Torchwood blues....

[matthewwolff]

I'm terribly depressed having seen the last two episodes tonight. I mean, it was bloody well fantastic, but so fucking gut wrenching. I felt positively ill at ease by the time it was done. Looking through some postings, on on the new Gally-Base forum, it seems to me that some of fandom is confusing the fact that it got them down with it's being

Comments

[jblum]

Still, I loved this character, and I have genuinely been made to despise him by the end of the last episode. Fucking brilliant!

I think the most brilliant thing is that you can recognize that Jack did a horrible thing, and understand why, and that it might even be the "right" thing to do. But that it's still horrible. That's dramatic writing.

And I think these episodes are a good reminder of something which I suspect fandom has been overlooking for years: Jack Harkness Is Not A Good Guy. He's a man who tries very hard to be a good guy, thanks to the Doctor's influence... but at the end of the day, there's a lot of deep-rooted harsh stuff in there as well, and a lot of ordinary human failings. For me that makes what he does achieve in that area that much more impressive.

[lordalius]

I've felt since the beginning of Torchwood that Jack is trying desperately hard to be the hero -- to be the Doctor when the Doctor isn't there.

And it's his great tragedy that, in the end, he can never quite live up to that. He does the best he can, but when it comes down to it, the Doctor would have found a way to stop the 456 without resorting to the measures that Jack did. Jack just isn't the Hero, as much as he might want to be.

Great stuff, really. But damn, am I a little down after watching it all.

[irishkate]

bah - I just thought it sucked. I got thrown out of the story by the writing and couldn't get back in and found myself calling the plays by the clock.