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fangrrl_squeesI desperately want to squee about the season ending for Torchwood but, dammit, I've been too busy for re-viewing the episodes. Even with them crammed onto my iPod (thank you, interwebz) I've only gotten through the first half of Captain Jack Harkness.
However, I've already had a few thoughts, so let's at least get them down for posterity.
Combat
Almost completely pointless, until the last 60 seconds.
That's not to say that it didn't have some entertaining moments, but I think they were utterly inadvertant on the producers' part. Nihilistic Realtor Boy (as I have mentally dubbed whatsisname) had me hooting with laughter on a regular basis. There were moments where he almost - but alas, not quite - pulled off 'Creepy and somewhat mysterious' but, most of the time, he just struck me as pretentious and boring. Oops.
Owen was, go figure, the most interesting thing about the eps - in between his fits of glooming about Diane, that is. I'm glad his heart got broken, really, I am, but it's all getting laid on a bit thick, now.
I'm not baffled as to why Owen studied the Weevils - he's a physician, he's curious and the Weevils are an endemic problem in Cardiff, apparently. Naturally he's going to study 'em. Now, as to his behavior at the very end of the eps, I'm torn between "attempting to communicate" and "just plain losing it". Answers on a postcard, please... I'm hoping for the former but given the occasional clangers this show has dropped, who knows?
Captain Jack Harkness and End of Days
Loved the dance hall. Loved it. Couldn't believe that it hadn't been stripped by looters and wasn't full of crack addicts, but still loved it. I liked the premise that snagged Jack and Tosh - if the rift is a space/time event, then surely when something major like having it ripped open, occurs, there's going to be ripples both in the future and in the past. The shift that occurred in the dance hall was, methinks, an effect of the rift being opened, several hours later. Like the aftershock for a quake but, er, before... Anyways.
The story of CJH was entertaining enough. Having the principals end up on the bad end of some rift activity was long overdue, and I liked the twist of having Jack run into the person who's identity he stole. Yes, there was much "Awwing!" by the fangrrl during various bits, but that's because she's a silly sentimentalist at heart. As I (and rpg!Jack) keep telling people, all cynics are romantics - it's why they become cynics.
I believe that the "Sunnydale Effect" goes strong in Cardiff. That's my story as to why Jack-and-Jack weren't lynched on the spot, and that's all I have to say about that aspect of the plot, for the moment. I'm still deciding if it was valuable to the story or mere titallation.
I very much liked the fact that this eps (and also Combat) allowed Tosh to show off her brains and resourcefulness a bit, although she's still perilously close to being stuck in the operating the teleport/hailing-frequencies-open role. But, er, can someone tell me why Torchwood felt the need to build a rift manipulator? Given how it operated, my money's on it being one of Jack's schemes to find the Doctor - and I'm sure turning the blasted thing on is exactly what brought the TARDIS to the Hub.
BTW, has anyone else managed to reconcile the continuity of CJH and The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances? It's not ringing true for me. Then again, I really should quit trying to apply logic to time-travel SF.
So... Jack keeps telling Gwen to stay human (live vicariously much, Jack?) but then cheerfully pushes the team into situations where, y'know, humanity's kind of challenged. You could call it plot-producing tension - or hypocrisy. I think Jack doesn't realize how vastly hypocritical he is, at times. He's too wrapped up in whatever is going on in his head and trying to live up to some (probably impossible) standard he set for himself after meeting the Doctor to notice the impact his so-called leadership is having on the team. Needless to say, I love this stuff. Let's not even get into how quickly Mr. Teamwork, Mr. With-Me-Or-Against-Me bailed the scene when the TARDIS showed up...
I think End of Days would have been much stronger had they had the nerve to tie Abbedon in a bit more firmly with references to Legion from The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit but, aside from one line of Belis' dialogue that was, I think, directly lifted, it was a bit of a tease.
Devil worshippers looking to end the world for no very good reason? *shrug* Typical old-school DW bad-guy if you ask me, so whereas I'm a little disappointed by the not-very-original direction, I'm not all that surprised, either. There's only so many motives for world-threatening antagonists. Honestly, I'd have settled for something more intimidating, operating on a smaller scale.
Bilis was fab. That's how you do slightly-camp evil, kids. Alas, CGI Abbedon evoked no fear and only had me shouting Gojira! at the screen.
