I had a good weekend, and I thought Torchwood 1x05 was actually not bad.

[rusty_halo]

jaydk is the greatest friend in the history of the universe. I know this because she came over to my house last night with a huge DVD folder full of just about every publicly available thing in the history of David Tennant's career.

So we ordered take-out, drank raspberry beer, watched three episodes of Doctor Who (we're doing a rewatch), and then stayed up until 5am giggling over the cuteness of David Tennant. Interviews, various states of insane gravity-defying hair, award shows, cooking shows (!!!! if you're a DT fan and you haven't seen him and his dad on "Ready Steady Cook" you are totally missing out), some incredibly awful sitcom about cops on boats in which the only redeeming feature is a super young David Tennant... oh and then we watched the full Doctor Who Confidentials from the end of season three. The official DVDs leave so much out! You get multiple angles and takes of David sobbing over John Simm! And a whole retrospective about the Master! And did I mention all the footage of John Simm? Good lord, the two of them.

And then jaydk left and I checked my FL before going to bed, and there was a new chapter of versaphile's latest and OMG HOTNESS OVERLOAD.

***

The Veganomicon potluck on Saturday night was awesome, too. My friend Eva hosted it at her place in Brooklyn, and it was the perfect amount of people for a party, where you can all gather around and basically have one conversation, split into separate digressions, and then come together again as one throughout the night. And I knew everyone, all good people who I like seeing, and can somehow manage to carry on conversation with even though it's not about Doctor Who. Plus Eva's got great musical taste; lots and lots of the 1980s, with Depeche Mode recurring throughout the night.

We all cooked, so we had tons of good food--this artichoke garlic pesto pasta; baked pumpkin ziti; greens with cranberries and pine nuts; roasted eggplant, tomato, and red pepper stew with chickpeas; and awesome desserts: chocolate chip banana bread pudding (mine, it got devoured!), chocolate chocolate chip cookies, pecan rum cookies, banana wheat germ muffins.... And lots and lots of wine. Red wine, white wine, sparkling wine, dessert wine.... we all sprawled around in a circle around this little table, stuffing ourselves with food and drinking and talking until 2am.

***

And now: what better way to kill time on a holiday afternoon than sprawled out in front of your computer, cat snuggled in your lap, watching one of the worst shows in the history of television?

* The intro is supposed to make you think twice, right? When you hear "outside the government, beyond the police" and "arming the human race against the future" you're supposed to think "my god, how creepy", right? You're not actually supposed to think that's cool??

The idea of approaching the future as something you need to be armed against is a seriously disturbing concept. And the no government oversight thing? Surely given the current political climate this is supposed to be a GIGANTIC RED FLAG? The Bush Administration has already shown us exactly how scary it is when you have people in power who are trigger happy, fearful, and contemptuous towards the necessity of oversight. I mean it seriously reminds me of Alberto Gonzales calling the Geneva Conventions quaint; are the heroes of the show supposed to make me think of that? Or am I just supposed to be like "Ooh, guns, cool!"?

* Does she think they're not going to notice her using a flash in the middle of the night? And when the stuff you're photographing is glowing, you don't actually need the flash on.

* Awww, Jack and Ianto are so cute! (Except for the part where it makes no sense at all how they're all touchy-feely immediately following last week's "You're the biggest monster ever and I can't wait to watch you die" thing.)

* Gratuitous shots of bloody-nosed pedophile vomiting up flower petals? Just the kind of nausea-inducing images I expect from Torchwood. (Still better than any scene of Owen having sex, though.)

* Awww, Jack and his old flame are sweet together. Except for the part where he's horribly condescending to her.

* How does Owen randomly know all this forest history? Why's Tosh giving a guess at the cause of death instead of Owen? Why would Torchwood get called in when some random guy in a cell dies? Why don't the writers even try to follow some sort of logic??

* "Don't go anywhere near them!" "Hmmm, I think I'll just go investigate the funny noises coming from outside." Honestly, why is everyone on this show stupid?

* "We once made a vow that we'd be with each other until we died... and then I ran off and disappeared until she was an old woman." Jack, you realize that this makes me less sympathetic to your epic pain, right?

Although I do like how freely Jack gives his love. He can love a whole lot of people, some of them simultaneously, and that doesn't take away from the strength of his feelings for each of them. (Kind of reminds me of the Doctor and how he can love Rose, Sarah Jane, and Reinette pretty much simultaneously. Both shows seem to have this idea that monogamy is a parochial idea that not everyone subscribes to. Not that I have a problem with monogamy, but I like the way they show that it isn't the only way to love. I'm sure there's a paper in there about Torchwood and the cultural construction of sexuality.)

