Using entirely neutral icon

[exsequar]

Hm. So. My thoughts and emotions are all over the place with this.

I'll be honest that I have what I gather is a really unpopular opinion in that... I thought this episode was really quite powerful. It all hit me in the gut and I was crying pretty much the whole time. John Frobisher's swan song was truly and deeply horrifying, even more so for the fact that it ended up being unnecessary. I liked that his secretary got a little bit of justice for him, and that the prime minister JACKASS got his ass handed to him. (I worked up a truly intense loathing for him over the course of the week.) All of the scenes of soldiers gathering up children, of Gwen and Ianto's sister and Rhys trying to get the kids to safety, of Andy and Ianto's sister's husband (I am so awful with names) fighting the soldiers - it just chilled me right down to the bones, and I couldn't stop crying. Idk, maybe I'm easy, but it didn't seem cheesy or over the top, just frighteningly believable that humanity could sink to that low, and that this is what we would become when faced with such a lose-lose choice. Gwen's recording at the beginning set off my floodworks and I didn't really stop after that. It was just so chilling, with her face half in shadow and her enormous eyes. I don't know, I thought the dramatic execution was largely very good.

Three things that I thought were unnecessary:
1) Ianto's death
2) Using Jack's grandson as the child
3) Jack emoing at Gwen and shooting off into space

Basically, the underpinning character direction that they were apparently shooting for with the whole thing felt ENTIRELY UNNECESSARY. This drama could have played out on the world stage just as it did WITHOUT resulting in the death of a third of Torchwood and the departure of its leader from the Earth. I don't think it would have been a cop out to have this all happen, and then our characters resume life together, altered and sobered and part of a darkened world, but still together. I just.. I don't think tearing the team to shreds was a necessary outcome! And I don't really understand why they did it. Did RTD envision another Doctor Who sort of adventure, but with Captain Jack at the middle? Newsflash: JOHN BARROWMAN IS NOT DAVID TENNANT. I'm juuuust saying. He simply can't carry a show that way. But if that is the goal, it seems like RTD has had it in mind for a while, and that's why he had the fucking balls to kill two main characters at the end of season 2.

As for using Jack's grandson, that just felt gratuitous. Why did it have to be him? Why not some terminally ill child? That became completely anvilly, like LOOK JACK MAKES ALL THE RIGHT CHOICES BUT EVERYONE HE LOVES GETS HURT OR DIES. ALWAYS. FOREVER. HE'S CURSED DID YOU NOTICE?????? DID YOU DID YOU?? *facepalm*

And you know what? I liked Gwen so much in this series. I LOVED this show. If they had kept in this vein I could have watched the JackIantoGwenRhys show until the sky fell down. You know, shows DO continue with the same cast for many years, RTD! Seriously! It happens! I've seen it! It's bizarrely like he thought this set up (Torchwood in Cardiff) was boring and he needed to ~shake things up. NO. No. I do not concur.

Just so you know, underlying this entire semi-rational commentary is WHY DID YOU KILL IANTO YOU FUCKING BASTARD I HATE YOU AND I HOPE YOU BURN IN HELL!!!!!!!!!! Iantooooooooooooooooo. ;__________;

It's going to be so hard to watch old episodes of this show now, knowing what happens! It's all just tainted and marked for tragedy. HOW DID OUR SILLY ALIEN SHOW TURN INTO THIS? I think they found a happy medium (the darker feel they were apparently trying for from the beginning but still fun and Captain Jack-y) with most of this season, and then somehow the train came off the tracks. It's extremely depressing.

I feel sort of gobsmacked. A week ago I didn't even know Torchwood was about to air. Then someone mentioned it and I was like "Ooh, Torchwood yay! Boyfriends yay! Omnisexual alien yay!" and then this happened. It's like getting shot in the stomach by Micky Mouse when you try to give him a hug.

SIGH.

