Torchwood

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Aug 9, 2011 14:55:08 GMT -4 Sunnyhorse said:

Poor Marc Vann is doomed to play weasels, it would seem, although his CSI character does get moments of redemption and the Eckley character has been much more human in the past couple of seasons. The weird part, for Mr. S. and I, about his portrayal of the evil camp bureaucrat was that he veered wildly between cartoonishly sexist prick and cartoonisly evil gay -- it was like whoever wrote the character couldn't decide what to make the guy.

Jane Espenson wrote the episode. I feel she's far better off on comedic stuff - her dramatic episodes tend to fall flat for me. As always, YMMV.

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io9 goes off on "Torchwood". I kinda agree with almost everything, even though I enjoyed last night's episode 4% more than last week's. There's still a lot of promise but, like the link suggests, "Children of Earth" did more in 5 hours than "Miracle Day" does in 10.

In an episode about middlemen committing evil acts, how Ernie Hudson's COO of Evil PhiCorp can be portrayed as a basically-honest and well-meaning middleman was... ludicrous.

"We could sit here drinking appletinis and complaining about men all night or we can go get that PhiCorp boss of yours" was the sole bright spot. It sucks when your best work was a season ago, Russell. I almost don't care what "The Blessing" is if we're not gonna see alien complicity any time soon. This is a Doctor Who spinoff, not 24.

ETA: it never occurred to me before now to look up the "Phi" part of "PhiCorp". Might be a clue as to what The Blessing might be all about. Fibonacci, golden ratio, quarks, magnetic flux, etc.

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You guys. I don't know what happened, or why it took six episodes to get here, but the last episode was the Torchwoodiest this season, with sex, violence, aliens and, wonder of wonders, a leap forward in plot by pulling a Godfather II and flashing back. I can forgive the Jack-as-Jesus anvilliciousness when there's some crackerjack writing going on. Espenson, you did it. Brava.

ETA: Dumb diversion. And now you can't unsee it.

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Is ANYONE still watching? After last week's promising and emotive episode, last night's underscored pretty-much every way Miracle Day is failing: interesting plot threads dropped in favour of predictable 24-ish twists, annoying personality traits as obstacles in the plot contrived so they advance only the number of episodes, stunt casting (woooo, Newman v Q!) and, perhaps the worst, another terrific female character bites the big one in an anvilicious (and by now lazy) ploy to get us to think we've just watched something provocative.

It all seems very much like it was written by a committee more intent on crafting Important Moments than being faithful to the characters they birthed or to the spirit of the series itself. Also? I'm awaiting news that the Torchwood Contact LensesTM are getting their own show.

On the upside, Hitler gets killed tonight on Doctor Who.

[Deleted]

I'm still watching, only because I really want to know what the Miracle is. I was unimpressed with the Jack as Jesus flashback episode, it's nothing I can really put my finger on; I liked the interaction between Jack and Angelo, but the 'Jack as Jesus' was a bit heavy-handed, and it all still felt like filler. At this stage I'm more interested in what happens to Oswald Daines from here on.

[Sunnyhorse]

Mr. S. and I are still watching, although I keep putting off the Jack-as-Jesus ep because I know I'm going to cry and cry. Really need to sack up and get on with it, I guess.

[Deleted]

I'm also still watching, although I'm pretty apathetic about it. I missed Friday's ep, and then when I had free time Sunday I chose to rewatch the latest Doctor Who rather than catch up with Torchwood. I did finally watch it tonight, but it is all just moving way too slow for me. I feel like the characters are just running around from point to point, intermittently getting kidnapped/detained, for no real reason. I'm fine with this kind of setup if it adds to tension, but in this case it just bogs things down. It's too boring to be a 24-style action show, and if it's not an action show, more attention to the alien mystery plz? I mean, aside from the main conceit of "everyone's magically immortal" I hardly feel like I'm watching a sci-fi show at all. (Plus, I feel like the increasing emphasis on Category Ones makes the whole immortality thing kind of moot, since Category One is essentially dead at this point - in the early ep, that female agent was still totally mobile and conscious even with her head turned around backward, but now it's like if you get hurt badly enough you're basically a vegetable and out of the game, so to speak. Kinda feels like a copout if you can still just dispatch your enemies by shooting them in the head.)

And I was interested in Jilly Kitsinger(?)'s deal, but it's been SO slow and cryptic that I don't really care anymore. (I guess because I fixated on all the red she was wearing in the first ep, I was really kind of hoping that the mysterious guy that kept telling her Important People were watching was like, from the devil. If he's really just a rep for the immortal yuppies, yawn.)

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As superdisappointing as this mess of a season has been, I actually enjoyed last night's episode, even if only that it put a smidge of "sci" into the "sci-fi". We finally get to see The Blessing and... well, Freud would be pleased. And I think we know now how Jack will disappear at the end of THIS season, amiright? Nice to see Frances Fisher in what amounts to little more than a walk-on and there was a nice mix of plot-thrust and talkiness.

And seeing Gwen clocking Oswald Danes, several times, with a saucepan was pretty sweet. One more episode. Not nearly enough to deal with the innumerable plot threads left hanging or, more importantly, proper exploration of the worldwide impact of the Miracle, its sociopolitical (read: Nazi) fallout and its predictable end.

Explicitly calling out the Three Families as corporate, politics and media made me mutter a small but well-intentioned cheer. Episodes chock-full of IDEAS, as this one was, have been too rare in a series with so much airtime given to side-stories like Evil Camp Commandants, Dad in Peril and Jackangelosex.

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Well, now that S4 is over, the good news is that I won't be wasting any time or energy positively aching for S5 the way I was for Miracle Day.

[jmc]

I don't even know what the heck the last five minutes of Torchwood last night was.

The season started out so well, and then just petered out around week five.