"Family of Blood", "A Day in the Death" (One was good!)
Good Lord. That Torchwood episode was actually almost good. I'd given up hope of that even being possible. As to "Human Nature"... well, I can't say the same, but at least I can attribute it pretty firmly to personal quirks. I.e. Ten + amnesia + colonialism = less than happy.
"Human Nature" first. Turns out Ten[nant] on lithium is rather less annoying, indeed. But, still kind of an asshole. Dealing pretty well with the new restrictive social structure, isn't he? Servants aren't to get too uppity. You'd think it'd be a concept he'd have a bit of trouble with-- and enough of his old life is showing through to invalidate the "it's 'cos he's human now" argument, not that I would've accepted that in the first place. I also find the fact that he had to say "Don't let me abandon you" very telling-- though, to be fair, I also wouldn't have expected him to be sufficiently self-aware to anticipate that. And was I hallucinating, or was his response to "Sir, permission to beat him" when some kid spaced out for five seconds in front of a gun actually "Sure, sure, go ahead"? Was that the headmaster instead? Because even I would've thought he would've at least balked at that. Well... Okay, maybe I wouldn't, because Twiggy's been disappointing me nonstop for years now. No matter how low my expectations get.
The plot fails to make much sense. I'd be generous and blame that on the two-part thing, except I've already read all the spoilers, and there's not some logical explanation waiting around the bend. The romance might have been touching if a) I wanted Ten/Smith to ever be happy, b) I liked the Matron at all, or c) it wasn't so thoroughly and explicitly screwing Martha over. Boy's making a habit of it, and it's getting disturbing. Why never the girl who stays with him? Why always the one who has her own world that she'll never leave? I could go all radical-feminist on you and hypothesize that any woman who goes with him is violating gender roles with that act and has therefore become unacceptable as a romantic partner... Actually, Ten makes that somewhat plausible... But I'm going to be realistic and generous and attribute it to an immature "you only want what you can't get" thing. Ten may be "friendly", but the last thing on earth he wants is someone getting close. I can't really imagine anyone in this day and age actually even subconsciously acting according to the other hypothesis. Though, if anyone would, it'd be someone on this show.
And that poor, poor kid. Bullying all the time, facilitated by the teachers. I am so glad I skipped high school. I don't even blame him for stealing that watch-- and why wasn't Martha keeping that watch? She's the one who remembers what's going on. She's the one who'll know if there's an emergency and they need it. Why trust John Smith with the thing? (Disclaimer: I wouldn't trust Ten with a chia pet.) The villains were annoying and ridiculous. I realize the racism/classism had to be there for historical accuracy, but that's why I don't like historical fiction. Somehow I wanted that handled differently. Ten's Jesus in all other respects, why couldn't he have been enlightened in this episode? Oh, yeah, he's human... except for the magical trajectory-calculating powers my mother pointed out... and apparently that means he's too insecure to dare violate a single social norm. And I say heartily, whatever.
To "A Day in the Death". Like I said, this was almost good. Everyone keeps saying Burn Gorman's a great actor, and I guess I've got to agree, because he keeps tricking me into not hating Owen. That tricksy bastard. Still, I say almost good, because there were a number of things you had to ignore.
First: lord, is Jack a douchebag in this episode. Owen gets demoted to coffee-boy? What is Ianto supposed to do all day now? His reaction after Owen jumps off a dock is "Cool, thirty-seven minutes. You done with this phase yet? It's getting boring."? And no one mentions that the whole damn mess is his fault? You'd think Owen would've bitched about it, at least. Leading into: as I said last week, Owen is a nasty emo bitch in this episode. He has every reason to be. But it would be more effective if there were some sort of contrast to his previous behaviour. That is, it just highlights the fact that Owen was always a nasty bitch for no reason, and all having a reason's done is turned him emo on top of it. It makes it harder to sympathize. Compounding this is: I KNEW this would happen with Toshiko/Owen. He's an asshole and she takes it for no discernible reason. Apparently she thinks he has some good qualities. Must happen offscreen. Like all the display of his doctoring skill everyone keeps alluding to.
