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Torchwood 1x04
holy. shit.
I...just...this...omg.
WATCH THIS SHOW, YOU GUYS.
SHIT. SHIT. OKAY. ACTUAL THOUGHTS.
Fuck, I had no idea they would throw so much at us so fast, but it just kept coming. They took all these little things and made them seriously frightening and...well, I don't think many shows would actually have killed the pizza girl. Or made the comment about the hard-on. Or had everyone keep making mistakes because that's what people do.
And we were all like HEE PTERODACTYL! but it's so terrifyingly calculating to have an amusing dinosaur flying around your underground lair that you have trained TO KILL THINGS. Kind of like rigging bombs in the walls and walking around with the remote in your pocket. (Though if Lisa escaped...does that mean the pterodactyl is dead? That would be sad.)
There were just so many little things that I loved, like the fact that Jack yelled CODE NINE MANOUEVRES and Gwen clearly had no idea what the hell was going on but dammit, she was going to be useful anyhow, and that the emotional tension NEVER STOPPED, and it didn't build up and then fizzle, it just built and built and crackled and tore in places and oh. oh. Love and monsters.
Owen is still an arse, but that line about women driving his car was SO WELL DONE (you can kind of tell a male wrote this episode) and he was so scared and so brave - don't touch her - and so real and yes all right I think he and Gwen are awesome and I want them to be irritated at each other all the time and then shag. Lots. Just...the way he kept pushing back her hair again and again when they were both trying to calm down, like he wasn't even thinking about it.
I saw the parallels - the double kiss - coming about thirty seconds out (thanks, promo trailers) and was thinking oh, this'll be contrived and weird, but...somehow, it wasn't. Somehow it was right. I think it was Gwen whispering what do we do? in that one perfect quiet moment, because that's what everyone was thinking, all the time, that's all anyone COULD be thinking when you're panicked and scared and trying to stay alive.
And Jack. Oh, god. Jack. I don't think anyone can treat 'Captain' as an affectation any more. He just kept taking hits - verbal ones, psychological ones and physical ones - and he still had the strength to hold his authority together in the face of four very frightened, very intelligent people who weren't going to stop asking questions.
You know, I don't think I want Ten/Jack any more. Jack is far too good for him.
Final wild squee: the basketball game at the beginning. It was fantastic when done in Firefly and it was fantastic here, even though it served the same purpose: to illuminate the single person not playing. It was River then and it was Ianto here. And it worked. And I loved it.
ETA: I am undecided as to whether this episode will slow the deluge of Jack/Ianto (because jesus christ, people, that was some quality nastiness they threw at each other) or - more likely, alas - cause it to double. HURRAH, EVEN *MORE* DEEP DARK MANPAIN!
I...just...this...omg.
WATCH THIS SHOW, YOU GUYS.
SHIT. SHIT. OKAY. ACTUAL THOUGHTS.
Fuck, I had no idea they would throw so much at us so fast, but it just kept coming. They took all these little things and made them seriously frightening and...well, I don't think many shows would actually have killed the pizza girl. Or made the comment about the hard-on. Or had everyone keep making mistakes because that's what people do.
And we were all like HEE PTERODACTYL! but it's so terrifyingly calculating to have an amusing dinosaur flying around your underground lair that you have trained TO KILL THINGS. Kind of like rigging bombs in the walls and walking around with the remote in your pocket. (Though if Lisa escaped...does that mean the pterodactyl is dead? That would be sad.)
There were just so many little things that I loved, like the fact that Jack yelled CODE NINE MANOUEVRES and Gwen clearly had no idea what the hell was going on but dammit, she was going to be useful anyhow, and that the emotional tension NEVER STOPPED, and it didn't build up and then fizzle, it just built and built and crackled and tore in places and oh. oh. Love and monsters.
Owen is still an arse, but that line about women driving his car was SO WELL DONE (you can kind of tell a male wrote this episode) and he was so scared and so brave - don't touch her - and so real and yes all right I think he and Gwen are awesome and I want them to be irritated at each other all the time and then shag. Lots. Just...the way he kept pushing back her hair again and again when they were both trying to calm down, like he wasn't even thinking about it.
I saw the parallels - the double kiss - coming about thirty seconds out (thanks, promo trailers) and was thinking oh, this'll be contrived and weird, but...somehow, it wasn't. Somehow it was right. I think it was Gwen whispering what do we do? in that one perfect quiet moment, because that's what everyone was thinking, all the time, that's all anyone COULD be thinking when you're panicked and scared and trying to stay alive.
