unfeathered (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
unfeathered) wrote2011-07-29 09:06 pm
unfeathered) wrote2011-07-29 09:06 pm
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Thoughts on Torchwood: Miracle Day Episode 3
Okay, so now LJ is finally back, I actually feel like making a post!!! Yay me!
NO SPOILERS FOR FUTURE EPISODES PLEASE!!!
Whilst I enjoyed the first two episodes, I found myself a lot more interested in the idea of no-one dying and the scope of the problem as it gradually became apparent than in the actual TW team, who really didn't seem to actually *do* anything. That got better last night as we finally got a bit more of a team feeling and some evidence that Jack and Gwen were actually the characters we used to know and not just cardboard cutouts being chased by the government and not much else. There was still some weirdness, though, like Jack just walking off into a bar, which felt like it came completely out of the blue with nothing leading up to it, though in hindsight I guess it was supposed to be because of Rex accusing him of getting his team killed. It was at least nice to see at last how much Jack has changed, how much confidence he's lost! He seemed almost surprised when bar guy flirted with him. *hugs him* I was very glad to see them actually addressing his reaction to his sudden mortality too; the drunk scene with Gwen was pitch perfect. And the discussion with Oswald Danes about killing children was chilling, though I spent most of that scene very confused as to how he'd known where to find Danes so quickly, especially as I'd got the impression from somewhere that Danes was in Dallas. Wasn't that where the conference and Jilly whatshername where?
One bit that really rankled though was the stupid bit with Esther 'correcting' Gwen's British terms into American ones. I couldn't decide whether that was supposed to be a joke at our expense or whether it was actually because Americans supposedly couldn't understand the British terms. In either case, it's several decades out of date, since both countries see enough of the other's television to know both sets of terms – but Brits still aren't going to just start using the American terms just because they're speaking to an American or vice versa! That whole bit just basically made me cringe.
I still feel like the whole thing doesn't really feel like Torchwood. Okay, so we finally had two of our characters back, but I don't enjoy this 'on the run, constantly being hunted down by everyone else' genre. It's the same as CoE and it even reminded me of The Sound of Drums. Incidentally, this feels much more like a Doctor Who adventure as we have the Doctor (Jack), his companion (Gwen) – and, hell, even her husband and baby!!! – mucking in with a couple of one-off characters whom we're probably never going to hear of again after this series, even if they do survive, which seems unlikely in Rex's case. Why can't we have some characters we can actually invest in? I loved Lois, for example, but she just got shunted out in the last episode of CoE – why couldn't she be part of the team again? Or Martha and Mickey? It's not that I'm against new characters, but I want permanent members of the team, not temps. (Dare I say it, but I even missed Ianto last night.) And the same for them not having a permanent hide-out. I'm tired of laptops on boxes in an abandoned house/warehouse. I want to see the guys' possessions, a place where they actually spend a lot of time. It says so much more about them!
I guess that also leads to another complaint, which is definitely from a writer's POV, which is that this is yet another season that leaves virtually no gaps in which to put fanfic. You can't put Jack/Gwen fanfic in the year and a half (?) between CoE and this because they didn't spend any of it together. And you can't set fic *during* the season because it all happens so close together. So whilst I'm enjoying the big story and the serial feel to this (again, far more like classic Who), the writer in me hates it!
Other thoughts:
I love Vera. She has such integrity and I love the way she's seeing the big picture and wanting to help.
I really, really want to know if the people who aren't dying are *healing* or if they're just stuck at the moment where they would have died. It seemed like Rex's injury was getting better, but then it kept on bleeding so I couldn't decide. Also, what's up with Jack's itchy wound? Is that not getting better either? And if so, why, since he's *not* immortal any more?
NO SPOILERS FOR FUTURE EPISODES PLEASE!!!
Whilst I enjoyed the first two episodes, I found myself a lot more interested in the idea of no-one dying and the scope of the problem as it gradually became apparent than in the actual TW team, who really didn't seem to actually *do* anything. That got better last night as we finally got a bit more of a team feeling and some evidence that Jack and Gwen were actually the characters we used to know and not just cardboard cutouts being chased by the government and not much else. There was still some weirdness, though, like Jack just walking off into a bar, which felt like it came completely out of the blue with nothing leading up to it, though in hindsight I guess it was supposed to be because of Rex accusing him of getting his team killed. It was at least nice to see at last how much Jack has changed, how much confidence he's lost! He seemed almost surprised when bar guy flirted with him. *hugs him* I was very glad to see them actually addressing his reaction to his sudden mortality too; the drunk scene with Gwen was pitch perfect. And the discussion with Oswald Danes about killing children was chilling, though I spent most of that scene very confused as to how he'd known where to find Danes so quickly, especially as I'd got the impression from somewhere that Danes was in Dallas. Wasn't that where the conference and Jilly whatshername where?
