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

[mtgat]

Pretty much yep. Except I won't be catching up regardless.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Sounds like 24-lite with aliens and nudity. I bet money on at least one and possibly more of the new cast being American (actually American, I mean, not just Yank-accented like Jack).

[stoplookingup.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to be rid of Rusty et al in DW, it would be madness to go there again, especially after that horror show that was the end of CoE.. But I suspect I won't be able to resist, just out of curiosity. (I just checked, and apparently I do get Starz.)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* I hadn't even thought about 24. I'm sure they're going to ramp the violence up that much.

It's a pretty safe bet on the American. I'd even be willing to bet that all of the new ones will be American.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I took this out of the main post because it's so bitchy, but I still think it - even when Shakespeare was mowing down kids like so much grass, he *didn't kill them onstage.* There are some things that civilized societies Just. Don't. Do. for entertainment.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

"*facepalm* I hadn't even thought about 24. I'm sure they're going to ramp the violence up that much."

That formula worked for...how long was 24 on the air, nearly a decade? So there you go.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I don't - I turned off premium cable ages ago - but if the curiosity gets to me, there's always *cough* a way *cough*.

But I agree about the horror show that was the end of CoE, and I'm not in a forgiving mood. Davies and Moran put themselves on my shitlist with that, and the subsequent "if you don't appreciate my genius, you're defective" defenses pretty much put them in slots 1 and 2.

Knowing fandom, just about anything I'd need to know about the show I'll learn by osmosis anyway.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

What I remember most about 24 is the Pentagon brass asking them to dial it down several notches and being told "no." Apparently we as a culture don't even want a little bread with our circuses anymore.

[mtgat]

Agreed. Eleven Spoilers: In "Amy's Choice," even if it hadn't been obvious that fake Leadworth was fake, the second they vaporized the sprogs, it was clinched that this couldn't possibly be real. The Moff brings little kids back from the dead. Rusty sends them there for fun and profit. :P

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Clearly the Pentagon brass were evil liberals in league with Al-Qaeda, but then didn't we all already know that.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Judging from the number of people who can't tell the difference between Jack Bauer and Dick Cheney (but we have to torture people! What if there's a bomb going off in 24 hours and only they know where!) - I would not be surprised if folks out there didn't think exactly that for real.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

Judging from the feverish love Jack Bauer gets on a lot of right-wing blogs, I wouldn't be the least shocked either. He's their Storm Saxon.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

the second they vaporized the sprogs, it was clinched that this couldn't possibly be real.

Yeah, I thought that too. There's a lot I'm surprised I don't like about the Moffat era, but underaged snuff onscreen for LoLz is never going to be one of them.

Have I ever subjected you to the cozy/hardboiled analogy? It comes from the mystery genre, but it works so very nicely when held up to world views in general.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Why worry about the complexities of dealing with real people in other cultures when you can fall back on the comforting belief that a white guy can solve all problems by facing up to The Man and the terrorists - and in a single day!

[mtgat]

I don't know that you have. Share?

[un-sedentary.livejournal.com]

I still have not watched the end of CoE, mostly because it disturbed me greatly to read that Jack was forced to sacrifice his grandson in front of his pleading daughter. I thought it was going way too far with the ~"dark" theme.

Also, I think they took the "anyone can die" thing too far. I wasn't hugely attached to Ianto, or Tosh, or Owen, but to kill all three of them is too much. It makes it look gratuitous. And I think RTD wants to be Joss Whedon when he grows up. Except Joss could afford to kill off characters, because he had a lot more than 5 main characters (let's say 7, including Andy and Rhys - still not enough). I think RTD forgot about that part. -_-

I thought it was funny that JB posted on Twitter earlier, "I hope all of you will come on this exciting journey with Captain Jack and the Team." WHAT TEAM. 3/4 of your team is dead and the one who lived has a baby. How exactly is that going to work.

I'm happy for him and Eve and understand why they're excited... I just don't think there's any way that it can be really Torchwood, with the Hub destroyed and so few characters returning.

[stoplookingup.livejournal.com]

So I'm reading the comments here about Torchwood-cum-24 (and you can read that "cum" any way you like), and then I google a bit and find this interview with Rusty in which he says: "Yes, in the "Torchwood" universe, you're in a place where aliens long ago went public. It's like with terrorists. We all know terrorists exist, but if you found yourself in a room with one, you'd be in for a profound shock. You're never in a position where you take it for granted." So, yeah, if you were wondering whether in Rusty's head alien=terrorist - there you have it.

[bewarethespork.livejournal.com]

This, basically. I don't even know if I'll bother catching up, though. CoE was such a flaming pile of crap that I'm really not sure I want to go near the show again. (That said, I forgave my show for the Year of Specials, so...)

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

That was pretty obvious from the get-go, though, a post-9/11 show about an extra-governmental black-ops squad that announces, "The 21st century is when everything changes and you've gotta be ready." Get it, audience, get it? Huh? Huh? The parallel's incredibly subtle, we know, so we'll give you some more time to ponder it.

[persiflage-1.livejournal.com]

I'm not squeeing either - it'll probably end up being some horrible bastardised, Americanised (in the worst way) show instead of being its previously weird and quirky British self. They went out on high ratings at the end of S3, it's been a year since that, they should let it die.

I will, however, watch at least the first one out of sheer morbid curiosity.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

As I said, this came out of the mystery genre, which is subdivided into cozy and hardboiled. Someone at a Malice Domestic once pointed out that although there are certain expected features of each (cozy = amateur detective, hardboiled = usually a pro) what REALLY distinguishes them is the underlying worldview:

Cozy - The world has a fundamental order; people as a whole are generally good. Something has happened to breach the order and it is up to the hero/ine to re-establish balance so everyone can live in peace.

Hardboiled - The world is uncaring and tends to chaos; people are at best self-interested and usually out for what they can get. The hero/ine is staving off entropy and the predation of the weak by the strong until s/he inevitably falls in battle.

Superman, cozy; Batman hardboiled. Buffy, cozy; Angel, hardboiled. Doctor Who, cozy; Torchwood, hardboiled.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

He was only "forced" because he wasn't thinking ahead in the first place - and this from someone who had dealt with the enemy before - and because RTD confuses a death toll with drama. It went too far with the dark theme when 60% of the cast was killed off.

I just don't think there's any way that it can be really Torchwood, with the Hub destroyed and so few characters returning.

Yes, isn't it convenient that the Rift - the main issue for the first two seasons - isn't at all a complication anymore?

I expect Torchwood to continue what I consider the worst of RTD's writing in Twood and Who - pronouncements of great drama that are handwaved seconds later and angst laid on with a trowel. He's very much a hardboiled writer (see upthread).

[neadods.livejournal.com]

So, yeah, if you were wondering whether in Rusty's head alien=terrorist - there you have it.

... and this spun off from a show that's shown 40+ years of stories about a friendly alien.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I forgave the year of angstful specials because I knew the show was going to change. Apparently this is going to be a continuation of the worst of Torchwood and not at all the show I originally signed up to watch three seasons earlier.

[bewarethespork.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I sat through The Year of Specials because I knew we'd be getting Mofftiem at the end of it, but...well, Rusty's already killed off all my favourite Torchwood characters. (I mean, I like Gwen and Jack, but not the way RTD treats them, and my favourites were Tosh, Owen and Ianto, so...) I'm sure this'll just be non-stop angst and a whole lot of ~*darker and edgier*~ crap. I'll probably read spoilers online, but I don't think I'll bother to watch it.