* Ooh, a flashback! I feel like I'm watching Highlander. I wonder if all Jack's memories of the past are in sepia tones? I actually like John Barrowman in this scene, drunk and teary eyed; you'd almost think he knows how to act.

Although, his men getting drunk and killing a child? Jack, and you still haven't learned your lesson about hiring incompetent people and letting them run wild?

* The actress who plays Gwen is quite good in the scene where she's ranting about her home being violated. Alas, Barrowman is back to wooden form.

* I'm sorry, I just cannot believe that they have "Torchwood" written on their car! And it's not tongue-in-cheek, and least not at this point! Like we're actually supposed to think "ooh, how cool, no one will ever notice that"?

* Okay, I actually thought this was the best episode so far. Team Torchwood did nothing whatsoever to solve the problem, but at least they didn't actually cause it this time. I liked that there wasn't an easy solution, that Jack genuinely struggled with what to do and was concerned about saving someone instead just running around shooting, and I'm glad that John Barrowman managed to do some real acting.

I really liked that they didn't sentimentalize childhood; the little girl was both creepy and sympathetic, and her disconnect from reality made sense given her situation. Her stepfather was a cliche, but I like that they gave him a bit of dimension, and her mother was quite understandable and sympathetic. They could've easily made both parents into total douchebags; I like that they took a more ambiguous path.

The mood of the episode was done well; I thought the music was excellent and the overall tone quite eerie. The plot didn't hang together perfectly, but it wasn't any worse than any other show whose flaws I'd forgive in service of a good story.

So, yeah. "Not as bad as I expected" is the verdict on this one.

[Cross-posted to InsaneJournal]

Comments

[cindergal.livejournal.com]

I've been reading your Torchwood commentary with amusement, because the flaws you're pointing out are totally valid and I LOVE IT ANYWAY! Hee. It does continue to improve from 1x05 on (I actually didn't like that episode much, but I did like the flashbacks). I found 1x06 edge of your seat scary, like a little mini horror film, so I'll look forward to your thoughts on it.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

I thought the scariest thing by far in 1x06 was Owen having overflowing sexual tension with Gwen.

They did do a good job telling an effective horror story, but I'm not a huge horror fan. (I don't get scared at movies/television so if there's nothing else to it I tend to get bored.) Once again I just found myself eyerolling at all the dumb things the characters did.

What do you love about Torchwood? I guess part of the reason I'm watching is that I'm trying to figure out why my whole FL is buzzing about a show that I find to be pretty much irredeemable. My FL and I usually have similar taste so I'm curious what's different here.

[cindergal.livejournal.com]

Hee! Well, yes, the fact that the Torchwood writers keep forcing us to watch Owen have sex with people (I'm afraid it doesn't end here) is inexplicable. And rather cruel. ;-) I find him an interesting character, but he has a weird mouth and just enough already with Owen the sex machine.

It helps that I watch it purely for fun and without a lot of expectations. But I do like the characters even though they do stupid things (why did Gwen not shoot the cannibal guy? Why?), and the show does keep improving. It keeps being almost good and I really want it to be good so I keep watching, but even when it's not I enjoy the cheese factor. *g*

[mylittleburden.livejournal.com]

iawtc.
i love the commentary because everything is so true, but i still loveloveLOVE the show.

[scarlettgirl.livejournal.com]

That is a good friend indeed! Did she introduce you to the shiny WTF of Blackpool? Because that is a head trip. I could watch Tennant dance the tango with David Morrissey to Nancy Sinata's "These Boots Were Made For Walking" for days.

And to jump in on your question to Cindy (because she's totally on - TW S1 has some serious problems even though I have to disagree and admit I like Owen) on why I love TW madly - if you shook FF.net for all the crackfic, stirred it in a pot with some pretty and gave it a budget, you'd have Torchwood. They are so ineffectual, vapid and unlikeable...but it it somehow works. Although my pet wank - because you really have to wank a lot with this show - is that Torchwood Three, with Jack as its head, is just Doctor Bait. I mean, come one...how to you compare the cold efficiency of Torchwood One and Yvonne Hartman with the Keystone Cops of Cardiff?

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Blackpool! We watched it together and we were like: "okay, good show, but where's David Tennant?... oooh, there he is! and he's awesome!... OMG HE'S SINGING!!!" And then we watched the "These Boots" scene over and over and over, and squeed about it for the entire week.

I don't think the rest of the series lived up to the awesome potential of the first episode (mainly because there wasn't enough David Tennant in it) but that one scene alone was worth the rest. Pretty much my entire memory of Blackpool is "Massively homoerotic testosterone-filled men-facing-off song and dance scene." Oh! And then lots and lots of scenes of David Tennant licking things. Yes, I'm very glad that Blackpool exists.