe we have to add "can't get drunk" on to the list of things Jack can't do?)
I'm really hoping that this was the first one up on their shooting schedule (as opposed to the broadcast schedule, obviously) because everyone - especially John Barrowman - seems very stiff and uncomfortable. Dialog rang false - verbose and artificial - delivery was occasionally terrible and the scenery is suffering from a few bite-marks.
I noticed that the script really shied away from the word kill (no doubt there's some weird BBC policy behind that) and it made the occasionally clunky dialog even clunkier. Sigh.
The directing also seemed a bit ham-fisted. Again, I like to think that maybe this was early-shooting jitters in effect. I laughed out loud at Burn Gorman's delivery of "I'm deadly serious". Geeze, lay it on with a trowel much, guys? Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto) wasn't faring any better, either. Gods, the grimacing, the playing to the camera, the melodrama! My eyes were starting to ache from all the rolling around.
I think I much prefer Jack's version of the Kiss of Life over the usual sort. On a similar note, the Gwen/Owen moment was one of the better ones in the episode. I'm sure the Owen haters are unhappy, but I liked it. Having Owen admit that he felt a bit embarrassed in the aftermath, having survived and all, saved the incident from inanity.
The director of photography took way too many cues from the CSI/X-Files playbook. I hope we'll be seeing less of that over time. I'm all for a bit of funky lighting design, being a fan of both of those shows, but damn. There were scenes that I don't think my color-blind husband could have tolerated.
I liked the idea of the story, of a person having survived partial conversion, and that person being the SO to a Torchwood staffer. I even kinda dug Lisa's damfool costume once I realized that there was clearly a whole Metropolis homage going on with it. I liked certain moments - Ianto taking Jack to task for not really giving a shit about him (or, by extension, anyone in the group), Owen and Gwen in the morgue, Rhys calling Gwen and asking her to record Wife Swap for him tonight... The last fifteen minutes were, imho, the best - Ianto's oh so anguished scenery-chewing aside, that is. I blame the director for that. But the rest of the eps? Meh. Definitely not as strong as Ghost Machine.
I'd like to see the shooting schedule for Torchwood, as that would tell me whether or not I'm barking up the right tree with my little theory...
(tangent: and I was just joking when I fic'd the idea of feeding people to the pterodactyl...)
Please, please, please no more end-of-episode homilies between Jack and Gwen. Please?
I'd be feeling disheartened about the possible quality of future eps at this point but, honestly, next week's trailer looked a hell of a lot better. I'm chalking Cyberwoman's mediocrity up to excessive fanwank, possibly early-production jitters and hope for improvement from now on. I'm nothing if not forgiving of my shows. ;)
(Edited to add: I see Jack's still drinking water. Maybe we have to add "can't get drunk" on to the list of things Jack can't do?)
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Date: 2006-11-06 05:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 02:46 pm (UTC)I'll have to go a-rummaging...
Ah, it seems you are correct. Eps One and Two were shot first, then three and eight, and I'm *guessing* that Cyberwoman might have been one of the episodes in the third round of production. Damn, so much for my theory. ;)
And, goddammit, the (imho) ham-fisted director was James Strong, who I thought did a lovely job on "The Impossible Planet" (if perhaps not so much on "The Satan Pit"). Damn, damn, damn.
Off to go write a cranky entry, now.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 12:59 pm (UTC)My review is also up at the usual place, although I do get a little bit sweary...
no subject
Date: 2006-11-06 03:06 pm (UTC)I loved that Jack is kind of backed into a corner on the leadership stuff and I haven't a clue how he's going to get out of it - It's truly a surprise whenever he does something. Rewatching Who 2005 this past week I was reminded of the Who!Jack I know and love and curious to see that my memory of how he reacts in a group situation was not all made up in my head. He's a soldier, not a general and now that he's in a leadership role - and the staff is difficult (since ep one, not just in this ep) - He's really deadlocked. A problem I have in my own working world. So I'll be interested to see what becomes of it. So far, he just moves on. I'm once again surprised that everyone is still working there at episode end and that he turns his back on them all. I loved that neither Jack or Ianto ever gave up their emotional (not-so-healthy) positions (even though that didn't make for a nice tidy TV ending.)
And my new emo/dark love toy? Oh, let me count the ways... I don't really expect much but boy howdy, I sure would love to see some tortured, grueling relationship rebuilding between Jack and Ianto - Let's keep it edgy and uncertain for a while, eh? I'm completely open to Ianto going all postal/Avon after a while if the writer's so choose. But a slow progression out of his own personal Hell is acceptable too. ;-) I won't bore you with the long litany of other Ianto love items... Plenty of emo!teen-squee going on elsewhere.
Not happy with the mega-boobs and high heels on Lisa but whatever. That *is* really cool about the Metropolis thing so I will forgive also - Don't know why I didn't see it...
So, I loved it - Except for the f****** unsteady-cam thing they were doing with the cameras. OMG I hate that! It's why I haven't watched an American series in 3 or 4 years - I *really* don't want to have to give up Torchwood.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-07 02:49 am (UTC)I won't bore you with the long litany of other Ianto love items...
*looks around and whispers* I sometimes
hopethink Ianto's wearing a leather collar under that shirt and tie, but that's just me.And, oh crap, my built-in devil's advocate just pointed out that, based on my own RL experience, if anyone's bottoming in their off hours it's Jack and my concentration just went all to hell....