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Jan. 7th, 2007 07:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaRealised I hadn't posted thoughts on the Torchwood finale here, so here it comes:
I've stuck with Torchwood all the way through, even when it seemed pretty dire, and as if it was never going to live up to the potential that the premise promised. At the end of the first series, I still have no idea what to think about it overall. The storytelling is frequently weak, the acting can be hit-or-miss at times, and the show producers are so hung up on the whole 'adult' thing, whatever that's meant to mean, that they tend to forget about remaining true to the developing plot and characters. Adult does not mean the same thing as 'sex' or 'shock value', and I can't help feeling that the PTB could do with learning that lesson.
Having said that, the final three episodes were reassuringly strong, episode 12 especially so. The concept behind the episode is simple but elegant, which always works best, and uses the basic idea of the Rift in the way it should be used. They've told us from the start that Torchwood Cardiff is in Cardiff because there's a Rift in time there, and we've seen people falling through that Rift before - and established that there was no way to get them back. So that basic concept is revisited here, and taken to another level, with Jack and Toshiko falling back in time through the Rift and getting trapped in 1941, right in the middle of the Blitz.
When people mention the Blitz, they tend to automatically assume London, so it's good to be reminded that other cities were bombed, too. I grew up hearing stories about the bombing in Cardiff. My great-grandmother used to have American GIs around for Sunday dinner ever week. So, for me, this episode was fab. And the Beeb has always been good at recreating the WWII period.
I really liked the way they split the team in this episode, too. I liked seeing Jack and Toshiko, because their relationship is so refreshingly professional and they bounce off each other well. I liked seeing Owen and Ianto together, as they've never interacted that much and there was a fiercely competitive edge to their interaction in this episode, all power struggles and butting heads for control of the situation. And I liked having Gwen off on her own and just getting on with her job rather than being hung up on her sordid love life.
I also liked having Jack confronted with the real Captain Jack Harkness, having stolen his name so long ago and stuck with it ever since, creating a whole identity for himself around it. What I didn't like was having that confrontation turn into a tragic romance, which just wasn't necessary. It's so much more sophisticated to acknowledge that complicated emotions can arise from a situation that isn't charged with sexual tension, but the Torchwood execs don't seem to have understood that. *sigh* Also – two men dancing together and snogging in the middle of a dancehall packed with soldiers in 1941? I'm sorry, but that just would not happen.
Tosh's 'trapped in 1941' story worked better, because it was so much more understated, leaving clues for the team back in the future, written in her own blood, messages for her family – that was really touching. And I appreciated the acknowledgement that her ethnicity would have been a focus for suspicion during the war, and liked Jack's repeated assurances that he would look after her.
Bilis Manger was awesomely enigmatic, manipulating events behind the scenes.
Then in the second of the two episodes, Owen's reckless decision to open the Rift to retrieve Jack and Tosh backfires spectacularly. And, more importantly, that ongoing issue regarding the divisions within the team reach a climax and logical conclusion as they first splinter completely, and then draw back together to present a united front against a boss they just can't understand, he closes himself off so much.
Gwen's disintegrating relationship with Rhys moved several enormous steps further to its seemingly inevitable demise. Gwen's guilt over the way she'd been treating him contributed enormously to her desperation to keep him safe and overwhelming grief at his death. Just why destroying Abbadon would reverse what had happened to Rhys I couldn't understand, though – can't anyone on this show stay dead?
Just when things had been going so well, the Abbadon creature just…made me giggle. So ridiculous, I'm afraid. Also, I kept getting distracted by the geography. The team went dashing out of the Hub, and ended up in a side street by the Millennium Stadium, several miles away. And then Gwen and Jack returned to the Bay, fair enough – the final confrontation was on a little strip of wasteland alongside Queen Alexandra Dock. But as Abbadon strode toward them stomping on buildings as he went, I started yelling at my TV, "Don't step on the Norwegian Church!" as it was right there, plain to be seen. I'm very fond of the Norwegian Church. They have a gorgeous little coffee shop, and host all kinds of offbeat concerts that you just don't get to see anywhere else.
Ahem. I digress. Final showdown, making use of Jack's indestructibleness, leading to his apparent death. This was where it all broke down for me – yeah, fair enough, let Jack appear to be dead and then revive later. I can see where that makes sense with his strange unkillableness But the mawkish sentimentality of the team just didn't ring true to me, I'm afraid. And I'm not sure what to make of the ending, with the sound of the Tardis and Jack vanishing, because I don't know how it fits in with what I know of what's to come on Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Overall, though, a strong end to a series that's been very patchy throughout, only now starting to find its feet.