And Jack. Oh, god. Jack. I don't think anyone can treat 'Captain' as an affectation any more. He just kept taking hits - verbal ones, psychological ones and physical ones - and he still had the strength to hold his authority together in the face of four very frightened, very intelligent people who weren't going to stop asking questions.
You know, I don't think I want Ten/Jack any more. Jack is far too good for him.
Final wild squee: the basketball game at the beginning. It was fantastic when done in Firefly and it was fantastic here, even though it served the same purpose: to illuminate the single person not playing. It was River then and it was Ianto here. And it worked. And I loved it.
ETA: I am undecided as to whether this episode will slow the deluge of Jack/Ianto (because jesus christ, people, that was some quality nastiness they threw at each other) or - more likely, alas - cause it to double. HURRAH, EVEN *MORE* DEEP DARK MANPAIN!
no subject
That said, though?
I, um.
Found this episode hugely problematic in one very, very, very important way.
You take a woman of color, you stick her in an outfit that is straight up objectifying, and you literally take away her personality.
And...Toshiko as the other woman of color, um. She kind of didn't get to do anything. She was separated the whole time.
If it wasn't 4:30 in the morning, I could be more coherent, buuuuuut. This is problematic like PotC:DMC is problematic.
Also? Oh my god there was some horrific dialogue in this episode, and I feel sorry for John Barrowman. He did the best he could, but. Ultimately the bad dialogue and the whole HI LET'S OBJECTIFY AND SILENCE WOMEN OF COLOR thing just kind of left me cold.
no subject
And Toshiko did a lot of running around but...she's the engineer, she was trying to get to the main power to save their asses. She was still on screen. She was useful. She showed initiative.
I'm speaking without a knowledge of pop culture trends and context, I know, so your point is very likely valid, but I just don't see it. Feel free to talk at me some more when you are awake, though! Edumacate me.
Possibly your intelligent analysis should be dampening my bouyant enthusiasm, but...nope, I still loved it :D
no subject
Objectifying was clearly being done by the doctor, and you could tell Ianto was very uncomfortable with it. Yep. But. It's like -- the way it's set up. The only people on her side are Ianto and the doctor, who is himself a walking stereotype: the tiny 'Eastern' man who has knowledge of arcane science...and who gets turned into half-machine himself.
The rest of the time she was just this frightening figure. Oh yeah. But what does it say that the person -- the woman -- with the darkest skin is the one who is terrifying, who is actively trying to take over people's bodies, who we get told over and over and over isn't strictly a person?
The argument is between two white men -- one who takes the view of the individual, and one who has to consider the good of the whole. But think about this, too: the one who has to consider the good of the whole is the one who sounds American. The one who chooses the person over the whole, Ianto -- he's Welsh. He's not even a "proper Englishman". Which -- I know, I know, that's not how it is, but. We're getting all this imperialist and colonialist setup, and while Ianto's notion is to "fix" her, which is problematic...Jack's alternative isn't much better: annihilation.
And absolutely the Cyberwoman suit is ridiculous. We've been spoiled by Joss Whedon, I think, in that we expect to see women dressed like women. The Cyberwoman suit helps to fetishize her. Period. There's even a thing in sci-fi -- gynoids. As opposed to androids. Robots who are meant to be female.
I agree with everything you've said about Toshiko except for one thing. She didn't show initiative. She took orders from Jack. She examined readouts, but she didn't come up with anything on her own. She was useful in that she had specialized knowledge of technology, and she was obedient.
I don't know if this clears a few things up, but omg ahahaha presentation for the president of the college in five minutes so let me know if there's something I can elaborate more with. On. Thing.
no subject
Okay, Toshiko. When they've all escaped on the lift and Tosh runs up all pleased that she's got them out, and Ianto and Jack are throwing punches and yelling about monsters, she says something along the lines of how she managed to tweak the lockdown timer
And then they're running after Ianto, and Tosh and Jack have a rather snarky exchange in yells.
Tosh: I used my initiative! I'm sorry!
Jack: When I want you to think for yourself, I'll tell you!
Tosh: Well maybe if you'd TOLD me your plan, I wouldn't have done it!
She used her head - he's stressed enough that he's being very unreasonable about it - she's snapping right back at him. In that moment there isn't a side or a right or a wrong. All of the characters in this make accidental mistakes that fuck things up just a little bit more (and I'm not talking about this episode in isolation), and it gives us both an elongation of the tension and the feeling - that I think Firefly does very well - that these people are kickass, yes, but even the most kickass amongst us are capable of screwing up now and again.
no subject