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fangrrl_squees) wrote2006-11-06 02:04 pm
fangrrl_squees) wrote2006-11-06 02:04 pm
Entry tags:
Torchwood: Cyberwoman - Further Thoughts, Some Meta.
Some further critique, but mostly meta ramblings.
So, Chris Chibnall has written at least one more eps coming up this season, and Strong will be directing another story, too - although I doubt it'll be Chibnall's. In the spirit of sheer fannish optimism, I'll try to keep an open mind about both of 'em until I've seen the relevants episodes. It's entirely possible that they're two folks who's talents don't quite mesh and, away from each other, all is well - or at least, somewhat better.
Us fans are nothing if not optimistic and, generally, forgiving.
The majority of my grumbles about Cyberwoman can be attributed to one point of origin, really: fanwank. Interestingly enough, some viewers have cited the presence of same as a major benefit of the episode - something they enjoyed. Now, god knows, I'm all for a bit of fanservice on occasion but I think we had enough of it during Day One. That episode was rife with little nods and winks to DW, but it didn't get too heavy-handed. Cyberwoman watches like a bit of mediocre fanfic writ large - too bloody large.
For the record, my post-feminist sensibilities were only moderately outraged by the costume design. Alas, the media has really ground me down on that particular regard - a legacy of my husband's comic-book habit, no doubt. Lisa's costume design certainly qualified as an item designed for het male fantasy but, dammit, it's not like I seriously expected anything better. My further reasons for disliking the costume, I'll get into, later.
The suspension of disbelief muscle in my head got a couple of cramps, and that's always a distraction from the positive elements of a story. In order for me to buy into Lisa being "partially converted", I would have needed to see her as a bit more, y'know, incomplete. A few hastily added patches, some godawful scarring. Heck, I would have settled for rust. But no, we get something that looks like she just walked off a music video directed by someone who needs to get past the Geiger/Lang influence for cyberpunk aesthetics. Meanwhile, Mr. Dead Cybernetics Expert looked a lot more like I would have expected Lisa to, especially after a few months of makeshift care...
However, I didn't have a problem buying into the notion that Ianto managed to sneak Lisa out of Canary Wharf, and into the Cardiff facility. Anyone who's been in the secretary biz for a while knows that it's often quite easy to manage all sorts of processes without the boss knowing. After all, that's part of the job. I've heard (and seen, ahem) some horror stories about all sorts of things going missing from facilities during the dot-bomb, and there were far fewer explosions and hardly any gunfire (er, that I know of) in Multimedia Gulch to provide a distraction. One shipping crate and a cheerful assurance that it's the latest equipment order for the basement lab and there you go - especially if you've already built up a reputation as the guy who keeps things going behind the scenes, as Ianto had.
And who are we to argue if pterodactyls would like barbecue sauce? I think it was a bit of unwarranted levity and jarred a little too much with the drama of the scene but it's not something that has me frothing at the mouth. By that point, I'd rolled my eyes enough and had settled into accepting that Cyberwoman wasn't the best episode yet.
I've encountered quite a few fans saying how they really liked Jack in this one, that he got all military-n-stuff with the leadership and what have you. For my part, it rang utterly false and I found said falsity quite vexing. Why? The dialog, again. When you're in a life-or-death situation, you tend to stick to monosyllables and sentences formed in the imperative. Too much of what Jack said sounded like "Let's explain exactly to the viewers what's being done and how" and it just wasn't necessary. Show, don't tell, guys. Trust the visual medium. Reduced lighting, crackling radios and such communicate what's going on just fine. There's no need to tell me three times that the powers out and the radios are screwed up.
Furthermore, Barrowman seemed very stiff and uncomfortable whenever he had to take charge, not because Jack was up shit creek (a fine reason for the character to be uncomfortable) but, I think, because he was trying to trot out these long, polysyllabic sentences when, it would have been more plausible - and still in-character - for Jack to be yelling "Fix the radio and get the lights back on!" rather than "Re-establish communications and bring the generator back online" or however it was phrased (I'm going off memory, but you get the gist). I know that the military has a reputation for being polysyllabic but really, that sort of thing is saved for equipment contracts and reports made in nice, safe offices - not when one is under fire. Ever been in a panic situation, even one that you were ostensibly trained to handle? How verbose were you - excluding the swear words? I trust I've made my point. :)
And as for Jack being so fab whilst in command-n-stuff, I didn't buy it. He didn't project any aura of being at ease with the situation - with giving orders, I mean. I forget who mentioned it, but one LJer suggested that Jack's learning the hard way about the differences between being one's own boss, and having people under your command - and being responsible for same - and I think that's a valid observation. But there's a difference between "The character is uncomfortable" and "The actor is uncomfortable" and the vibe I got was the latter. However, I'm going to refrain from any conclusions until we see a bit more pressure on Jack and the team, and how Barrowman plays it.
