(no subject)

[ishtar79]

And to think I almost didn’t watch it. I’d downloaded it, but TW is hardly on my “Must watch NOW TV” list, I was saving it for when I was bored. But between the intriguing spoilers, the reaction posts and ariadneelda’s numerous flaily non-spoilery calls (mostly consisting of her going “No, watch it, it’s really good.” over my “But it’s Torchwood protests), I finally caved in. Watched days 1-3 in the afternoon, and waited to watch 4 and 5 with ariadneelda (her second viewing. Because apparently is a masochist).

Um, what the hell happened? How did it go from ‘utter crack’ to ‘kind of genius, actually’? How did social commentary and class warfare get into my crack? And how much am I LOVING this?

Some thoughts:

-The constant sense of danger from shadowy government forces, coupled with a deep paranoia with some help from Big Brother and Police State was handled extremely well. Mind you, brilliance of this miniseries aside, the forces in charge with hunting down and killing Torchwood made it that much more obvious how much of Torchwood is essentially Amateur Hour.

-I adored Lois, but I’m torn between wanting to see more of her and wanting her to stay the fuck AWAY from The Corpsemakers, aka Torchwood. She really has no idea. She had such faith in their competence, and after she bravely stood up up to the PM and other self-serving scum politicians, she seemed so crushed when it didn’t work. Oh, honey. They’re really kind of crap at everything.

-On that note, I am glad Freema passed on the chance to be in TW. The last thing I need is my Martha in the middle of the carnage.

-So Jack’s Awesome Plan was to scare away the aliens by much talk and posturing? It made me and ariadneelda go “You’re not the Doctor!” in perfect unison at the screen.

-Pity about Ianto, just when they made him vaguely interesting. But I’m glad they didn’t go for the cheap reset button.

-His sister and BIL were made of awesome. In fact, so was much of the supporting cast, including (no, especially) the evil ones. I’m make a mean crack about what it says about the regulars that the quality improves 87984234% when the focus is not on them, but actually, I enjoyed every single one of the characters here, both in terms of writing and acting (John Borrowman’s line delivery didn’t make me cringe once!).

-I know what the big Source Of Angst was supposed to be in day 4, but I couldn’t even get into it because of my leftover RAGE after the politicians' meeting. It’s fucking disturbing because I truly believe this is exactly how it would go (and I’m not pointing fingers at the UK, either. It would go so in most places. In fact, I believe my government would not even bother to try to haggle). It’s especially topical, between the rise of the BNP and far-right movements in general, the Daily Mail articles with their lovely fear-mongering and talking about ‘chavs’ and ‘lazy people on benefits’ as if they’re less than human…you know. UNITS.

-And on that topic, how much did I love that Scary Evil Assassin Lady still was more human and suitably horrified than the politicians?

-Gwen was kicking ass and taking names in this one, and I was surprisingly unbothered by the pregnancy. Rhys’ normalcy and continuing good humour were almost jarring with everything going on, but I needed those little moments of lighteness.

-I’m not even a kid person, and those scenes made me feel physically ill. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for a parent to watch them. The horror was overwhelming, even among the beautiful moments of fighting back, lead by Ianto’s awesome BIL (with bonus PC Andy!), because you can think of so many historical incidents of kids forcibly snatched from their homes.

-Seriously, alien heroin? Thanks for the random LULZ (they do DRUGS, that’s how we know they’re EVIL).

-I’m so fascinated by Jack Harkness right now. It’s not exactly news that he’s capable of horrible things (even before the reference to 1965, let’s not forget allowing the fairies to take that one little girl), but murdering his grandson in cold blood in front of his daughter…and yes, I knew there were Important Reasons. There often are.

-Having said that, I think he can come back from this. Not to his devil-may-care, sex-obsessed mask, but to someone watchable. Mind you, I’m someone who’s fangirled a vampire, a serial killer, a Death Eater, and last but not least, a genocidal alien with a God complex, so I might not be the most objective on this.

-If there is a series 4, I feel kind of bad for those new viewers that joined us this week. If they’re expecting this level of quality, they might be a bit disappointed.

To summarise, the show gave me a brutal emotional asskicking. But in a good way.

The wanksplosion that followed was almost as interesting to watch as the show itself, if interesting=reminded me why I was never even tempted to get more seriously involved in this fandom.

-Look, I get that Ianto fans are upset. Really. However, some of reactions were special, ranging from the eyeroll-inducing but essentially harmless, like petitions, to things like trolling in writer’s blogs, homophobic insults thrown at RTD (oh yes, you’re all about the gay rights, fandom!) to freaking DEATH THREATS. And as massively skeeved out as I am, I can’t say I’m surprised.

-RTD had better get some bodyguards for the next cons.

-The misogyny in TW fandom is old news, but reached new lows. How DARE Jack comfort her over the death of Ianto! How DARE she survive! How DARE she not lose anything (except, you know, her two remaining friends and coworkers, her job, and her faith in humanity. Oh, but I suppose they meant Rhys. Because an episode ending with Jack and Gwen newly single through death wouldn’t have made the fans lose their shit).

Comments

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

Innit. With you on all of that

[ishtar79.livejournal.com]

Most of fandom would disagree, but oh well!