See the Fangrrl Squee

Some further thoughts about Smith And Jones beyond "Ooh, pretty!"

( As usual, spoilers lurk ahead )

I 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. ( Spoilers ahead )

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.

( The usual risk of spoilers )

I totally want to see Torchwood and UNIT run into each other, btw. The pissing contest would be epic. There's a fic idea lurking in that, somewhere...