I enjoyed the Ianto/Jack shoutdown because Ianto's got a point - Gwen has shown a hell of a lot more curiosity in the team members beyond their role as cogs in the machine than Jack has, so far. You gotta wonder how emotionally detached a fella is after he's died a few times - never mind seeing his coworkers/friends/whatever die, too.
On another note entirely, I'm dying to know why Jack shuns the sauce - even at the pub with the team, he's drinking water (or maybe it's vodka by the pint, but I think even the Brits would make a comment about that...). It's always been said that people don't drink booze for the taste alone and it's entirely possible, I s'pose, that along with not sleeping and not dying, he can't get drunk. If you can't get drunk and you taste estrogen in the rain, there's probably nothing for and everything against knocking back the booze.
(Don't even get me started on the Can Jack fool around? debate that's going on in some journals. If he can't, I'm going to feel so horribly sorry for the guy. I won't say that it's unplausible, or unnecessary, I'll just feel bad for the character. I'm rooting for the Jack could but chooses not to for a variety of reasons potentiality.)
(And,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
qthewetsprocket? I'm with you re: Jack and employees on their knees. *Ahem*.)
Tiny little query, and one I'll no doubt answer myself when I get home later tonight: Did Owen tell Gwen she wasn't exactly struggling or wasn't exactly complaining after the clinch in the morgue? Given his past behavior, the choice of words was rather key. I think that Owen's got a serious impulse control problem. He's just not displaying the type of behavior one would associate with a person who thinks things through. If he was ever a GP, pity his poor patients. To meta for a second, I'd guess that Owen worked in a trauma situation, rather than as, say, a pediatrician, but that's just my theory. I'm sure that this apparent lack of foresight will be exploited for all sorts of plot points in the future, and rightly so. Hooray for characters carrying the seeds of their own downfall! More on that as applies to other characters when I've had a chance to think further on it...
Overall, I was vexed to learn that Cyberwoman was shot no earlier than the third block, as it comes across as clunky as some pilots I've encountered - y'know, stuff that's shot before everyone's found their feet and are sure that it's going to be more than a one-off gig. Mind you, most shows suffer inconsistency all through their first season - take a look at ST: TNG, or Babylon 5. So I'm not howling for anyone's blood. Just sighing a bit and hoping things will get better.
And now, I've got journal fodder to churn out for rpg!Jack...
So, Chris Chibnall has written at least one more eps coming up this season, and Strong will be directing another story, too - although I doubt it'll be Chibnall's. In the spirit of sheer fannish optimism, I'll try to keep an open mind about both of 'em until I've seen the relevants episodes. It's entirely possible that they're two folks who's talents don't quite mesh and, away from each other, all is well - or at least, somewhat better.
Us fans are nothing if not optimistic and, generally, forgiving.
The majority of my grumbles about Cyberwoman can be attributed to one point of origin, really: fanwank. Interestingly enough, some viewers have cited the presence of same as a major benefit of the episode - something they enjoyed. Now, god knows, I'm all for a bit of fanservice on occasion but I think we had enough of it during Day One. That episode was rife with little nods and winks to DW, but it didn't get too heavy-handed. Cyberwoman watches like a bit of mediocre fanfic writ large - too bloody large.
For the record, my post-feminist sensibilities were only moderately outraged by the costume design. Alas, the media has really ground me down on that particular regard - a legacy of my husband's comic-book habit, no doubt. Lisa's costume design certainly qualified as an item designed for het male fantasy but, dammit, it's not like I seriously expected anything better. My further reasons for disliking the costume, I'll get into, later.
The suspension of disbelief muscle in my head got a couple of cramps, and that's always a distraction from the positive elements of a story. In order for me to buy into Lisa being "partially converted", I would have needed to see her as a bit more, y'know, incomplete. A few hastily added patches, some godawful scarring. Heck, I would have settled for rust. But no, we get something that looks like she just walked off a music video directed by someone who needs to get past the Geiger/Lang influence for cyberpunk aesthetics. Meanwhile, Mr. Dead Cybernetics Expert looked a lot more like I would have expected Lisa to, especially after a few months of makeshift care...
However, I didn't have a problem buying into the notion that Ianto managed to sneak Lisa out of Canary Wharf, and into the Cardiff facility. Anyone who's been in the secretary biz for a while knows that it's often quite easy to manage all sorts of processes without the boss knowing. After all, that's part of the job. I've heard (and seen, ahem) some horror stories about all sorts of things going missing from facilities during the dot-bomb, and there were far fewer explosions and hardly any gunfire (er, that I know of) in Multimedia Gulch to provide a distraction. One shipping crate and a cheerful assurance that it's the latest equipment order for the basement lab and there you go - especially if you've already built up a reputation as the guy who keeps things going behind the scenes, as Ianto had.
