Themes and Things in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Here's a few more thoughts on KKBB:
1)The theme of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang revolves around coming home but does not address homecoming in a straightforward manner. Jack is back "home" at Torchwood Cardiff. But what does "home" mean?
"Home is where you hang your hat." Jack's hat is on his hatstand in his office.
"Home is where they have to welcome you back, no matter how upset they are with you." That's pretty much what happened. The Team was angry at Jack, but there was never a moment's doubt they would rather have him there to yell at than not have him, as Ianto pointed out so eloquently in the taxi scene.
But most of all "Home" is an extension of the individual. You can't know where "home' is for sure until you know who "you" are for sure. Who is Jack Harkness? He's been a Time Agent, "Rear of the Year 5094", con man, Companion of the Doctor, Torchwood branch head, lover, soldier, torturer, poster boy, mechanic, alien expert, and who knows what else. But how do these pieces fit together? Not easily at the moment, as Jack is clearly not at ease with the man he was before he met the Doctor. Until that issue is resolved, I fear "Home" in the "place of the heart's ease" sense is not truly possible for Jack.
1a)settling down
An extension to "home" is what you do when you get there. Two of the most popular hero-types in TV are the Wandering Knight and the Sheriff. The Doctor follows the Wandering Knight model and Jack has chosen the Sheriff model, as I mentioned in my fic here. I applaud Jack's choice, it's psychologically healthier and introduces more variety into the Whoniverse. (Don't get me started on Time Lord neuroses. Just don't.) But the Sheriff is a settled hero. Is Jack going to settle down? Are any of the main characters?
They're all certainly going to try. Owen tells Tosh he's tired of one-night stands and looking for "a proper woman" who understands the demands of their work. Tosh is as "proper" as one can get, a co-worker, and has a crush on Owen. It's lovely how he's not-quite asking her out and she's not-quite picking up on it. He's hurt her badly before, and she's not going to be a pushover.
Meanwhile Gwen is settling down and marrying Rhys, although judging from the cow-eyes she made at Jack while saying "no one else would have me" she would drp Rhys in a second for Jack if Jack put a move on her. Jack refuses to put a move on her.
Then there's Jack and Ianto. Jack wants Ianto back, but Ianto makes it clear that's only going to happen in the context of a more settled, formal relationship, boyfriends instead of "part-time shags". But how much will Jack be able to settle down? Given the demands of their work, how much will any of them? Time will tell.
And then there's John, who doesn't understand the urge to settle down and completely mishandles his scenes with Jack as a result.
2) Love interest styles - gothic vs. "jane austen"
I first titled this Heroine Styles, but Davies wouldn't approve of me being gender-specific, would he? *g*
The Anglo-American romance genre has to dominant styles of heroines -- er, love interests. There's the "Traditional" or "Jane Austen" type: proper, reserved, intellectual, not going to be ruled by her (or his) emotions. That's Ianto. Then there's the "Romantic" or "Gothic" type: outgoing, impulsive, and ruled by her (or his) passions. That's Gwen. While she's more likely to be found wandering the moors with a pistol rather than a white nightdress, she is in every other way the spiritual descendant of Bronte's protagonists.
(The types also show up in gay romance novels, as I found out in high school when I worked in a used paperback book store in small-town Mississippi. I had a Devil of a time figuring out where to shelve them.)
While these characters have many novels by themselves, something interesting happens when they appear together. A formula used in millions of popular women's romance novels is for both characters to fall in love with Reformed Bad Boy. The RBB then has to pick between them, and has to prove his worth to the audience by discerning that the "Jane Austen" type is the better match than the "Gothic" type. That's one of the reasons so many women ship Jack/Ianto so fiercely. It's a formula we cut our teeth on, and if the writing team starts messing with that formula there's going to be thousands of unhappy romance readers to deal with. It's also echoed in the Tosh/Owen relationship.
Of course, they could slowly wean the audience away from that model on to some other pattern. That's not what they were doing in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang though.
Davies knows more about literature than most entire English departments, but I honestly can't say if this is intentional, entirely coincidental, or simply a matter of writers falling into old habits. However, I would be less suspicious if he hadn't used the same plot formula in the original Queer as Folk.
3)Staging Ianto -- Someting very interesting happens in the opening scene, when Ianto is trying to get a clear (possibly nonlethal?) shot at the Blowfish and Jack blows Hootie away. Throughout the latter half of S1 we have several instances where Ianto has Jack's back, but this is the first time where Jack has Ianto's back. Is their relationship heading for a more equal footing?
There's a lot of points I could make about how Ianto was staged in this episode, but duikermeisie already made them in the comments of my Relationships post, so with her permission the lioness will defer to the antelope:
Re: Ianto/Jack
Hello, control issues! The one thing that struck me about the office scene is just how much Ianto was in control of the whole situation. Jack got inappropriate, Ianto shot him down. Jack asked him a weird question, Ianto brushed him off. Jack asks him on a date, Ianto makes boundaries. Ianto tells him to hit the roof, and Jack *obeys without hesitation*. Contrast that to Gwen in the boardroom, where they had a power struggle. Here, he deferred to Ianto without even blinking his eyes.
Jack, who is always in everybody's personal space, respects Ianto's personal space during the entire scene. He only approaches Ianto when Ianto gives him a cue that it's okay (standing up, facing Jack, hands on hips BUT with relaxed posture and his entire torso is open). Otherwise, he stays behind office furniture. Ianto is dictating the encounter, and Jack is listening.
Now the really important bit of that: when Ianto asked him why they were helping John, Jack told him the truth. I'll say that again: Jack told him the truth. When you compare how he dodges Owen's and Tosh's questions and gives Gwen a careful non-answer, that sticks out like a sore thumb. He tells Ianto the truth through the entire episode...about the Doctor (would you go back to him?) and about John. The only other person in the episode who gets that same level of openness is, ironically, John! Gwen, supposedly the confidante, doesn't even come close.
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In your (very good, very memorable) fic, Jack decided in the beginning that Ianto would make a "superb castellan." You nailed that...good call. There is a lot of evidence here that supports that:
*Blowfish chase scene, Ianto is the one who asks if the team needs special weapons;
*Help Me Obi Wan, Ianto runs off and calls for a taxi while the rest of the team stands around and argues;
*Teatray of Doom scene, Ianto is standing behind Jack's right hand and acts as physical and emotional support for Jack;
*Hunting for Gwen scene, Ianto is the one who tries her cell phone while Tosh and Owen are about to try every single container;
*Autopsy bay scene, Gwen and Ianto both lower their weapons to let Jack pass. Gwen looks at Jack as he passes, Ianto never breaks eye contact with John. Huge implication that Ianto is the one who has Jack's back;
*Open the Diamond scene, Ianto is again standing behind Jack's right shoulder and providing physical and emotional backup. Gwen, supposedly the confidante, is in the background.
We saw hints of this working relationship as early as Countrycide (who found the SUV?) and it became more visible in Combat. Here, it is completely out in the open. Ianto is Jack's loyal soldier, and Jack appears to take strength from that support.
It's also a very nice counterpoint to the date scene. Although professionally Ianto is Jack's right-hand man (literally in some cases), it is clear that personally Ianto doesn't trust Jack any further than he could throw him.
4) Reviews -- After reading both British and American reviews of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang I can only conclude that bitching is a more popular past-time in the UK than in the US, especially when a UK magazine reviews ends with "I know I gave Torchwood a hard time last year, but I'm glad to see it back."
Part 1: Review
Part 2: Relationships