My $.02 on the Torchwood News

[neadods]

sjarl marker #2



To keep this from being entirely content free, and because everyone's posting their $.02 about Torchwood being picked up: (WARNING: I'm not squeeing)

Starz can afford it, at least. It shouldn't look or be cheap. And it sounds like John Barrowman and Eve Myles will get some free trips out of filming.

However, it's being run by the exact same team and RTD has already said that the first episode is "shocking and touching," for which I read "bloodsoaked and emotionally manipulative." As I still have not forgiven them for the end of COE, I intend to neither be shocked, touched, nor watching. Maybe if they get through without killing off 60% of the cast and torturing children to death onscreen, I'll catch up after.

Comments

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Except of course when it's to her benefit.

Do not even start me on her "confession" to Rhys! But I really liked the one S2 episode where she was *a proper copper* and did her job even against Jack's disapproval. And TBH, I'm not entirely sure how else they could have played the wedding after all the guests saw the monsters.

It would be a fascinating story to see someone who came into a morally ambiguous group and tried to change them, only to fall herself

There are so many missed opportunities in the storyline setup. That one. And what I would have loved to have seen (and occasionally flirt with writing) where Suzie lasts most of the first season and you only find out in retrospect that she's been a serial killer all along.

But I've said for a while my main problem with RTD's storytelling is that he starts ramped up to 10, dials it up to 11, doesn't know where else to go, and starts repeating himself, only moreso.

[mtgat]

And TBH, I'm not entirely sure how else they could have played the wedding after all the guests saw the monsters.

Yeah, but the set-up was unnecessary. "Hi, you're infected with alien parasites, therefore you're under quarantine until we figure out what they are, if they're controlling you, and how to remove them. Have a pamphlet. The End." The guests wouldn't have seen the monsters in the first place had anyone involved shown half a brain. Their bad decisions led to the need for Retcon, and despite prior lip-service to the contrary, Gwen's good with that. Setting aside my dislike for plots that only work when people are idiots, it's bad characterization for her, because taken with her prior actions, it indicates she's okay with using Retcon to hide her own mistakes. That's amazing and daring character work when acknowledged by the text. It's problematic and creepy when the showrunner doesn't see those actions and motivations as morally ambiguous.

And what I would have loved to have seen (and occasionally flirt with writing) where Suzie lasts most of the first season and you only find out in retrospect that she's been a serial killer all along.

Have you read sam_storyteller's Season Zero? It's a meta-filled faux season set before "Everything Changes" and I think you'd like it.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

The guests wouldn't have seen the monsters in the first place had anyone involved shown half a brain

To be fair, 2/3 of the Torchwood plots would never happen if anyone involved had half a brain. "Let's try to shoot the shit out of the glass panel between us and a poisonous atmosphere! What could possibly go wrong?" "Let's keep a dinosaur in the basement; no one could possibly notice!"

It's problematic and creepy when the showrunner doesn't see those actions and motivations as morally ambiguous.

I could rant for hours about RTD and *that* subject; see the thread with violetisblue. I don't WANT to live in a world run the way he sees it; he thinks he's putting the elite on the lines for the masses, but he's mostly stripping autonomy away from those who need it to make extremly important informed decisions.

I haven't read Season Zero or tw_itallchanges, which looks to have been brilliantly done. Maybe I'll take a Torchwood by the fans for the fans day when the pantry is defeated - do you have a direct link to Season Zero?

[mtgat]

To be fair, 2/3 of the Torchwood plots would never happen if anyone involved had half a brain.

There is that.

http://community.livejournal.com/tw_season_zero/profile

He also did a re-envisioning of DW and TW as set in Chicago which was amazing.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I've heard of the Chicago one; haven't tracked that from start to finish (yet) either.

Thanks for the link!