I'm still processing how I feel about the last few minutes of the eps - aside from yelling "Oh, come on!" at the Snow White/Sleeping Beauty moment. I might be a closet romantic, but some things are just a bit too schmaltzy - so I'm not going to talk about that, just yet.
Given that CJH/EoD were written with the supposition that one season was all Torchwood was going to get, the story - and Jack's departure - make a lot of sense. Throw a biblical-style world-eating type threat onto the screen, have the team save the world and give Jack an out which allows the crew to use him in Doctor Who, regardless of if there's a second series of Torchwood or not. Go out with something big. I get that. But, dammit, it just didn't feel big. For all of the foreshadowing - from They Keep Killing Suzie, onwards - I was left a bit cold by a) the threat b) the resolution of same c) the aftermath.
Come to think of it, I'd have skipped the Sleeping Beauty moment and done something more like: Jack (apparently) dead on slab, cut to the team up in the board room looking puzzled as they hear TARDIS noises, team rushes down to main area of Hub to investigate only to discover that Jack's body is gone and the mysterious noise with it. Oh well.
Overall (Spoiler Free)
A shaky start, given that the quality of the stories ranged from Cyberwoman to Countrycide1 - but with solid enough moments to make me willing to watch the second season.
Inconsistent stories aside (pls hire me as your continuity maven, kthxbye) it can't be denied that the look of the show is quite good, particularly when they lay off the CGI, and I think the city of Cardiff should be paying some sort of service fee to the crew's location scouts. Aforementioned CGI - and Lisa's 'costume' - aside, I've never been disappointed by the production design or photography of the show.
I'm a bit narked at RTD and the publicity machine playing up the mysteeeeerious Weevils, and there being precious little in the way of payoff - especially given that the series was written and shot before they knew if there was going to be a second season. So, whatever payoff we were supposed to expect, we apparently got it. Some mystery. And they weren't terribly scary, either... Again, they looked fab, a lovely bit of prosthetic makeup, but a lot of work seems to have gone into something largely marginalized by the show.
I will cheerfully admit that I went into the show with low expectations and was therefore easy to please. I was a wee bit worried that it was going to be The Sexual Misadventures of Captain Harkness but, as it turned out, it was so not that, that I found myself rather missing it. I know that a lot of fans have complained about Jack being very unlike the persona we saw in Doctor Who but I haven't had as much difficulty as some in accepting that. Characters change. Sometimes they change a lot, especially when going from "Plucky sidekick for three episodes" to "Ostensible lead for a full season" - but a little more innuendo would have been nice.
Speaking of transitions, I think Barrowman did a passable job, bearing in mind the music-theater background. It's a whoooole different style of acting and I can't imagine that the move is easy. Given that there were some moments where I thought Barrowman was spot-on (as opposed to rather wooden, or over the top) I'm optimistic that as long as he keeps working on his craft, his performance will improve. In the meantime, lightening Jack up just a tad will go far. Comedy comes a lot easier to Barrowman, methinks.
Yeah, yeah, I'm a very forgiving viewer. There's two reasons for that.
1) Nothing disgusts me like a bile-spewing "fan". If all you're going to do is complain, why are you watching the show? I'm not talking about the folks with the occasional grumble - such as myself and many of my pals - but the fans who seem to delight in tearing a show apart, bitterly complaining how it'll never compare to its predecessor, or to the last season, or that other show down the road. Many of them seem to do it out of a sheer love of complaint. Fans like that give the rest of us a bad name and I don't want to risk association with them.
2) It might have been a while since I've done any, but I understand media production, warts and all. Between the film degree, the writing, the vicarious kick I get out of reading about actors' discussing craft, directors' directing, etc, etc, I like to think I've a pretty realistic idea of what goes into the stuff that entertains us an hour a week. Frankly, given some of the behind-the-scenes mayhem I've witnessed in my limited experience, I'm sometimes amazed that anything gets done (I have the same opinion of the local hospitals, btw). Even the crappiest tv-sitcom is the culmination of a shitload of hard work by a lot of people. Knowing that has put a bit of tolerance in my soul, it seems...
Anyways, that's me done for the day. More some other time.
1 - I'm aware of the irony in that statement.
However, I've already had a few thoughts, so let's at least get them down for posterity.
