Torchwood review

[shadowkat]

Just watched the Season Two premiere of Torchwood entitled Kiss Kiss Bang Bang featuring James Marsters in the role of a charming yet sociopathic con man and ex-partner/lover of the series lead character, Captain Jack Harkness. His name is Captain John Hart. Apparently neither character is very creative when it comes to names. Not that I can quibble, I'm lousy at naming things. Never understood why people name inanimate objects or pets, Cat is a perfectly good name after all. As is teddy bear, stuffed pig, house, table, chair, and laptop. Descriptive and to the point.

The episode was entertaining. Torchwood, by the way, is not a show you can take too seriously. It's not Buffy or BSG. It is not deep. And I don't think it bears up well to too much analysis. It is however a fairly good sci-fi mystery noir show, complete with innovative bad guys and a cool, somewhat anti-heroic central character. Also the show is written by a guy who happens to be homosexual and wrote Queer As Folk, which means that instead of introducing a "femme fatale" like a straight director would (probably with big boobs or long legs) to tempt his anti-hero lead, he'll introduce a sexy male fatal to do it (trust me, I'm so not complaining - much prefer male fatals to female ones, gotten bloody tired of big boobed or skinny pretty nasty women who purr and slither like cats on tv shows, much prefer a guy who does it, if only for a change of pace). And no one plays sexy male fatals better than James Marsters. The man can generate chemistry with air. Actually, I'm beginning to suspect that this is the only role he can effectively play. That and villians. Which are sort of the same thing. Spike may be the most complex and interesting role this actor ever gets to sink his teeth into. And I've no clue what they did in the makeup and costume department - but Marsters looked better as Spike. Bigger. Tougher. Prettier. And a lot sexier. Maybe it was the blond hair? Or the black eyeliner? Or the red lipstick? I'm starting to think men should wear makeup. Marster's definitely benefits from it.

Okay enough shallow chatter. The episode itself was fun. Had more humor than last season. The show was a tad too serious last season which made it slow at times. Also I like the fact that they are finally exploring Captain Jack's backstory. He's the most interesting mystery on the series. Much like Doctor Who - we aren't quite sure what Jack is. Is he human? Is he from Earth? Is he from the past or the future? And what is a Time Agency? What and who for that matter are Time Agents? Last season we learned what Time Lords were and where they came from - a somewhat amoral race of people who watched and played with time. The fun thing about Doctor Who is the main character's somewhat questionable stance on morality. The show much like Torchwood - refuses to provide a clear and easy moral lesson - it's not Star Trek, which may be why some sci-fi writers prefer Who to the Star Trek series.

Outside of that? The plot was sort of predictable. The best parts were the scenes between Captain John and Captain Jack - who do have marvelous chemistry - the characters and the actors. Also, I admit, I find myself intrigued by their back-story. Why they broke up. What their relationship is. John seemed to be a bit upset about killing Jack, also oddly moved by seeing him back from the dead. Obviously John is a mirror of Jack - heck they even have the same name more or less. John is a version of Jack. Hart a version of Harkness.

From Doctor Who, we know Jack is far from pristine. The Doctor saw him as an amoral con man and hustler - so much so that in last years Doctor Who Season Finale - the Doctor (I keep wanting to call him Who, it's shorter) added something to Jack's wrist-watch to ensure Jack had to go back a second time to any place he'd just been, to apologize. And we know that Jack has a thing for Gwen and Ianto. I'm not sure if he would have asked Ianto for a date, if he hadn't known Gwen was about to get married or if Gwen hadn't insisted on taking John with her. IF so, poor Ianto. Am a bit disappointed that Jack didn't choose to make John a team member, but not surprised. Be a bit of a hard sell to his other team members, considering how John attempted to murder them all in the space of one evening. I certainly wouldn't have tolerated it if I were Gwen et al.

Speaking of Gwen, from the previews for next week's episode, it appears that she's going to be playing damsel this season much like she did last season. Boring that. If we can have a male fatal, why can't we have a male damsel? Just saying. I don't consider it misogynistic, there's nothing remotely misogynistic about Torchwood that I can see, granted I've been watching Nip/Tuck and have seen episodes of Rescue Me, not to mention Boston Legal, so I might be immune or desentized to it. And it does not help that I've worked in predominately male oriented companies as a single woman who lives alone. So, you either build a thick skin to junk like that or you crumble into a little ball. That said? I don't see it. Chauvinistic? Patronistic? Yeah, but what tv show isn't in this day and age?