Let's keep going: I don't like the way they've resurrected him. This "zombie" thing is going to be damn hard to keep up convincingly for any length of time, and I just don't think they're up to it. "Have faith", you say? "They're not that bad", you say? Examine the following sentence: "[He needed mouth-to-mouth, but]I didn't have any breath," he said, voice full of angst. Notice anything? (Yeah, I know you do, I'm sorry, indulge me.) Look at the "said" part a little closer... OMG ZOMBIES ARE TELEPATHIC!! Someone update the Survival Guide! But seriously-- he can talk, but not breathe? His heart's beating, but he doesn't have a pulse? WTF? It just doesn't make any sense. Not to mention using the glove required a truly epic level of stupidity on Jack's part... Even if this is the best episode of Torchwood I've ever seen, the whole premise was an insanely bad idea.
And while we're on plot issues: that old man didn't have the faintest idea what he wanted, did he? It's hard not to suspect the writers didn't, either. And Owen angsting over his death... my mother took issue with this more than I did, but it's still true: he'd had three heart attacks, he was old, he wasn't alone, he wanted it over. Isn't it a little egocentric to feel much pain over that? To say it was "your fault"?
Still, if you could ignore all that-- and, surprisingly, I could-- this was actually a legitimately good episode. I hadn't expected that from Torchwood. Next week'll probably screw it all up, though. Seriously, if you suddenly look nine months pregnant, won't the people you're inviting to your wedding notice? What, is she going to put Retcon in the champagne? Wouldn't be a first...
I'm feeling pretty spectacularly unproductive, and I'll keep feeling that way as long as I've got a ten-page research paper hanging over my head. So, in spite of this, since the semester'll be over before the due-date anyway, I'm going to sign up for my first ficathon. Pray for me. ^~;
And I hear next week it'll be up to 80 degrees around here. *sigh* You really appreciate winter when you barely get four months of it. And that patchy at best. (Last time we got a significant amount of snow? Fifty years ago. Last time we got even a real flurry? Nearly twenty.) The weather this year's been particularly schitzophrenic... But enough about the weather...
"Human Nature" first. Turns out Ten[nant] on lithium is rather less annoying, indeed. But, still kind of an asshole. Dealing pretty well with the new restrictive social structure, isn't he? Servants aren't to get too uppity. You'd think it'd be a concept he'd have a bit of trouble with-- and enough of his old life is showing through to invalidate the "it's 'cos he's human now" argument, not that I would've accepted that in the first place. I also find the fact that he had to say "Don't let me abandon you" very telling-- though, to be fair, I also wouldn't have expected him to be sufficiently self-aware to anticipate that. And was I hallucinating, or was his response to "Sir, permission to beat him" when some kid spaced out for five seconds in front of a gun actually "Sure, sure, go ahead"? Was that the headmaster instead? Because even I would've thought he would've at least balked at that. Well... Okay, maybe I wouldn't, because Twiggy's been disappointing me nonstop for years now. No matter how low my expectations get.
The plot fails to make much sense. I'd be generous and blame that on the two-part thing, except I've already read all the spoilers, and there's not some logical explanation waiting around the bend. The romance might have been touching if a) I wanted Ten/Smith to ever be happy, b) I liked the Matron at all, or c) it wasn't so thoroughly and explicitly screwing Martha over. Boy's making a habit of it, and it's getting disturbing. Why never the girl who stays with him? Why always the one who has her own world that she'll never leave? I could go all radical-feminist on you and hypothesize that any woman who goes with him is violating gender roles with that act and has therefore become unacceptable as a romantic partner... Actually, Ten makes that somewhat plausible... But I'm going to be realistic and generous and attribute it to an immature "you only want what you can't get" thing. Ten may be "friendly", but the last thing on earth he wants is someone getting close. I can't really imagine anyone in this day and age actually even subconsciously acting according to the other hypothesis. Though, if anyone would, it'd be someone on this show.