Combat
Almost completely pointless, until the last 60 seconds.
That's not to say that it didn't have some entertaining moments, but I think they were utterly inadvertant on the producers' part. Nihilistic Realtor Boy (as I have mentally dubbed whatsisname) had me hooting with laughter on a regular basis. There were moments where he almost - but alas, not quite - pulled off 'Creepy and somewhat mysterious' but, most of the time, he just struck me as pretentious and boring. Oops.
Owen was, go figure, the most interesting thing about the eps - in between his fits of glooming about Diane, that is. I'm glad his heart got broken, really, I am, but it's all getting laid on a bit thick, now.
I'm not baffled as to why Owen studied the Weevils - he's a physician, he's curious and the Weevils are an endemic problem in Cardiff, apparently. Naturally he's going to study 'em. Now, as to his behavior at the very end of the eps, I'm torn between "attempting to communicate" and "just plain losing it". Answers on a postcard, please... I'm hoping for the former but given the occasional clangers this show has dropped, who knows?
Captain Jack Harkness and End of Days
Loved the dance hall. Loved it. Couldn't believe that it hadn't been stripped by looters and wasn't full of crack addicts, but still loved it. I liked the premise that snagged Jack and Tosh - if the rift is a space/time event, then surely when something major like having it ripped open, occurs, there's going to be ripples both in the future and in the past. The shift that occurred in the dance hall was, methinks, an effect of the rift being opened, several hours later. Like the aftershock for a quake but, er, before... Anyways.
The story of CJH was entertaining enough. Having the principals end up on the bad end of some rift activity was long overdue, and I liked the twist of having Jack run into the person who's identity he stole. Yes, there was much "Awwing!" by the fangrrl during various bits, but that's because she's a silly sentimentalist at heart. As I (and rpg!Jack) keep telling people, all cynics are romantics - it's why they become cynics.
I believe that the "Sunnydale Effect" goes strong in Cardiff. That's my story as to why Jack-and-Jack weren't lynched on the spot, and that's all I have to say about that aspect of the plot, for the moment. I'm still deciding if it was valuable to the story or mere titallation.
I very much liked the fact that this eps (and also Combat) allowed Tosh to show off her brains and resourcefulness a bit, although she's still perilously close to being stuck in the operating the teleport/hailing-frequencies-open role. But, er, can someone tell me why Torchwood felt the need to build a rift manipulator? Given how it operated, my money's on it being one of Jack's schemes to find the Doctor - and I'm sure turning the blasted thing on is exactly what brought the TARDIS to the Hub.
BTW, has anyone else managed to reconcile the continuity of CJH and The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances? It's not ringing true for me. Then again, I really should quit trying to apply logic to time-travel SF.
So... Jack keeps telling Gwen to stay human (live vicariously much, Jack?) but then cheerfully pushes the team into situations where, y'know, humanity's kind of challenged. You could call it plot-producing tension - or hypocrisy. I think Jack doesn't realize how vastly hypocritical he is, at times. He's too wrapped up in whatever is going on in his head and trying to live up to some (probably impossible) standard he set for himself after meeting the Doctor to notice the impact his so-called leadership is having on the team. Needless to say, I love this stuff. Let's not even get into how quickly Mr. Teamwork, Mr. With-Me-Or-Against-Me bailed the scene when the TARDIS showed up...
I think End of Days would have been much stronger had they had the nerve to tie Abbedon in a bit more firmly with references to Legion from The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit but, aside from one line of Belis' dialogue that was, I think, directly lifted, it was a bit of a tease.
Devil worshippers looking to end the world for no very good reason? *shrug* Typical old-school DW bad-guy if you ask me, so whereas I'm a little disappointed by the not-very-original direction, I'm not all that surprised, either. There's only so many motives for world-threatening antagonists. Honestly, I'd have settled for something more intimidating, operating on a smaller scale.
Bilis was fab. That's how you do slightly-camp evil, kids. Alas, CGI Abbedon evoked no fear and only had me shouting Gojira! at the screen.
I'm still processing how I feel about the last few minutes of the eps - aside from yelling "Oh, come on!" at the Snow White/Sleeping Beauty moment. I might be a closet romantic, but some things are just a bit too schmaltzy - so I'm not going to talk about that, just yet.
