Torchwood 2-10 From Out of the Rain
Mar. 12th, 2008 10:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethSome of the same weaknesses as Small Worlds - unsurprisingly - but still a fun little episode. Heavy on the plot, but with some *fun* backstory. And GDL put a lot into it. I liked it. But.
It's a Jack & Ianto show - the way Small Worlds was a Jack & Gwen show, I think this writer can only do pairs with incidental others. The others were considerably less random and more like themselves than last time. But they still had very small presence compared to Jack and Ianto. And... well, the fact that I consider that a sad thing says something about how much I love the team as a team, love the show as an ensemble show, but... my biggest peeve? How can Jack and Ianto spend that much time together on screen and have it be the *least* Jack/Ianto show? I mean... huh? The only thing was it being Ianto Jack wants to work with, and that's professional, that's not flirty. They were too busy to be flirty. Only Gwen's "Is that what they're calling it" reminded us there was any flirty to happen. Which, you know, fair enough, but... they were stood side by side the whole time, yet that was as close as they got. So I'm just sad about it. And it don't feel right.
How come, in such an open happy omnisexual show, we're *still* mostly guessing about the nature of Jack and Ianto's relationship? I mean, we've seen them kiss this year, and dance together, so yaay for that, but compared to how much we got to see of Owen last year or Tosh or Gwen this year...? Frustrating.
However... backstory for the win!
Ianto's father, last week revealed as 'was a master tailor'? This week we find he used to take Ianto to the cinema every saturday morning to watch kids films, specifically at the Electro.
... I guess cinemas that aren't our tiny one actually do that then? I mean, in a regular he hasn't timeslipped lifetime? Because Ianto has this whole retro feel, now more than ever. Every week at that tiny place? And it's the last one left in Cardiff, and even then it's a grand reopening so it has been closed between times. Ianto's the guy who'll go to print records and regular books rather than use the computers. But he's also sysadmin on the website, and plenty competent with tech - fixing up that cellphone to the water tower FTW. So he's smart, educated, but with this fondness for old things... which explains a whole other facet to Jack/Ianto.
All Ianto's references to his father are past tense. That's a relationship with a history but a whole lack of present. As with this cinema opening - if it's that important to his remembered relationship with his father, why is he only going with his workmates? To me that says there's no possibility of his father going. Dead? Could be... but the care home for the really old son and now the psychiatric hospital this week are places that get an "I know it" from Ianto. Sooo... bunny bunny bunny...
Still no mention of mother, yes? I was looking, cause I has bunny that may be jossed. But not yet.
I like that Ianto is so excited to be watching the film. Gwen and Owen are bored, Ianto is fascinated. I was worried it was Bad Things getting to him, but no, it's just the same twist of mind that makes him an archivist. Old photos, old film - fascinated.
Has I mentioned I rather love Ianto?
We were watching early silent cinema the other week in class, and it seems that Ianto would in fact be the kind of guy who would watch thatwith me and comment on it and be interested.
BTW, the 'might see your relatives' pitch was one of the most common forms of early cinema - it was more interactive than modern cinema. There was typically a barker to call people in, very much like the Night Traveller show. And while the cinema may eventually have killed off the freak show, initially it was simply part of it - come see the human canvas and the moving picture show, complete with acrobats and a piano player. That interactivity was key. The audience weren't just there to sit back and absorb a narrative - there wasn't always a narrative. It was a cinema of attractions, of spectacle, a sideshow cinema. And one way to get people really involved was to set up and film their part of town, and then show it to them. People would come in to see themselves, their relatives, all up on screen in moving pictures. There's tons of this genre surviving, factory gate films, and they were the big thing of their day. The fact that they're nothing now, that people don't do that any more, says fascinating things about our changing relationship with the moving image.
... and all that I wouldn't have known before doing Intro Movies week 1, so thanks Teach, I has more appreciation of TV. Win.
(PS I has only one lesson and I didn't consult my notes. Correct me if I'm wrong. For frequently I are.)
I want to fill in and talk about CCTV and how seeing yourself on screen has gone from an attraction to a panopticon thing, big brother, and how that might tie in to the surprise/novelty of seeing Jack up there despite how they're so used to seeing him on their own cameras... and then there's Jack using a camera to capture and destroy, from an excess of exposure... I could totally go to a Foucault place there. But it's late and I suspect others are less interested in the cultural theory than I.