And who are we to argue if pterodactyls would like barbecue sauce? I think it was a bit of unwarranted levity and jarred a little too much with the drama of the scene but it's not something that has me frothing at the mouth. By that point, I'd rolled my eyes enough and had settled into accepting that Cyberwoman wasn't the best episode yet.
I've encountered quite a few fans saying how they really liked Jack in this one, that he got all military-n-stuff with the leadership and what have you. For my part, it rang utterly false and I found said falsity quite vexing. Why? The dialog, again. When you're in a life-or-death situation, you tend to stick to monosyllables and sentences formed in the imperative. Too much of what Jack said sounded like "Let's explain exactly to the viewers what's being done and how" and it just wasn't necessary. Show, don't tell, guys. Trust the visual medium. Reduced lighting, crackling radios and such communicate what's going on just fine. There's no need to tell me three times that the powers out and the radios are screwed up.
Furthermore, Barrowman seemed very stiff and uncomfortable whenever he had to take charge, not because Jack was up shit creek (a fine reason for the character to be uncomfortable) but, I think, because he was trying to trot out these long, polysyllabic sentences when, it would have been more plausible - and still in-character - for Jack to be yelling "Fix the radio and get the lights back on!" rather than "Re-establish communications and bring the generator back online" or however it was phrased (I'm going off memory, but you get the gist). I know that the military has a reputation for being polysyllabic but really, that sort of thing is saved for equipment contracts and reports made in nice, safe offices - not when one is under fire. Ever been in a panic situation, even one that you were ostensibly trained to handle? How verbose were you - excluding the swear words? I trust I've made my point. :)
And as for Jack being so fab whilst in command-n-stuff, I didn't buy it. He didn't project any aura of being at ease with the situation - with giving orders, I mean. I forget who mentioned it, but one LJer suggested that Jack's learning the hard way about the differences between being one's own boss, and having people under your command - and being responsible for same - and I think that's a valid observation. But there's a difference between "The character is uncomfortable" and "The actor is uncomfortable" and the vibe I got was the latter. However, I'm going to refrain from any conclusions until we see a bit more pressure on Jack and the team, and how Barrowman plays it.
I enjoyed the Ianto/Jack shoutdown because Ianto's got a point - Gwen has shown a hell of a lot more curiosity in the team members beyond their role as cogs in the machine than Jack has, so far. You gotta wonder how emotionally detached a fella is after he's died a few times - never mind seeing his coworkers/friends/whatever die, too.
On another note entirely, I'm dying to know why Jack shuns the sauce - even at the pub with the team, he's drinking water (or maybe it's vodka by the pint, but I think even the Brits would make a comment about that...). It's always been said that people don't drink booze for the taste alone and it's entirely possible, I s'pose, that along with not sleeping and not dying, he can't get drunk. If you can't get drunk and you taste estrogen in the rain, there's probably nothing for and everything against knocking back the booze.
(Don't even get me started on the Can Jack fool around? debate that's going on in some journals. If he can't, I'm going to feel so horribly sorry for the guy. I won't say that it's unplausible, or unnecessary, I'll just feel bad for the character. I'm rooting for the Jack could but chooses not to for a variety of reasons potentiality.)
(And,
qthewetsprocket? I'm with you re: Jack and employees on their knees. *Ahem*.)Tiny little query, and one I'll no doubt answer myself when I get home later tonight: Did Owen tell Gwen she wasn't exactly struggling or wasn't exactly complaining after the clinch in the morgue? Given his past behavior, the choice of words was rather key. I think that Owen's got a serious impulse control problem. He's just not displaying the type of behavior one would associate with a person who thinks things through. If he was ever a GP, pity his poor patients. To meta for a second, I'd guess that Owen worked in a trauma situation, rather than as, say, a pediatrician, but that's just my theory. I'm sure that this apparent lack of foresight will be exploited for all sorts of plot points in the future, and rightly so. Hooray for characters carrying the seeds of their own downfall! More on that as applies to other characters when I've had a chance to think further on it...
Overall, I was vexed to learn that Cyberwoman was shot no earlier than the third block, as it comes across as clunky as some pilots I've encountered - y'know, stuff that's shot before everyone's found their feet and are sure that it's going to be more than a one-off gig. Mind you, most shows suffer inconsistency all through their first season - take a look at ST: TNG, or Babylon 5. So I'm not howling for anyone's blood. Just sighing a bit and hoping things will get better.
And now, I've got journal fodder to churn out for rpg!Jack...
no subject
I'd guess that Owen worked in a trauma situation, rather than as, say, a pediatrician
Absolutely. I think he wants to save people in a very immediate fashion, look at "Ghost Machine" where he doesn't hesitate to try and keep Morgan alive, despite the fact that only seconds before he was threatening to kill him.
Mind you, most shows suffer inconsistency all through their first season - take a look at ST: TNG, or Babylon 5.
God how I hated Season 1 of B5 until I saw it all in big chunks over three days. Then I could look at the bigger picture and all the little stuff that drove me nuts faded away...