One bit that really rankled though was the stupid bit with Esther 'correcting' Gwen's British terms into American ones. I couldn't decide whether that was supposed to be a joke at our expense or whether it was actually because Americans supposedly couldn't understand the British terms. In either case, it's several decades out of date, since both countries see enough of the other's television to know both sets of terms – but Brits still aren't going to just start using the American terms just because they're speaking to an American or vice versa! That whole bit just basically made me cringe.
I still feel like the whole thing doesn't really feel like Torchwood. Okay, so we finally had two of our characters back, but I don't enjoy this 'on the run, constantly being hunted down by everyone else' genre. It's the same as CoE and it even reminded me of The Sound of Drums. Incidentally, this feels much more like a Doctor Who adventure as we have the Doctor (Jack), his companion (Gwen) – and, hell, even her husband and baby!!! – mucking in with a couple of one-off characters whom we're probably never going to hear of again after this series, even if they do survive, which seems unlikely in Rex's case. Why can't we have some characters we can actually invest in? I loved Lois, for example, but she just got shunted out in the last episode of CoE – why couldn't she be part of the team again? Or Martha and Mickey? It's not that I'm against new characters, but I want permanent members of the team, not temps. (Dare I say it, but I even missed Ianto last night.) And the same for them not having a permanent hide-out. I'm tired of laptops on boxes in an abandoned house/warehouse. I want to see the guys' possessions, a place where they actually spend a lot of time. It says so much more about them!
I guess that also leads to another complaint, which is definitely from a writer's POV, which is that this is yet another season that leaves virtually no gaps in which to put fanfic. You can't put Jack/Gwen fanfic in the year and a half (?) between CoE and this because they didn't spend any of it together. And you can't set fic *during* the season because it all happens so close together. So whilst I'm enjoying the big story and the serial feel to this (again, far more like classic Who), the writer in me hates it!
Other thoughts:
I love Vera. She has such integrity and I love the way she's seeing the big picture and wanting to help.
I really, really want to know if the people who aren't dying are *healing* or if they're just stuck at the moment where they would have died. It seemed like Rex's injury was getting better, but then it kept on bleeding so I couldn't decide. Also, what's up with Jack's itchy wound? Is that not getting better either? And if so, why, since he's *not* immortal any more?
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I totally agree that fic is a pain to set fic, timewise. I need more episodes to really write anything, but I have two stories started. Just afraid of being jossed.
Ditto on the healing processes!
Having read pretty much all the press on Torchwood from this series, I think the Brit/American lines are about RTD and the writers having their Britpick/Ameripick moments in real speech and thinking their confusion is SUPER WEIRD. Which it could be, but it could also be 5x funnier.
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Yeah, I can imagine the writers sitting there arguing over which terms to use, and actually if it had been presented that way in the show I wouldn't have minded. It was just the way Esther went, "I think you meant..." and Gwen was then flustered and appeared not to know Americans use different words, which was plainly ridiculous and it just got my back up! *g*
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Jane Espenson had said that she'd referred to a white cotton men's vest undershirt as a "wifebeater" and RTD was appalled. LOL. (They're called that because a large number of the arrestees on the show COPS are wearing them.)
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Ah well.
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I still feel like I'm part of a minority because of the "it doesn't feel like Torchwood" issue. I'm totally not here to argue the point. Obviously, you feel what you feel. But to me it feels SO MUCH like Torchwood, especially like 1st Series Torchwood and Jack FEELS like Jack, maybe even Empty Child Jack, which is saying quite a bit. In some ways (although I miss Tosh and Owen) it seems more like the Torchwood I expected before I actually got to see the show.
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This ep was written by Jane Espenson, who worked with Joss Whedon on most of his shows. There's a particular flavor to her humor that I get the impression she thinks is far more clever than it is. Husband and I looked at each other during that sequence and said to each other 'Goddamn Jane Espenson'.
That said, I'm enjoying Torchwood as cracky fun with a side of thinky sci-fi stuff. It's not brilliant, but I'm along for the ride.
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I actually enjoyed having a new Jane Espenson ep to watch since I loved her as a Buffy writer, but yeah, that language bit definitely jarred. I do think it was down to JE, though, that I enjoyed the ep the most of the three so far!
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I'm enjoying Miracle Day and even if it isn't *my* Torchwood it's still Torchwood and I love it.
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I just kind of went with the stereotype that doctors are always knackered from overwork and therefore one can expect them to need *something* to keep going, especially at a time like this, so I didn't even really think about it.
And yes, I'm definitely enjoying it, just... not feeling as connected as I used to.
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Really that's all I got. Enjoy. :p
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