I'm not sure why people keep talking about how risque or randy Torchwood is - if this were Nip/Tuck, we'd have seen the two guys in the buff fucking. Same with Queer As Folk. Here, people rarely take their clothes off. And there were no scenes with a poodle or chatter about doing anything that has a hole in it. Seriously - Marsters interviews about the role are more randy than the show is.

At any rate if you are new to Torchwood? This is the best episode to start with, methinks.
Far more entertaining than last season, and I actually sort of enjoyed last season.

Comments

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

I'll be VERY interested in what you think about the next episode.... (I won't say anything since anything I would say might be spoilery)

I do think they have started the new season off with a bang.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I'm still behind? They've aired the second episode on the net and England, already?

Another week of avoiding flist posts on Torchwood.

The net really has changed how quickly information is distributed.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Oh that is so true! I think the makers of Torchwood were really shocked when they came to Comic con last Summer to find that everyone there (and there were thousands of people there) had already seen the first season of Torchwood even though it hadn't started airing on BBC America.

If I got BBC America I would wait and watch it on that, but as it is I have to depend upon downloads which go up immediately after the show airs in England (and then disappear as quickly as the powers that be can shut them down).

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Ah. One of the reasons I pay extra for DTV is so I can get BBC America and Sci Fi Channel and USA. Because I've discovered there are times I watch more tv on cable than on the regular networks.

Otherwise wouldn't see them at all - since can't download from the net easily without screwing up/slowing down my computer. Don't have the bandwidth.

Apparently there's a debate going on online about episode two of the show. I've seen it referred to twice now by the Brits on my flist.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm spending $60/month (which stretches my budget) so I can get sci-fi, comedy central, USA, and others....
but BBC America isn't available.

It is frustrating.... Of course it was MORE frustrating back in the days of Buffy being on the air and we didn't get the WB or UPN in Iowa! Luckily the local affiliate of Fox started to carry Buffy later the same night, after it was first aired for everyone else around the country.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Won't tell you what I'm spending, suffice it to say it's more than that - course it does include a cable internet access and DVR (which I've become addicted to especially since I no longer own a VHR.) ;-)

yeah, remember those days. I got the DTV box back then because I got tired of worrying about the cable going fuzzy mid-program. For some reason UPN came in horribly on the regular box.

[abrakadabrah.livejournal.com]

Be a bit of a hard sell to his other team members, considering how John attempted to murder them all in the space of one evening. I certainly wouldn't have tolerated it if I were Gwen et al.

I dunno. Didn't Owen shoot Jack in the finale last year? Fair's fair.

At least he'll be back.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah - but Jack sort of deserved it and he didn't die nor did Owen intend to kill Jack and well, Owen knew at the time that Jack could survive it.

In this scenario - John killed Jack. (Granted Jack is unkillable, but he did not know that.)
Tried to kill Gwen - by poisoning her, pretty nasty way to die too - if the others hadn't come in time. He shot Owen and locked them in the room. Granted that wasn't fatal. Oh, and, John had no qualms about letting the world blow up.

You'd have to be an idiot to let that guy on your team. Not that I think those were Jack's main reasons. (John knows far too much about his past - Jack wouldn't let him on the team for that alone.)

Yeah, he'll be back - I think in the next to last episode of the season. They apparently love him over there. And he's gotten rave reviews on both sides of the pond for the role.

[liliaeth]

Actually when Owen shot Jack, he didn't know that Jack could come back from it either.

That and... just wondering, but why cut for a casting spoiler, when you then put said casting spoiler in the tags?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Because I forgot that I cut for it. Really cut for the vague plot spoilers, to be honest.
Not that it matters, you'd have to be hiding under a rock not to know about it. Everyone has icons.

Actually not sure why I bother cutting at all, apparently everyone has seen the second episode on the internet already.

I thought Owen knew that he couldn't be killed at that point - due to what happened during prior episodes? Again not a big deal, since he didn't aim to kill. Just to knock Jack out of the line-up for a bit.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Decided to fix the mistake...just in case a few snails pop up who haven't seen the icons.