Torchwood: The Best of Torchwood....

[fajrdrako]

Just 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.

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.

Comments

Owen

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I don't like Owen as a character. Someone mentioned "love to hate." Nope. Simply can't stand him. Not just that he's a jerk (there's usually one in any workplace, after all), but I don't think he's trustworthy, which is something that should really be a requirement in that job.
I've almost gotten past the occasional flashes of Mr Guppy when I look at
Burn Gorman, though.

Re: Owen

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Someone mentioned "love to hate." Nope. Simply can't stand him.

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

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

It's probably too late for Hugh Grant to be a Dickens character. It would have been OK in the early 1990s, when he was Chopin in "Impromptu" or the journalist in "Remains of the Day," before he became the Hugh Grant character in most
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

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're right - everything relates!

I saw that Comic Relief spoof. Very funny. Even though when I saw it I really had never seen Doctor Who.

Re: Owen

[mustang-bex1126.livejournal.com]

You know that game, 6 Degrees (To Kevin Bacon)? TW and Who feel like that sometimes. EVERYTHING comes back to them.

Re: Owen

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

It has to do with the nature of Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.

No complaints from me on that score!