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beccaelizabethOkay, trying to find things to say about it that aren't rude
(actually, I have many of those, they're just... behind the other stuff)
How much did I love that redshirt blonde in the teaser took a baseball bat with her? Enough to make mental note of it.
Thing is, if the 'victim' acts sensible, it makes the scary things scarier. Because if she does everything right and still gets killed? *Scary*.
Team Torchwood turn up... I'm with Tosh, even if they had vegetarian options I'm not going to eat from that roadside thing.
Sets up a theme of eating vs what you wouldn't eat, clean vs unclean.
Well, a little bit.
And then later there's all the hanging meat of assorted types.
I just wanted to know which relative ran the burger stand. Because if it was me writing, I'd totally go there. Countrycide cannibals, creepy. Doublemeat is people? Sharing their local speciality meats with random passerby, who don't stop to think about the economy supporting their consumption... That's just fun.
You know, for the deeply fucked up definition of 'fun' that is a straight up human horror setup.
When they're wandering over the landscape and you see them next to the big rock face, due to long habit with DW etc, one might think "quarry! alien planet! which planet this time?"
Only of course it wasn't alien.
Which was the whole thing with the episode. So could be kind of smart.
It was also almost my whole *problem* with the episode.
Aside from that, the character stuff this episode was solid. There were interactions among team members! There was a ton of everyone except Jack and quite a bit of Jack. (I think it fits my last week prediction of focus on the characters missing from that ep. But *shrugs*)
Gwen's little "who did you snog" thing was... a lovely bit of writing, but from Gwen's point of view? How much of a massive idiot must she feel right then?
Tosh and Owen had some stuff that Tosh thought was stuff and Owen didn't. Poor Tosh.
Everyone except Ianto and Gwen are adrenaline junkies?
Gwen a bit borderline though?
Ianto being quite reasonably scared.
And also the guy with the pocket of tracker.
I like Ianto more and more.
I also like how he waited until last and just reminded them all they're ignoring his horrible tragedy. Because yes, they so very needed calling on that one.
He doesn't count when Jack kissed him as a kiss. Interesting.
Jack neatly manages to avoid answering. And, okay, might well be implying a true thing, but he still doesn't actually *say* anything.
Gwen was the one doing team building in the middle of all the sulky camp stuff. Owen was sulking a lot, Gwen started a conversation to bond over shared talking. It was just a really bad topic, all in all.
Nicely written though.
There was a minimum of horror cliche stupidity overall. I mean, Jack split up the team, but that would be because the team thinks they don't *need* help. And I rather think part of what they were trying to show us is yes, actually, sometimes they really do, but they're arrogant enough to not notice. Which could be nice setup.
The only bit that did have me all "How stupid *are* you?" was when they turned their back on the local policeman.
This would be an example of being blinded by paradigm. But a stupid one, because they've already had a possessing entity, so even if they believe the problem to be supernatural/alien in origin, there's nothing to say they wouldn't still look human.
Being blinded by the uniform? Fucking stupid. Seriously. Something that big and that messed up is going on, they can't trust anyone.
... Would I turn my back on a policeman, you say?
I don't like to turn my back on *anyone*. I'm freaky like that. I arrange myself to have my back to the wall, a straight run at at least one exit, and line of sight on as many entrances as possible. Then I do this security camera thing to be absolutely sure I'm seeing everything.
Yes, seriously.
Yes, I was on medication for anxiety.
But in a situation like that... it isn't just turning your back, it's... Okay, there was a bit with Owen and Gwen in the woods. No, not that bit, the bit with the running and guns. And Gwen gestured for Owen to *cross her line of fire*. And hello? Where did she learn that was a good idea? Because you go from having two effective guns down to one, purely because she wanted to stand still. The *right* way to do it was for her to swing wide, keeping both the target and Owen in sight. Because you need to know, see both friendlies and enemies, or you end up, for instance, pointing a gun at a team mate by accident.
