Torchwood 03.01 Cyberwoman
Dec. 2nd, 2007 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreamer_easyJust rewatched this episode, with the commentary. Despite the embarrassment of the chainmail bikini, it's still a ripper - fast-paced, strongly motivated, passionate, acted with conviction by all, and full of the characters getting the crap kicked out of them. V. interesting from a writerly technical point of view to hear Mr Chibnall pointing out glitches in the writing, both in the commentary and in his recent interview - notably Ianto's line about watching Jack suffer and die, which was never paid off. The commentary is hilarious, with references to the "escalating insanity" of the story, GDL's dip in the filthy Hub water, and the missing coleslaw. :-)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 05:33 am (UTC)It's the ending which most annoys me on the motivation front. Why do they forgive Ianto for all this, why does Ianto decide to keep working for the boss who just pulled a gun on him and the bastards who just killed his girlfriend, and most basically, WHY IS HIDING YOUR KILLER ROBOT GIRLFRIEND IN THE BASEMENT NOT A SACKABLE OFFENCE? What exactly is Torchwood's Human Resources policy when it comes to dismissing employees, if that doesn't seem to qualify?
Even if they've consciously decided to forgive Ianto, and he's decided to stay on rather than getting as far away as possible from the whole Torchwood thing, why is there not a big scene where they actually communicate how they get to that point to the viewer? Even Chibnall thinks they blew that one, it seems...
This episode's heart is in the right place, it's doing a lot of the right sort of things, but I can't get past the big points which are just not there...
no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 01:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 01:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 01:53 pm (UTC)What I want to know is, how did we get from "I want to watch you suffer and die" to stopwatch innuendo?
no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 02:54 am (UTC)I've now tried four times to write a sentence to sum up how bad I thought this episode was... I just can't muster the adjectives :P
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 12:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:27 am (UTC)There must have been a secret off-screen shag before the final scene (as broadcast), since Jack has obviously also forgiven Ianto!
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 07:03 am (UTC)We're meant to believe that there's this great love/strength/bond/something underpinning all their relationships, with a lot of hero worship towards Jack as well, which outweighs all the horrible things they do to each other - but it's just not visible most of the time. Like Gwen's amazing wonderfulness. (I'll try not to get started about that - I actually like her, but she's not St Gwen.)
One of the things I liked about the whole Cyberwoman thing was that you could sympathise with Ianto's point of view (twisted and unrealistic though it was) and you could see Jack's point of view as well. That was one time in Torchwood where I could actually sympathise with both parties in a dispute. Then they screwed it all up by having it be basically forgotten!
(I love Torchwood and get a lot of enjoyment out of it, but part of the enjoyment is finding all these odd writing flaws!)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 03:40 pm (UTC)So, Jack forgives people for doing idiotic things all the time because he knows that he can't just fire them. Ianto agrees to stay on because he knows the alternative could be ending up either locked up or "stored" in the Torchwood vault, like Susie. Whether they like it or not, THEY'RE ALL STUCK WITH EACH OTHER. So they do the best they can to get on, and try to forgive their co-workers when they pull absolutely ridiculous stunts, because the alternative is far worse.
Maybe?
no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 12:57 pm (UTC)The frustrating thing was that with the visiting scientist and pizza-deliverer, they showed they could do some brilliantly grotesque effects, so why not apply some of them to Lisa?
(And does Ianto shave Lisa's legs? I guess he might well as he cares for her in her metal chair, but it must be dead fiddly getting underneath all those bits of metal that weren't quite touching her. Maybe they have super-duper alien depilatories at the Hub.)
I was actually really freaked out, both times I watched, by the pizza-deliverer's fate. Apart from finding body horror quite chilling to start with, it's just creepy that this poor woman only stopped in to deliver pizza, and Lisa not only killed her but started walking around in her corpse. Brrr.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-02 01:12 pm (UTC)AHA HA HAH HA HA HA
I suppose the poor pizza girl's brain is lying around in the lab somewhere, discarded. EUW
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 03:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:25 am (UTC)http://community.livejournal.com/torch_wood/1974624.html
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 09:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 01:18 pm (UTC)*squees quietly*
no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 12:49 am (UTC)That just made me *sporfle* (literally, I nearly choked on my coffee! ;) ) Lol! I can just see her peek around the doorway then make Very Big Eyes... Then possibly start taking notes or grabbing a convenient camera or whatever... ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-12-03 06:26 am (UTC)