Torchwood - Say it ain't so! (spoilers)
Okay, I know you can't always trust the rumours you hear, but I'm starting to see evidence that they might be right. No no no no no!
Please somebody tell me John B is not leaving Torchwood. According to one site he is, and another confirms that Jack gets kidnapped by John Hart in the last episode, leading to an explosive confrontation between Hart and the team that someone (possibly more than someone) doesn't survive.
I've also heard that Owen and Tosh are leaving too. Now this might sound harsh, and sorry to any Tosh fans, but I don't think her departure would make that much of a different to the series. Even the couple of Tosh-centric episodes she's been in have failed to reach me because the rest of the time she's almost background noise. Like Ianto, she's found her feet more this season - I think the writers have gotten a way better handle on the team and how to fit them in to the storylines better - but Ianto has done a much better job of it. He's totally a presence in the team now, not just the Teaboy. Tosh doesn't seem to have risen above her set role any and so I won't miss her if she goes.
Owen, surprisingly, I will. At first, I did not like the character, and I liked him even less when he shot Jack at the end of S1. Full of himself, willing to use a date rape drug to get some, the affair with Gwen. It all put me off him, and like Tosh in Season 1, he was so thinly drawn that the character did little more than irritate me. It was like Burn Gorman was handed a character profile and all it said was: Owen is an arse. Go wild with it.
This series, I've liked him a lot better, not just since what happened to him at the clinic. He's reset his focus outside himself, and seems almost gentler somehow. There's not the same sneering masculine bravado - he's more comfortable in himself, and I would hate to see a character who's grown and developed so much get written off.
I'm fine with cutting dead weight, and I know that changes come when a show is struggling, but does either apply to Torchwood? This has been a superb series so far, with IMHO a little wobble when Martha showed up (but she was a means to an end in those eps, unless the other rumour about her permanently joining TW is true, in which case that was to acclimatise us to it), and almost a different show than Series One where most episodes were painful to watch. Please don't throw things at me for saying that - it just felt like in S1 the writers didn't actually know where they were going with it. Cyberwoman and Countrycide are my least favourite eps (although Countrycide has since grown on me) and Random Shoes and Small Worlds my favourite. I think that puts me at odds with most TW fans.
As far as I know, TW viewing figures haven't dropped off. So why the changes? Chris Chibnall is said to be moving on, and I guess new brooms sweep clean, but let's have a reality check here - do you sweep out two or more of your most successful characters? Assuming JB is (if he is, and please let it be a vile rumour) leaving of his own accord.
Jack is Torchwood. I think everybody knew he and Ianto weren't going to last. Something was going to happen, even though I love them together. But without Jack, the Hub might as well shut its doors. It's not that I don't think the show can't survive without him, I just think it won't be the show I signed on for. It will also be a poorer show; right now it is balanced and to take away such a strong figure will just put it off kilter.
So, I'm afraid if Jack goes, so will I. I hope these are all just rumours, and that Season 3 of TW will see Jack and the team still intact and fighting Weevils and the like in the streets of Cardiff. But if not, it's been a fun ride, and I hope JB is going on to bigger and better things. Thanks, Captain. *salutes*