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Aug. 15th, 2008 05:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiercebunnySo now that Doctor Who is over for awhile and I have to wait till Christmas for a freakin' Cybermen episode, I decided I would get my geek on by Netflixing its spinoff series Torchwood, which stars John Barrowman as Captain Jack Harness and his crack alien-investigating team. (More on teh crack later.) I've just finished disc 5 and I like it okay so far, but it's nowhere near as good as Who.
While I do like the characters and a few of the episodes, a lot of this series feels like it was written while the writers were on crack. Let me describe some of the episodes:
Episode 2: an alien life form travels to our planet to possess a young woman so it can shag earth men into small piles of sand. Yeah, literally. This wasn't actually that bad an episode, it's just the small piles of sand bit that makes me kind of go... O_o, seriously? This is the first hint of crack smokin'.
"The Ghost Machine" episode is about an alien artifact that allows people to view traumatic events from the past. This had an interesting concept and was surprisingly good considering it came from the same writer who did the Daleks/Pigs in Manhattan episode of Who, which I really disliked.
"Cyberwoman" episode was so-so. I liked seeing more of Ianto's character, but the episode seemed mostly built around the excuse of attempting a sexy version of the Cyberman costume, which is possibly the unsexiest thing in sci-fi.
"Small Worlds" made me seriously wonder what drugs the writers are taking. This one is about fairies actually existing and they are plotting to abduct a young, withdrawn girl because she is their Chosen One or whatever. After wreaking all kinds of havoc and death, the fairies demand that Torchwood give them the girl so she can become one of them and live forever, otherwise they will rain death/destruction/etc on the world. To which Captain Jack basically says, "Okay." The girl skips off with the fairies, credits roll and I am sitting on my couch going, "What the hell just happened?" D:< Somehow that was not the ending I would have expected.
The next few episodes, with the exception of "Countrycide", are pretty good. "Random Shoes" may have possibly made me tear up a little. (Not that rare a feat to be honest, movie trailers have also been known to make me tear up.) "Out of Time ", about three people from the '50's who accidentally travel to the present through a time rift was good and was very funny in two ways: Gwen trying to explain modern sexual mores to the twenty-something 50's girl (Gwen's facial expressions cracked me up) and secondly, Owen has an affair with the Lady Pilot, confesses how their hot monkey sex is not meaningless, he's truly fallen in love with her and in the next scene, she immediately takes off in her plane. LOL. Owen points out that it's nigh impossible for her to go back through the rift. Whatever, see ya. (Oh, and not to mention how bitchy it was of Lady Pilot to not even offer to take the other two passengers with her, one of whom has just killed himself because he can't deal. WTF?)
The last episode I saw was the fight club episode.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mythosidhe mentioned there was a fight club episode coming up, but somehow in my naiveté, I did not anticipate how bad it would be. I mean, I liked the movie Fight Club and that just barely skirted being completely ridiculous. (Your mileage may very on that, obvs. Edward Norton and Brad Pitteach other aliens in the gut" then that... doesn't really work. At all. Also, even though this episode is supposed to show that Owen is in a dark place, hardcore, I can't buy it because Owen looks wee. Sorry. Trivia: Mickey (Noel Clarke) from Who wrote this episode. Oh dear.
Though there is a nice moment in that one where Gwen proves how awkward it is to have a good cry when you have a mouthful of pizza. I like Eve Myles' acting, even though Gwen is often saddled with having to do a lot of dumb things.
Random observation: Is it just me or does Captain Jack seem a lot more crankypants in Torchwood than he is in series Who? I guess getting dumped by the Doctor has that effect on a person.
Good lord, that is a lot of senseless rambling about sci-fi. So this may not be a complete waste to those of you who aren't interested in that, I will point out that my favorite Etsy seller is having a jewelry sale. She uses a lot of pretty, semi-precious stones like labradorite and chalcedony. I bought me some garnet earrings. WHEE.
While I do like the characters and a few of the episodes, a lot of this series feels like it was written while the writers were on crack. Let me describe some of the episodes:
Episode 2: an alien life form travels to our planet to possess a young woman so it can shag earth men into small piles of sand. Yeah, literally. This wasn't actually that bad an episode, it's just the small piles of sand bit that makes me kind of go... O_o, seriously? This is the first hint of crack smokin'.
"The Ghost Machine" episode is about an alien artifact that allows people to view traumatic events from the past. This had an interesting concept and was surprisingly good considering it came from the same writer who did the Daleks/Pigs in Manhattan episode of Who, which I really disliked.
"Cyberwoman" episode was so-so. I liked seeing more of Ianto's character, but the episode seemed mostly built around the excuse of attempting a sexy version of the Cyberman costume, which is possibly the unsexiest thing in sci-fi.
"Small Worlds" made me seriously wonder what drugs the writers are taking. This one is about fairies actually existing and they are plotting to abduct a young, withdrawn girl because she is their Chosen One or whatever. After wreaking all kinds of havoc and death, the fairies demand that Torchwood give them the girl so she can become one of them and live forever, otherwise they will rain death/destruction/etc on the world. To which Captain Jack basically says, "Okay." The girl skips off with the fairies, credits roll and I am sitting on my couch going, "What the hell just happened?" D:< Somehow that was not the ending I would have expected.
The next few episodes, with the exception of "Countrycide", are pretty good. "Random Shoes" may have possibly made me tear up a little. (Not that rare a feat to be honest, movie trailers have also been known to make me tear up.) "Out of Time ", about three people from the '50's who accidentally travel to the present through a time rift was good and was very funny in two ways: Gwen trying to explain modern sexual mores to the twenty-something 50's girl (Gwen's facial expressions cracked me up) and secondly, Owen has an affair with the Lady Pilot, confesses how their hot monkey sex is not meaningless, he's truly fallen in love with her and in the next scene, she immediately takes off in her plane. LOL. Owen points out that it's nigh impossible for her to go back through the rift. Whatever, see ya. (Oh, and not to mention how bitchy it was of Lady Pilot to not even offer to take the other two passengers with her, one of whom has just killed himself because he can't deal. WTF?)
The last episode I saw was the fight club episode.
mythosidhe mentioned there was a fight club episode coming up, but somehow in my naiveté, I did not anticipate how bad it would be. I mean, I liked the movie Fight Club and that just barely skirted being completely ridiculous. (Your mileage may very on that, obvs. Edward Norton and Brad Pitt's hips
may have influenced my opinion somewhat. ) However, when you take that storyline and switch it around a bit so it reads, "21st century young men assuage their apathy and existential angst by punching Though there is a nice moment in that one where Gwen proves how awkward it is to have a good cry when you have a mouthful of pizza. I like Eve Myles' acting, even though Gwen is often saddled with having to do a lot of dumb things.
Random observation: Is it just me or does Captain Jack seem a lot more crankypants in Torchwood than he is in series Who? I guess getting dumped by the Doctor has that effect on a person.
Good lord, that is a lot of senseless rambling about sci-fi. So this may not be a complete waste to those of you who aren't interested in that, I will point out that my favorite Etsy seller is having a jewelry sale. She uses a lot of pretty, semi-precious stones like labradorite and chalcedony. I bought me some garnet earrings. WHEE.