And that poor, poor kid. Bullying all the time, facilitated by the teachers. I am so glad I skipped high school. I don't even blame him for stealing that watch-- and why wasn't Martha keeping that watch? She's the one who remembers what's going on. She's the one who'll know if there's an emergency and they need it. Why trust John Smith with the thing? (Disclaimer: I wouldn't trust Ten with a chia pet.) The villains were annoying and ridiculous. I realize the racism/classism had to be there for historical accuracy, but that's why I don't like historical fiction. Somehow I wanted that handled differently. Ten's Jesus in all other respects, why couldn't he have been enlightened in this episode? Oh, yeah, he's human... except for the magical trajectory-calculating powers my mother pointed out... and apparently that means he's too insecure to dare violate a single social norm. And I say heartily, whatever.
To "A Day in the Death". Like I said, this was almost good. Everyone keeps saying Burn Gorman's a great actor, and I guess I've got to agree, because he keeps tricking me into not hating Owen. That tricksy bastard. Still, I say almost good, because there were a number of things you had to ignore.
First: lord, is Jack a douchebag in this episode. Owen gets demoted to coffee-boy? What is Ianto supposed to do all day now? His reaction after Owen jumps off a dock is "Cool, thirty-seven minutes. You done with this phase yet? It's getting boring."? And no one mentions that the whole damn mess is his fault? You'd think Owen would've bitched about it, at least. Leading into: as I said last week, Owen is a nasty emo bitch in this episode. He has every reason to be. But it would be more effective if there were some sort of contrast to his previous behaviour. That is, it just highlights the fact that Owen was always a nasty bitch for no reason, and all having a reason's done is turned him emo on top of it. It makes it harder to sympathize. Compounding this is: I KNEW this would happen with Toshiko/Owen. He's an asshole and she takes it for no discernible reason. Apparently she thinks he has some good qualities. Must happen offscreen. Like all the display of his doctoring skill everyone keeps alluding to.
Let's keep going: I don't like the way they've resurrected him. This "zombie" thing is going to be damn hard to keep up convincingly for any length of time, and I just don't think they're up to it. "Have faith", you say? "They're not that bad", you say? Examine the following sentence: "[He needed mouth-to-mouth, but]I didn't have any breath," he said, voice full of angst. Notice anything? (Yeah, I know you do, I'm sorry, indulge me.) Look at the "said" part a little closer... OMG ZOMBIES ARE TELEPATHIC!! Someone update the Survival Guide! But seriously-- he can talk, but not breathe? His heart's beating, but he doesn't have a pulse? WTF? It just doesn't make any sense. Not to mention using the glove required a truly epic level of stupidity on Jack's part... Even if this is the best episode of Torchwood I've ever seen, the whole premise was an insanely bad idea.
And while we're on plot issues: that old man didn't have the faintest idea what he wanted, did he? It's hard not to suspect the writers didn't, either. And Owen angsting over his death... my mother took issue with this more than I did, but it's still true: he'd had three heart attacks, he was old, he wasn't alone, he wanted it over. Isn't it a little egocentric to feel much pain over that? To say it was "your fault"?
Still, if you could ignore all that-- and, surprisingly, I could-- this was actually a legitimately good episode. I hadn't expected that from Torchwood. Next week'll probably screw it all up, though. Seriously, if you suddenly look nine months pregnant, won't the people you're inviting to your wedding notice? What, is she going to put Retcon in the champagne? Wouldn't be a first...
I'm feeling pretty spectacularly unproductive, and I'll keep feeling that way as long as I've got a ten-page research paper hanging over my head. So, in spite of this, since the semester'll be over before the due-date anyway, I'm going to sign up for my first ficathon. Pray for me. ^~;
And I hear next week it'll be up to 80 degrees around here. *sigh* You really appreciate winter when you barely get four months of it. And that patchy at best. (Last time we got a significant amount of snow? Fifty years ago. Last time we got even a real flurry? Nearly twenty.) The weather this year's been particularly schitzophrenic... But enough about the weather...