Jack's history gets another bit filled in... while adding more mysteries. This is so much fun. He was working for someone, looking for the Night Travellers. If it was Torchwood, why keep it a mystery? No reason I can figure. So it was just someone, as in we don't know. And if it was the Doctor then Jack wouldn't still be waiting for him... unless there was some tragic timeline crossing thing going on. But likely not. So that's a whole strand of relationship in Jack's past we know not of. Love it.
Hang on, was that bit supposed to be pre or post WWI? Suddenly it seems important. Was he wearing a uniform? I should check. Er, except for it being 11pm and all. Put a pin in it, go back and check later.
BTW - they missed a trick that could have been cool. There's bad things climbing out of the film from movie cameras. Jack knows two of the performers, but says he doesn't know the night travellers. Is he wrong? Or are the night travellers animating people they've captured on film, or animating captured images, or something? Because then they could animate the film of Jack... which, okay, would give us two doppelganger eps in a row, but it's always a fun one. And then there's be sort of a preserved image-of-Jack, who can't die, who is in a sense eternal and trapped in a moment... and then there's our Jack, who is different because... well, because he grows and changes, and relates to new people, and such. Which sort of comes out as is, but wouldn't it be more fun if there was an actual celluloid-Jack confrontation?
Jack performing. Only told Ianto it was as the man that can't die. Gwen thought stand up, or singing. Heh. And then the still a freak show comment... Owen thought it was about him, but really, how much of their lives? And, yeah, also Owen.
Characterisation specifics - Owen remembered the 'nearly naked' and 'beautiful' girl. Er, was it just me or was she a bit boy looking and dressed for a mermaid? Looked great though. Point though, Owen remembers the girl. And has no breath to steal... so why was he incapacitated by the guy's touch? Apparently it hurts, it hurt Ianto. Owen got hurt? He felt pain for the first time since his death? Oh, that would so be a thing. Plus they're sitting there with no breath and he has no breath, that's another thing. And as for the 'can't feel' thing... the limits are interestingly fuzzy. Owen could check for a pulse - that's some pretty subtle feeling right there. I'm tempted to make a distinction between movement/pressure and subtle texture, but texture is pressure so what do I know? Possibly he was just being emo about it and he's more emotionally numb than physically, just without pain. I keep wanting to pin it down though... er, in large part because it makes such a huge difference to porn.
ANYway
Ianto in the field again, taking the lead, noticing things, getting the others attention, working with Jack, running around with a gun, running off with that silver thing... what was his plan there? I mean, get it to hospital would suggest getting in the SUV, just for instance. He was very pretty and action-y doing running, but... *shrugs*. And then there's the tiny thing where it didn't work. They only saved one. Which, hey, better than they managed in season 1, so I guess they really are 'ready' :eyeroll:. But...
well, okay, here we crash into my main objection to the whole episode - and it really shouldn't matter on a show which could not by any stretch of the imagination be called hard SF, because their physics is so damn fuzzy in the first place and they have in the past summoned demons and I rather like that arc... but...
Wrong damn genre.
I'm sorry, but 'they climbed out the film so lets overexpose them' just doesn't work for me. It's fuzzier than the fuzziest SF. As horror or fantasy, sure, why not... but they're wandering around in daylight and it's not special film that they're specially linked to it's just regular film and... No. Sorry. Just no. I mean, if they'd not run around in daylight, if they'd stuck to the shadows a bit more, then I could believe a drag them into the light solution... and there's film related stuff could be a source for that... but as was? Expose the film? That just lost me.
So then they had a magic flask full of seperated life force. I was almost buying that. That could fit. But add it all together and I just felt like it was the wrong show.
So... I love that we got interesting backstory for Jack and Ianto. I think the bad guys were sufficiently creepy, in fact that really worked for me. But I'm not sold on the plot solution, or the genre fit.
hey... we're on episode 10. How did we get to 10? No fair, there's hardly any left this season!
It's a Jack & Ianto show - the way Small Worlds was a Jack & Gwen show, I think this writer can only do pairs with incidental others. The others were considerably less random and more like themselves than last time. But they still had very small presence compared to Jack and Ianto. And... well, the fact that I consider that a sad thing says something about how much I love the team as a team, love the show as an ensemble show, but... my biggest peeve? How can Jack and Ianto spend that much time together on screen and have it be the *least* Jack/Ianto show? I mean... huh? The only thing was it being Ianto Jack wants to work with, and that's professional, that's not flirty. They were too busy to be flirty. Only Gwen's "Is that what they're calling it" reminded us there was any flirty to happen. Which, you know, fair enough, but... they were stood side by side the whole time, yet that was as close as they got. So I'm just sad about it. And it don't feel right.