Given that CJH/EoD were written with the supposition that one season was all Torchwood was going to get, the story - and Jack's departure - make a lot of sense. Throw a biblical-style world-eating type threat onto the screen, have the team save the world and give Jack an out which allows the crew to use him in Doctor Who, regardless of if there's a second series of Torchwood or not. Go out with something big. I get that. But, dammit, it just didn't feel big. For all of the foreshadowing - from They Keep Killing Suzie, onwards - I was left a bit cold by a) the threat b) the resolution of same c) the aftermath.
Come to think of it, I'd have skipped the Sleeping Beauty moment and done something more like: Jack (apparently) dead on slab, cut to the team up in the board room looking puzzled as they hear TARDIS noises, team rushes down to main area of Hub to investigate only to discover that Jack's body is gone and the mysterious noise with it. Oh well.
Overall (Spoiler Free)
A shaky start, given that the quality of the stories ranged from Cyberwoman to Countrycide1 - but with solid enough moments to make me willing to watch the second season.
Inconsistent stories aside (pls hire me as your continuity maven, kthxbye) it can't be denied that the look of the show is quite good, particularly when they lay off the CGI, and I think the city of Cardiff should be paying some sort of service fee to the crew's location scouts. Aforementioned CGI - and Lisa's 'costume' - aside, I've never been disappointed by the production design or photography of the show.
I'm a bit narked at RTD and the publicity machine playing up the mysteeeeerious Weevils, and there being precious little in the way of payoff - especially given that the series was written and shot before they knew if there was going to be a second season. So, whatever payoff we were supposed to expect, we apparently got it. Some mystery. And they weren't terribly scary, either... Again, they looked fab, a lovely bit of prosthetic makeup, but a lot of work seems to have gone into something largely marginalized by the show.
I will cheerfully admit that I went into the show with low expectations and was therefore easy to please. I was a wee bit worried that it was going to be The Sexual Misadventures of Captain Harkness but, as it turned out, it was so not that, that I found myself rather missing it. I know that a lot of fans have complained about Jack being very unlike the persona we saw in Doctor Who but I haven't had as much difficulty as some in accepting that. Characters change. Sometimes they change a lot, especially when going from "Plucky sidekick for three episodes" to "Ostensible lead for a full season" - but a little more innuendo would have been nice.
Speaking of transitions, I think Barrowman did a passable job, bearing in mind the music-theater background. It's a whoooole different style of acting and I can't imagine that the move is easy. Given that there were some moments where I thought Barrowman was spot-on (as opposed to rather wooden, or over the top) I'm optimistic that as long as he keeps working on his craft, his performance will improve. In the meantime, lightening Jack up just a tad will go far. Comedy comes a lot easier to Barrowman, methinks.
Yeah, yeah, I'm a very forgiving viewer. There's two reasons for that.
1) Nothing disgusts me like a bile-spewing "fan". If all you're going to do is complain, why are you watching the show? I'm not talking about the folks with the occasional grumble - such as myself and many of my pals - but the fans who seem to delight in tearing a show apart, bitterly complaining how it'll never compare to its predecessor, or to the last season, or that other show down the road. Many of them seem to do it out of a sheer love of complaint. Fans like that give the rest of us a bad name and I don't want to risk association with them.
2) It might have been a while since I've done any, but I understand media production, warts and all. Between the film degree, the writing, the vicarious kick I get out of reading about actors' discussing craft, directors' directing, etc, etc, I like to think I've a pretty realistic idea of what goes into the stuff that entertains us an hour a week. Frankly, given some of the behind-the-scenes mayhem I've witnessed in my limited experience, I'm sometimes amazed that anything gets done (I have the same opinion of the local hospitals, btw). Even the crappiest tv-sitcom is the culmination of a shitload of hard work by a lot of people. Knowing that has put a bit of tolerance in my soul, it seems...
Anyways, that's me done for the day. More some other time.
1 - I'm aware of the irony in that statement.
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Date: 2007-01-04 09:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-04 09:44 pm (UTC)(and oh gods, yes, some TERRIBLE movies)
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Date: 2007-01-05 01:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-05 01:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-05 01:52 am (UTC)Central Park West
He was also in "Titans" by Aaron Spelling, which didn't even last a season.
Titans
Neither was a real lead, but both are considered "starring roles" by the folks who categorize these things.