Torchwood: The Best of Torchwood....
Mar. 14th, 2007 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fajrdrakoJust a few thoughts about what I love (and a few things I don't love) about Torchwood.
1. Best character: Captain Jack Harkness. This being said, every one of the main characters was generally interesting, internally consistent, convincing and gave food for thought. Sometimes they made me want to scream at them, but that's good.
2. Best minor character: Detective Swanson. I hope she reappears in series two.
3. Best prop: The hand.
4. Best episode: "Captain Jack Harkness", and not just because of the dance and the kiss. It was also a tightly-written story of romantic suspense - the best written of the series, I think, for its characterization and pacing.
5. Scariest episode: "Countrycide".
6. Best surprise: The revelation about Captain Jack in "Everything Changes". This totally took me by surprise, but fit smoothly into previous continuity.
7. Best ideas:
- The rift. A good source of goodness-knows-what.
- Taking away the quaint categories of sexual orientation that other shows depend on; or, put differently, making all the main characters bisexual.
- Making the Weevils more than bestial monsters.
- Captain Jack's style of dressing. Vintage military. Impressive.
- The pterodactyl.
- The physical appearance of the Hub - somewhere between heaven and hell, order and chaos, now and then.
- Canonical slash.
8. Best scene: The final scene of "End of Days".
9. Best subplot: The relationship between Owen and Diane.
10. Best character development: Owen, much as I hate to say it. I don't like Burn Gorman in the least and I wish there'd been another actor in the role, but the good writing and good acting and good concept of this character caught my interest and kept it.
11. Best villain: Bilis.
12. Best symbol: The stopwatch.
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rivier was writing today about how good the kissing is in Torchwood. And I have to agree. I'll even quote her (you don't mind, do you rivier?) - "The way that women and men kiss, and men and men and women and women, and Weevils eat your face off, and sometimes the kisses are erotic, sometimes they're all about the spark of life, sometimes they're tender, sometimes they're inexplicable. And nobody on the show makes the slightest thing about it!" Yes, that last point is really the clincher.Another thing I like is the way we can't take the situation for granted. Torchwood is "beyond the law" - is that a good thing? The Torchwood team are flawed, they break rules, they flagrantly make mistakes that might destroy the world, and they act like secret police, answerable to no one. Are they a good thing? Well, they're standing between us and the rift, and they're entertaining, and I trust Captain Jack. (God help me.)
In a world where most TV shows are built on cliches, this is a beautiful exception.
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Date: 2007-03-15 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 05:54 pm (UTC)Combed through archives on multiple sites.
My eyes feel like they are going to pop out of my head.
I KNOW I read it! I thought it was fantastic! Now...where the hell IT is, I'm not sure.
I'll keep looking. After a break. I need my eyesight.
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Date: 2007-03-15 06:10 pm (UTC)Sooner or later one of us will find that story again!
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Date: 2007-03-15 07:56 pm (UTC)http://community.livejournal.com/tw_flashfic/1770.html
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Date: 2007-03-15 08:03 pm (UTC)Is that the one you were thinking of,
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Date: 2007-03-15 02:36 am (UTC)I do love the way that, while Torchwood borrows magpie-like from shows and films all over the place, at the same time it is far more than the sum of those parts: it's become its own thing, a unique identity. I can't think of anything I've seen before that is like what TW is in essence, its messy complexity, the reality seamed all through the mayhem, and the way that it still hangs together, stays true to itself in some hard-to-easily-describe way.
Also, Ianto is unfeasibly yummy!
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Date: 2007-03-15 01:14 pm (UTC)Oh, good! Thank you.
I may have to borrow your meme and do it myself
Oh, please do, I'd love to year your choices. I suspect I could do the same one all over again with mostly (but not entirely) different answers.
it is far more than the sum of those parts: it's become its own thing, a unique identity
So very true. Just in its approach, and the way it twists things around... there's a mood to it I haven't seen in other shows. Even though it changes mood, it does so in a certian way.
Yes, true to itself.
Ianto is yummy but he isn't the only character I find yummy. Which is quite wonderful, actually.
Love your blue Ianto icon there. That is yummy.
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Date: 2007-03-15 03:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-03-15 01:15 pm (UTC)I like a lot of things in fiction that I wouldn't in real life. I'm all about the vicarious thrills.
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Date: 2007-03-15 09:44 am (UTC)And yet, it did manage to rise above the writing. All the cast gave their best to create a whole. Kudos to John, who carried much of the show. And I agree, to Burn who managed to make Owen the character you love to hate! Eve showed she could really act, even if it was 'act annoying'. And Naoko and Gareth rose to the occasion when the writers deigned to remember them.
If they can raise all of next season to the quality (and ensemble quality please!) of Captain Jack Harkness it will be an exceptional drama series, let alone SF series.
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Date: 2007-03-15 01:25 pm (UTC)Oh, absolutely. If I hadn't been so tired last night I might have made a list of flaws, but I decided that was... unnecessary.
it did manage to rise above the writing.