Comments

[theaeblackthorn.livejournal.com]

Will comment properly tomorrow, too tired for thoughts now. xx

[angel726.livejournal.com]

I can't be as coherent as you, I just need to make this face over and over >:(

[darlas-mom.livejournal.com]

I can't deny the power of this episode. I wish I could, but I can't.

But I honestly wanted to lay on the floor of my bathroom, puking and crying and pounding the tile with rage fists for half an hour after it ended.

It was Jack's grandson that went too far for me. It...honestly, it made me hate Jack. And I didn't want to hate Jack. I didn't even feel sorry for him when Alice glared at him and walked away. I thought, "I hope she cuts your head off, you bastard."

'Cause...there's a line for me. A level of dark and ruthless I can tolerate in a hero before I start to wonder why they're on the side of good. And no matter how high the stakes are, no matter how contrived the drama, a character is crossing that line when he has to tear a young child out of his crying mother's arms and offer him up as a sacrifice. In graphic bloody detail, no less.

As a less angry aside, the 456 may in fact be the most active and motivated drug addicts I've ever seen.

[ariadne83]

I think they had to use Jack's grandson because they had run out of time and he was right there. Just bad luck.

[hebrew-hernia.livejournal.com]

Exactly. YES to everything. I just watched this and I'm DONE with this show. This was supposed to be Doctor Who's crackier, gayer cousin and instead it turns into this. Ianto's and Stephen's deaths just felt utterly gratuitous. You're absolutely right, and you expressed it so well-- that the global drama could have played out without those two deaths. It was big enough that they felt cheap.

I don't think JB CAN'T carry a show, necessarily-- but this was billed as an ensemble show. It was The Team. (look! I have a team icon and everything! the keyword is "Team Torchwood"!) It's like if they had killed off everyone on Atlantis but John and it became The John Sheppard Show. It's not that the John Sheppard Show wouldn't be awesome, but I want to watch John and Teyla and Ronon and Rodney. And I've officially hit my threshold on being coherent, so I'm going to end this poor analogy as it is and hope that this comment makes enough sense.

I'm just absolutely done with Torchwood. It is officially No Fun Anymore. This miniseries could be really interesting in terms of meta, especially re: gender roles, because of course when the drama centers on the children every woman is reframed as a mother or potential mother, much more so than the men are. Also re: the 10% selection system, which of course is ridiculously classist. But I think really coherent meta would require watching again, and that is just not fucking happening. It's over. We're broken up. I'm deleting my icons tomorrow.

[foreverseenstar.livejournal.com]

You've said it all. And my entry is such rubbish next to this ha. I thought these episodes were very well done in general, but I agree the emoing and death of Ianto were so unnecessary. And just the family suddenly for both guys was kind of weird to me. I don't know, I just eh. I swear I saw Jack is in the Christmas Who this year... interesting to see if that's supposed to be pre-series 3 Jack or post.

[thharwood.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever agreed more with anyone's post before in my life. Seriously.

Because it *was* a brillaint series, and everything you said about the last installment is so true (how heartbreaking and REAL everything was), but then they completely ruined it for everyone with those deaths and Jack leaving. Now all everyone's talking about is how they want Ianto back (I FUCKING WANT IANTO BACK!!!!), and not how amazingly written and executed that series was. idk, I think RTD kinda shot himself in the leg there.

[insevens.livejournal.com]

I love this post so much. You've captured perfectly how I feel. I agree that Stephen's death was completly gratuitous and despite vaguely understanding how Jack got there I refuse to believe that there wasn't another kid who didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. It is, as you say, just another case of 'Jack has a horrible, tragic life - do you get that yet?'.

I also love that you don't hate Gwen because right now everyone seems to. I thought she was bloody fantastic, and this was possibly the first series where I haven't had an issue with her once.

I'm dreading series four. I half hope it doesn't exist, and that Jack will just weave in and out of Doctor Who episodes once again. We'll see.

<3

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

It just wouldn't be Torchwood without Ianto getting the coffee. :( Jack in Dr. Who is very fun. Jack in Torchwood without any of his team is not. Sigh.

<333