How come, in such an open happy omnisexual show, we're *still* mostly guessing about the nature of Jack and Ianto's relationship? I mean, we've seen them kiss this year, and dance together, so yaay for that, but compared to how much we got to see of Owen last year or Tosh or Gwen this year...? Frustrating.
However... backstory for the win!
Ianto's father, last week revealed as 'was a master tailor'? This week we find he used to take Ianto to the cinema every saturday morning to watch kids films, specifically at the Electro.
... I guess cinemas that aren't our tiny one actually do that then? I mean, in a regular he hasn't timeslipped lifetime? Because Ianto has this whole retro feel, now more than ever. Every week at that tiny place? And it's the last one left in Cardiff, and even then it's a grand reopening so it has been closed between times. Ianto's the guy who'll go to print records and regular books rather than use the computers. But he's also sysadmin on the website, and plenty competent with tech - fixing up that cellphone to the water tower FTW. So he's smart, educated, but with this fondness for old things... which explains a whole other facet to Jack/Ianto.
All Ianto's references to his father are past tense. That's a relationship with a history but a whole lack of present. As with this cinema opening - if it's that important to his remembered relationship with his father, why is he only going with his workmates? To me that says there's no possibility of his father going. Dead? Could be... but the care home for the really old son and now the psychiatric hospital this week are places that get an "I know it" from Ianto. Sooo... bunny bunny bunny...
Still no mention of mother, yes? I was looking, cause I has bunny that may be jossed. But not yet.
I like that Ianto is so excited to be watching the film. Gwen and Owen are bored, Ianto is fascinated. I was worried it was Bad Things getting to him, but no, it's just the same twist of mind that makes him an archivist. Old photos, old film - fascinated.
Has I mentioned I rather love Ianto?
We were watching early silent cinema the other week in class, and it seems that Ianto would in fact be the kind of guy who would watch that
BTW, the 'might see your relatives' pitch was one of the most common forms of early cinema - it was more interactive than modern cinema. There was typically a barker to call people in, very much like the Night Traveller show. And while the cinema may eventually have killed off the freak show, initially it was simply part of it - come see the human canvas and the moving picture show, complete with acrobats and a piano player. That interactivity was key. The audience weren't just there to sit back and absorb a narrative - there wasn't always a narrative. It was a cinema of attractions, of spectacle, a sideshow cinema. And one way to get people really involved was to set up and film their part of town, and then show it to them. People would come in to see themselves, their relatives, all up on screen in moving pictures. There's tons of this genre surviving, factory gate films, and they were the big thing of their day. The fact that they're nothing now, that people don't do that any more, says fascinating things about our changing relationship with the moving image.
... and all that I wouldn't have known before doing Intro Movies week 1, so thanks Teach, I has more appreciation of TV. Win.
(PS I has only one lesson and I didn't consult my notes. Correct me if I'm wrong. For frequently I are.)
I want to fill in and talk about CCTV and how seeing yourself on screen has gone from an attraction to a panopticon thing, big brother, and how that might tie in to the surprise/novelty of seeing Jack up there despite how they're so used to seeing him on their own cameras... and then there's Jack using a camera to capture and destroy, from an excess of exposure... I could totally go to a Foucault place there. But it's late and I suspect others are less interested in the cultural theory than I.
Jack's history gets another bit filled in... while adding more mysteries. This is so much fun. He was working for someone, looking for the Night Travellers. If it was Torchwood, why keep it a mystery? No reason I can figure. So it was just someone, as in we don't know. And if it was the Doctor then Jack wouldn't still be waiting for him... unless there was some tragic timeline crossing thing going on. But likely not. So that's a whole strand of relationship in Jack's past we know not of. Love it.
Hang on, was that bit supposed to be pre or post WWI? Suddenly it seems important. Was he wearing a uniform? I should check. Er, except for it being 11pm and all. Put a pin in it, go back and check later.
BTW - they missed a trick that could have been cool. There's bad things climbing out of the film from movie cameras. Jack knows two of the performers, but says he doesn't know the night travellers. Is he wrong? Or are the night travellers animating people they've captured on film, or animating captured images, or something? Because then they could animate the film of Jack... which, okay, would give us two doppelganger eps in a row, but it's always a fun one. And then there's be sort of a preserved image-of-Jack, who can't die, who is in a sense eternal and trapped in a moment... and then there's our Jack, who is different because... well, because he grows and changes, and relates to new people, and such. Which sort of comes out as is, but wouldn't it be more fun if there was an actual celluloid-Jack confrontation?