(Yes, I learn this from playing RPGs. Therefore I shouldn't have more training than them) ( ;-) )
But then later with the getting shot standing there in the door... That wasn't her smartest moment ever either. There's ways to open doors too. Jack was standing there with a nice solid wall between him and the gun. And Jack's the immortal one.
But he didn't exactly tell her off, and they had found a whole bunch of dead people, so *shrugs*.
... Plot point, *why* were there dead people? I mean, if it was villagers doing it, why did they have leftover bits of dead dude in their house? Doesn't exactly make any bloody sense at all, does it?
... This was going to be the non-rant review. Right.
The whole Owen/Gwen thing read like fanfic. Hurt comfort. With that kind of pushy git meets woman who wants it really I actually read slash to get away from.
Ianto was the one acting most scared and yet the one who was distraction while Tosh ran. That there would be courage. Tosh... might be hubris/pride/stupidity. I mean, she didn't actually get herself out of it, whatever she was saying.
That standoff with everyone pointing guns at everyone... I don't know, I don't know if I could pull the trigger at all, but my math suggests shooting him would be a much better idea than surrendering the whole team to the murderer. I guess it depends on how you rate your chances unarmed and injured against multiple armed persons who have captured almost the whole team by then. Personally I'd rate them very low. Once she handed over her gun, their only remaining chance was the one member of the team... who couldn't actually be dead and she knew it. Hmmm. Okay, that might skew the math some.
How much did I love Jack charging in in the tractor and shooting every single bad guy in the room, one shot each, neat as anything?
I think if I can seperate it out from the content of the episode I love it a hell of a lot.
... Not so much loving 'shoot to wound' though. I mean, I know he's aiming at humans and might not want a mass slaughter, but you shoot with the assumption it will kill, and you aim somewhere you know will put them down. Just the only way guns work. Aim at a limb and there's too much chance of missing, or not stopping them shooting a hostage or something. And it can also kill someone to get hit in a limb so it's a bit of a no win strategy.
I don't know, it was a very quick bit of action, might be remembering it wrong. Seemed like he was aiming at legs and stuff. Not sure.
And *after* that he's holding a gun to the man and Gwen has to stop him? Say what? If he wanted them dead, they'd be dead.
Good cop bad cop? Bit of a freak thing to try right then.
Gwen trying to understand it though... She was a policewoman. She's surely seen all kinds of shit, pre-Torchwood, human against human. But this crosses her line?
... Yeah, I guess I can see how random cannibalism would be a bit outside the norm, but still, it isn't like this was something she met because of Torchwood, this was straight up cop stuff only not uncovered due to corruption and scale. (If the whole village does alibis and says they weren't anywhere near any badness then it gets hard to doubt).
Gwen responding to it all by having sex... Yeah, okay, very human. Just... Well, for this post, leave it at that. Human, plausible, and not to my taste at all.
Also worrying because instead of making team more human team is making Gwen more like them. And instead of connecting to Rhys as her reason, she feels too disconnected and goes off with the wrong kind of doctor. Well she was in the habit of lying to hide the icky parts already, from episode one hiding that she had anything to do with that murder. So the disconnect was already there, and now there's more and more stacking up behind it.
But Owen can make her feel better. For a while.
My problems with the episode were that I choose not to watch human serial killer films, because they creep me the hell out and give me nightmares. I'm sitting here with my sword in my lap right now, jumping at every noise (and why are there noises? My house should not have noises. Crinkly plastic bag noises! From where! Wah!)
I know full well humans can do fucked up shit. I just can't *handle* it. This is why I watch F&SF, which puts a layer of impossible and metaphor between me and the issues.
My other problem is the torture thing. Which might strike you as a small thing, but is on the wrong side of one of my don't go there lines.
... My other other problem is Owen, who I still can't read as anything other than creepy as all hell.
And what is up with showing her injury in such detail?
And showing him pulling stuff out of it... I'm so going to be having nightmares about that too.
Makes him the guy who takes her pain away, but seriously, *eeeew*.
And I still wouldn't trust him to stop, or take bugger off for an answer.
Overall opinion:
Episode focused on character interaction, yaay
specific character developments, unyaay
plot should fuck off back to another genre.