I've stuck with Torchwood all the way through, even when it seemed pretty dire, and as if it was never going to live up to the potential that the premise promised. At the end of the first series, I still have no idea what to think about it overall. The storytelling is frequently weak, the acting can be hit-or-miss at times, and the show producers are so hung up on the whole 'adult' thing, whatever that's meant to mean, that they tend to forget about remaining true to the developing plot and characters. Adult does not mean the same thing as 'sex' or 'shock value', and I can't help feeling that the PTB could do with learning that lesson.
Having said that, the final three episodes were reassuringly strong, episode 12 especially so. The concept behind the episode is simple but elegant, which always works best, and uses the basic idea of the Rift in the way it should be used. They've told us from the start that Torchwood Cardiff is in Cardiff because there's a Rift in time there, and we've seen people falling through that Rift before - and established that there was no way to get them back. So that basic concept is revisited here, and taken to another level, with Jack and Toshiko falling back in time through the Rift and getting trapped in 1941, right in the middle of the Blitz.
When people mention the Blitz, they tend to automatically assume London, so it's good to be reminded that other cities were bombed, too. I grew up hearing stories about the bombing in Cardiff. My great-grandmother used to have American GIs around for Sunday dinner ever week. So, for me, this episode was fab. And the Beeb has always been good at recreating the WWII period.
I really liked the way they split the team in this episode, too. I liked seeing Jack and Toshiko, because their relationship is so refreshingly professional and they bounce off each other well. I liked seeing Owen and Ianto together, as they've never interacted that much and there was a fiercely competitive edge to their interaction in this episode, all power struggles and butting heads for control of the situation. And I liked having Gwen off on her own and just getting on with her job rather than being hung up on her sordid love life.
I also liked having Jack confronted with the real Captain Jack Harkness, having stolen his name so long ago and stuck with it ever since, creating a whole identity for himself around it. What I didn't like was having that confrontation turn into a tragic romance, which just wasn't necessary. It's so much more sophisticated to acknowledge that complicated emotions can arise from a situation that isn't charged with sexual tension, but the Torchwood execs don't seem to have understood that. *sigh* Also – two men dancing together and snogging in the middle of a dancehall packed with soldiers in 1941? I'm sorry, but that just would not happen.
Tosh's 'trapped in 1941' story worked better, because it was so much more understated, leaving clues for the team back in the future, written in her own blood, messages for her family – that was really touching. And I appreciated the acknowledgement that her ethnicity would have been a focus for suspicion during the war, and liked Jack's repeated assurances that he would look after her.
Bilis Manger was awesomely enigmatic, manipulating events behind the scenes.
Then in the second of the two episodes, Owen's reckless decision to open the Rift to retrieve Jack and Tosh backfires spectacularly. And, more importantly, that ongoing issue regarding the divisions within the team reach a climax and logical conclusion as they first splinter completely, and then draw back together to present a united front against a boss they just can't understand, he closes himself off so much.
Gwen's disintegrating relationship with Rhys moved several enormous steps further to its seemingly inevitable demise. Gwen's guilt over the way she'd been treating him contributed enormously to her desperation to keep him safe and overwhelming grief at his death. Just why destroying Abbadon would reverse what had happened to Rhys I couldn't understand, though – can't anyone on this show stay dead?
Just when things had been going so well, the Abbadon creature just…made me giggle. So ridiculous, I'm afraid. Also, I kept getting distracted by the geography. The team went dashing out of the Hub, and ended up in a side street by the Millennium Stadium, several miles away. And then Gwen and Jack returned to the Bay, fair enough – the final confrontation was on a little strip of wasteland alongside Queen Alexandra Dock. But as Abbadon strode toward them stomping on buildings as he went, I started yelling at my TV, "Don't step on the Norwegian Church!" as it was right there, plain to be seen. I'm very fond of the Norwegian Church. They have a gorgeous little coffee shop, and host all kinds of offbeat concerts that you just don't get to see anywhere else.
Ahem. I digress. Final showdown, making use of Jack's indestructibleness, leading to his apparent death. This was where it all broke down for me – yeah, fair enough, let Jack appear to be dead and then revive later. I can see where that makes sense with his strange unkillableness But the mawkish sentimentality of the team just didn't ring true to me, I'm afraid. And I'm not sure what to make of the ending, with the sound of the Tardis and Jack vanishing, because I don't know how it fits in with what I know of what's to come on Doctor Who and Torchwood.
Overall, though, a strong end to a series that's been very patchy throughout, only now starting to find its feet.