Jack performing. Only told Ianto it was as the man that can't die. Gwen thought stand up, or singing. Heh. And then the still a freak show comment... Owen thought it was about him, but really, how much of their lives? And, yeah, also Owen.
Characterisation specifics - Owen remembered the 'nearly naked' and 'beautiful' girl. Er, was it just me or was she a bit boy looking and dressed for a mermaid? Looked great though. Point though, Owen remembers the girl. And has no breath to steal... so why was he incapacitated by the guy's touch? Apparently it hurts, it hurt Ianto. Owen got hurt? He felt pain for the first time since his death? Oh, that would so be a thing. Plus they're sitting there with no breath and he has no breath, that's another thing. And as for the 'can't feel' thing... the limits are interestingly fuzzy. Owen could check for a pulse - that's some pretty subtle feeling right there. I'm tempted to make a distinction between movement/pressure and subtle texture, but texture is pressure so what do I know? Possibly he was just being emo about it and he's more emotionally numb than physically, just without pain. I keep wanting to pin it down though... er, in large part because it makes such a huge difference to porn.
ANYway
Ianto in the field again, taking the lead, noticing things, getting the others attention, working with Jack, running around with a gun, running off with that silver thing... what was his plan there? I mean, get it to hospital would suggest getting in the SUV, just for instance. He was very pretty and action-y doing running, but... *shrugs*. And then there's the tiny thing where it didn't work. They only saved one. Which, hey, better than they managed in season 1, so I guess they really are 'ready' :eyeroll:. But...
well, okay, here we crash into my main objection to the whole episode - and it really shouldn't matter on a show which could not by any stretch of the imagination be called hard SF, because their physics is so damn fuzzy in the first place and they have in the past summoned demons and I rather like that arc... but...
Wrong damn genre.
I'm sorry, but 'they climbed out the film so lets overexpose them' just doesn't work for me. It's fuzzier than the fuzziest SF. As horror or fantasy, sure, why not... but they're wandering around in daylight and it's not special film that they're specially linked to it's just regular film and... No. Sorry. Just no. I mean, if they'd not run around in daylight, if they'd stuck to the shadows a bit more, then I could believe a drag them into the light solution... and there's film related stuff could be a source for that... but as was? Expose the film? That just lost me.
So then they had a magic flask full of seperated life force. I was almost buying that. That could fit. But add it all together and I just felt like it was the wrong show.
So... I love that we got interesting backstory for Jack and Ianto. I think the bad guys were sufficiently creepy, in fact that really worked for me. But I'm not sold on the plot solution, or the genre fit.
hey... we're on episode 10. How did we get to 10? No fair, there's hardly any left this season!
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no subject
Date: 2008-03-13 07:45 am (UTC)Watching this series, a pattern can be seen. Every time a couple has a 'love scene', something *BAD* happens to the couple. Or at least to one of the partners.
With that in mind, I don't think I ever want to see a Janto love scene, if that means the possible DEATH of Ianto....
no subject
Date: 2008-03-13 12:21 pm (UTC)I'm greedy. I'd like them to fix both.
And I'm not talking love scene, I'm talking the way it's entirely possible to think J/I haven't had that date yet!
... though love scene would be good too.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-13 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-13 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-14 01:03 am (UTC)I don't know why they thought that, since it was pretty clear that Jack was shooting himself in that little clip we all saw.
And I agree, normally I give Torchwood a pass on plots, since for me it's all about the characters, but even the backstories tonight couldn't make up for the rather lack of plot and otherwise engaging story.
no subject
Date: 2008-03-14 09:13 pm (UTC)... which would say interesting things about Gwen.
no subject
Date: 2008-08-04 12:22 am (UTC)"People would come in to see themselves, their relatives, all up on screen in moving pictures. There's tons of this genre surviving, factory gate films, and they were the big thing of their day. The fact that they're nothing now, that people don't do that any more, says fascinating things about our changing relationship with the moving image."
(and then you mention the interesting point about CCTV
-- But don't forget youtube, and kids filming silly things and posting them on myspace...
no subject
Date: 2008-08-04 12:38 am (UTC)*thinky*