(actually, I have many of those, they're just... behind the other stuff)
How much did I love that redshirt blonde in the teaser took a baseball bat with her? Enough to make mental note of it.
Thing is, if the 'victim' acts sensible, it makes the scary things scarier. Because if she does everything right and still gets killed? *Scary*.
Team Torchwood turn up... I'm with Tosh, even if they had vegetarian options I'm not going to eat from that roadside thing.
Sets up a theme of eating vs what you wouldn't eat, clean vs unclean.
Well, a little bit.
And then later there's all the hanging meat of assorted types.
I just wanted to know which relative ran the burger stand. Because if it was me writing, I'd totally go there. Countrycide cannibals, creepy. Doublemeat is people? Sharing their local speciality meats with random passerby, who don't stop to think about the economy supporting their consumption... That's just fun.
You know, for the deeply fucked up definition of 'fun' that is a straight up human horror setup.
When they're wandering over the landscape and you see them next to the big rock face, due to long habit with DW etc, one might think "quarry! alien planet! which planet this time?"
Only of course it wasn't alien.
Which was the whole thing with the episode. So could be kind of smart.
It was also almost my whole *problem* with the episode.
Aside from that, the character stuff this episode was solid. There were interactions among team members! There was a ton of everyone except Jack and quite a bit of Jack. (I think it fits my last week prediction of focus on the characters missing from that ep. But *shrugs*)
Gwen's little "who did you snog" thing was... a lovely bit of writing, but from Gwen's point of view? How much of a massive idiot must she feel right then?
Tosh and Owen had some stuff that Tosh thought was stuff and Owen didn't. Poor Tosh.
Everyone except Ianto and Gwen are adrenaline junkies?
Gwen a bit borderline though?
Ianto being quite reasonably scared.
And also the guy with the pocket of tracker.
I like Ianto more and more.
I also like how he waited until last and just reminded them all they're ignoring his horrible tragedy. Because yes, they so very needed calling on that one.
He doesn't count when Jack kissed him as a kiss. Interesting.
Jack neatly manages to avoid answering. And, okay, might well be implying a true thing, but he still doesn't actually *say* anything.
Gwen was the one doing team building in the middle of all the sulky camp stuff. Owen was sulking a lot, Gwen started a conversation to bond over shared talking. It was just a really bad topic, all in all.
Nicely written though.
There was a minimum of horror cliche stupidity overall. I mean, Jack split up the team, but that would be because the team thinks they don't *need* help. And I rather think part of what they were trying to show us is yes, actually, sometimes they really do, but they're arrogant enough to not notice. Which could be nice setup.
The only bit that did have me all "How stupid *are* you?" was when they turned their back on the local policeman.
This would be an example of being blinded by paradigm. But a stupid one, because they've already had a possessing entity, so even if they believe the problem to be supernatural/alien in origin, there's nothing to say they wouldn't still look human.
Being blinded by the uniform? Fucking stupid. Seriously. Something that big and that messed up is going on, they can't trust anyone.
... Would I turn my back on a policeman, you say?
I don't like to turn my back on *anyone*. I'm freaky like that. I arrange myself to have my back to the wall, a straight run at at least one exit, and line of sight on as many entrances as possible. Then I do this security camera thing to be absolutely sure I'm seeing everything.
Yes, seriously.
Yes, I was on medication for anxiety.
But in a situation like that... it isn't just turning your back, it's... Okay, there was a bit with Owen and Gwen in the woods. No, not that bit, the bit with the running and guns. And Gwen gestured for Owen to *cross her line of fire*. And hello? Where did she learn that was a good idea? Because you go from having two effective guns down to one, purely because she wanted to stand still. The *right* way to do it was for her to swing wide, keeping both the target and Owen in sight. Because you need to know, see both friendlies and enemies, or you end up, for instance, pointing a gun at a team mate by accident.
(Yes, I learn this from playing RPGs. Therefore I shouldn't have more training than them) ( ;-) )
But then later with the getting shot standing there in the door... That wasn't her smartest moment ever either. There's ways to open doors too. Jack was standing there with a nice solid wall between him and the gun. And Jack's the immortal one.
