Torchwood

[altariel]

So, Torchwood. Kind of... icky, wasn't it? I think I get the story might be about corruption now. But Gwen is a useless POV character (and I'll never forgive her for what she's doing to Barry Backstory; although I think Burn wotsisname is giving the best performance in the show). I think if I was about fifteen, I might think this was the best TV programme I had ever seen. As it is - well, it's better than Robin Hood. But nowhere near as good as Strictly Come Dancing.

Hey, though! They're showing Crown Court on Legal TV!

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Well, I thought it was pretty boring, but then I nearly always find horror dull (I did start thinking, halfway through this, "Wasn't Ravenous quite entertaining?"). There seemed to be long stretches that consisted of nothing but the characters running round the village clutching their guns and wondering whether the Big Bad Something was round the corner; possibly something else happened, but I was reading a newspaper and just glancing up occasionally to see if there was any sign of plot until Burn Gorman started talking again.

Owen was the only interesting bit, though I'm puzzled. They spent two episodes establishing that he was a nasty bit of work, and last night he's got the Tarrant-style "We've got to rescue the rest of our team" role. So are we supposed to think he's been un-corrupted by meeting Gareth Thomas? Or by his feelings for Gwen? Or he's putting on a show to get Gwen into bed? Or that The Same Person Can Be Nasty and Nice Depending On The Circumstances?

[six-old-cars.livejournal.com]

I think the running-round-clutching-guns bit was an attempt at building suspense (required for horror to have any chance of working) and the Owen character change was simply a sloppy piece of writing.

I didn't see the very end of last night's - the scene where a naked Owen told a half-dressed Gwen "you can now" was just too vomit inducing. I don't suppose I missed much.

And I decided on seeing the first two episodes that they had done the sadly all too common thing of confusing "adult" with "smutty adolescent".

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's interesting, because that was the moment when I thought "Finally, a plot development!" It was also the first bit of non-gratuitous sex in the show, because it wasn't really about sex at all; it was about Gwen becoming so isolated from normal life that she reached out for an unlikely source of comfort. Except that, if we hadn't had the first two episodes, Owen would be the likeliest source, because Jack seems to have mislaid his charm along with his mortality, Suzie's dead, Ianto looked quite cool while he was the man of mystery but now... not so much, and Toshiko hasn't got a character yet. Whereas Owen... well, he's being played by Burn Gorman, who's probably incapable of turning in an uninteresting performance. So I'm hoping the first two episodes were a false start, because he's turning into the only reason to go on watching.

[manna]

Owen was the only interesting bit, though I'm puzzled. They spent two episodes establishing that he was a nasty bit of work, and last night he's got the Tarrant-style "We've got to rescue the rest of our team" role.

I don't think there's necessarily any conflict between being a nasty bit of work and being loyal to a group (see football hooligans, soldiers who commit atrocities, etc). Did we see Owen displaying a 'run away and abandon the rest' attitude before? As far as I can recall, he's always pretty much on side and ready to get into the action.