Yes, in various different ways. If only it had the quality of writing we see in Doctor Who, it would have been stupendous. As it was - we got plenty of value per hour.
Kudos to John, who carried much of the show.
Yes. With skill. Leading, sometimes, to character imbalances, but on the hole making it work.
to Burn who managed to make Owen the character you love to hate!
He's really an excellent actor; I just wish I could like him more. And that I could see something endearing in Owen, which I can't - but I can forgive him in the end, because Jack did.
Eve showed she could really act, even if it was 'act annoying'.
Or, sadly, "act stupid". (Going for late-night road trips with risen-from-the-dead serial killers doesn't look smart to me!)
Naoko and Gareth rose to the occasion when the writers deigned to remember them.
They were sadly underused. In fact, their roles is a large part of why I like "Countrycide" so much - I don't usually like horror themes, but seeing Tosh and Ianto in action was terrific. Especially since their approach to action enhanced and illuminated their characters. They didn't just react. We saw Ianto acting decisive and heroic for Tosh's sake. We saw how Tosh really does want to 'save the world' and likes getting into physcial action in a good cause - she isn't just a computer nerd.
Yes, with an enhanced profile and better budget I'm hoping series two will live up to the potential we've seen rather than being 'more of the same' or going in the wrong directions.
Personally I'd like to see a tighter theme: more direct contact with aliens, more extraterrestrial threats, and more of a sense of wonder - which I don't think would damage the delightfully mundane tone the show has, but would contrast and enhance it.
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Date: 2007-03-15 04:05 pm (UTC)On Season 2, I agree, I hope that a bigger budget means they can afford more aliens and alien-related material. For God's sake, stop making Torchwood's role be cleaning up after itself!! (ahem, calm now ;) )
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Date: 2007-03-15 04:26 pm (UTC)I like essays....
Countrycide ... we learned more from those two about what it actually means to be a part of Torchwood, than from anyone else, and in any episode.
Or what it ought to mean. That episode had teamwork and risk. My only complaint: that Owen left the keys in the SUV. Not a major plot point: couldn't they have found another way for it to happen than one of the team doing something stupid?
stop making Torchwood's role be cleaning up after itself!!
Yes, exactly! That's a joke that got stale fast.
Owen
Date: 2007-03-15 03:27 pm (UTC)I've almost gotten past the occasional flashes of Mr Guppy when I look at
Burn Gorman, though.
Re: Owen
Date: 2007-03-15 03:35 pm (UTC)I thought that for a long time, but I got flashes of interest in him through the series, and Jack's forgiveness for him at the end melted my heart. I liked his role in the plot and that did a lot to make me tolerate him. He is a jerk, yes. He is untrustworthy, yes. I'm hoping he will be more trustworthy next series - and less self-serving, he could hardly be more.
I've almost gotten past the occasional flashes of Mr Guppy when I look at
Burn Gorman
I got past that quickly, but it's a sole point. Mr. Guppy is one of my favourite Dickens characters, and I disliked Burn Gorman's portrayal of him. (What will I get next, Hugh Grant as Sam Weller? Rowan Atkinson as Sydney Carton?) This just adds insult to injury.
Re: Owen
Date: 2007-03-15 05:14 pm (UTC)movies he appeared in. Scrolling down his entry in the IMDb, I noticed that
he played the 12th Doctor in a 1999 Comic Relief spoof, with Rowan Atkinson as the 9th. Everything relates, sooner or later.
Re: Owen
Date: 2007-03-15 05:19 pm (UTC)I saw that Comic Relief spoof. Very funny. Even though when I saw it I really had never seen Doctor Who.
Re: Owen
Date: 2007-03-15 05:24 pm (UTC)Re: Owen
Date: 2007-03-15 05:30 pm (UTC)No complaints from me on that score!
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Date: 2007-03-15 07:26 pm (UTC)Best idea -- Omnisexuality.
I just love breaking down silly, quaint 21st century sexual standards, don't you?
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Date: 2007-03-15 07:29 pm (UTC)Yes! You are so right! Best idea ever.
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Date: 2007-03-16 12:07 am (UTC)As for Owen, I just love to hate him. The character is quite a bastard, but he is such an awesome bastard.
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Date: 2007-03-16 12:29 am (UTC)I agree. Really, it isn't Owen I have a problem with, it's Burn Gorman. Which is too bad.
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Date: 2007-03-16 01:17 pm (UTC)The Rift is not exactly an original idea. It's just a reworking of the Hellmouth idea in Buffy. It works in exactly the same way: as an excuse for alien/supernatural (depending on the show) stuff to appear where the characters are.
Not knocking it, just saying it's not original. (I expect there are other examples pre-Buffy too, but I don't know any!)
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Date: 2007-03-16 02:16 pm (UTC)Oh, I agree, not an original idea, but still a good one. A good one in Buffy, from what I hear, and equally so in Torchwood. It fit in well to the theme. In Doctor Who, he goes to the monsters. In Torchwood, they come to us.