But he didn't exactly tell her off, and they had found a whole bunch of dead people, so *shrugs*.
... Plot point, *why* were there dead people? I mean, if it was villagers doing it, why did they have leftover bits of dead dude in their house? Doesn't exactly make any bloody sense at all, does it?
... This was going to be the non-rant review. Right.
The whole Owen/Gwen thing read like fanfic. Hurt comfort. With that kind of pushy git meets woman who wants it really I actually read slash to get away from.
Ianto was the one acting most scared and yet the one who was distraction while Tosh ran. That there would be courage. Tosh... might be hubris/pride/stupidity. I mean, she didn't actually get herself out of it, whatever she was saying.
That standoff with everyone pointing guns at everyone... I don't know, I don't know if I could pull the trigger at all, but my math suggests shooting him would be a much better idea than surrendering the whole team to the murderer. I guess it depends on how you rate your chances unarmed and injured against multiple armed persons who have captured almost the whole team by then. Personally I'd rate them very low. Once she handed over her gun, their only remaining chance was the one member of the team... who couldn't actually be dead and she knew it. Hmmm. Okay, that might skew the math some.
How much did I love Jack charging in in the tractor and shooting every single bad guy in the room, one shot each, neat as anything?
I think if I can seperate it out from the content of the episode I love it a hell of a lot.
... Not so much loving 'shoot to wound' though. I mean, I know he's aiming at humans and might not want a mass slaughter, but you shoot with the assumption it will kill, and you aim somewhere you know will put them down. Just the only way guns work. Aim at a limb and there's too much chance of missing, or not stopping them shooting a hostage or something. And it can also kill someone to get hit in a limb so it's a bit of a no win strategy.
I don't know, it was a very quick bit of action, might be remembering it wrong. Seemed like he was aiming at legs and stuff. Not sure.
And *after* that he's holding a gun to the man and Gwen has to stop him? Say what? If he wanted them dead, they'd be dead.
Good cop bad cop? Bit of a freak thing to try right then.
Gwen trying to understand it though... She was a policewoman. She's surely seen all kinds of shit, pre-Torchwood, human against human. But this crosses her line?
... Yeah, I guess I can see how random cannibalism would be a bit outside the norm, but still, it isn't like this was something she met because of Torchwood, this was straight up cop stuff only not uncovered due to corruption and scale. (If the whole village does alibis and says they weren't anywhere near any badness then it gets hard to doubt).
Gwen responding to it all by having sex... Yeah, okay, very human. Just... Well, for this post, leave it at that. Human, plausible, and not to my taste at all.
Also worrying because instead of making team more human team is making Gwen more like them. And instead of connecting to Rhys as her reason, she feels too disconnected and goes off with the wrong kind of doctor. Well she was in the habit of lying to hide the icky parts already, from episode one hiding that she had anything to do with that murder. So the disconnect was already there, and now there's more and more stacking up behind it.
But Owen can make her feel better. For a while.
My problems with the episode were that I choose not to watch human serial killer films, because they creep me the hell out and give me nightmares. I'm sitting here with my sword in my lap right now, jumping at every noise (and why are there noises? My house should not have noises. Crinkly plastic bag noises! From where! Wah!)
I know full well humans can do fucked up shit. I just can't *handle* it. This is why I watch F&SF, which puts a layer of impossible and metaphor between me and the issues.
My other problem is the torture thing. Which might strike you as a small thing, but is on the wrong side of one of my don't go there lines.
... My other other problem is Owen, who I still can't read as anything other than creepy as all hell.
And what is up with showing her injury in such detail?
And showing him pulling stuff out of it... I'm so going to be having nightmares about that too.
Makes him the guy who takes her pain away, but seriously, *eeeew*.
And I still wouldn't trust him to stop, or take bugger off for an answer.
Overall opinion:
Episode focused on character interaction, yaay
specific character developments, unyaay
plot should fuck off back to another genre.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-07 05:18 pm (UTC)