Torchwood 2.10
Mar. 13th, 2008 11:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakHuh.
Seriously, I can't help suspecting P.J. Hammond wrote this one last season in addition to his episode with the fairies, and they just updated it a bit with the reference to Owen's state of being. Because otherwise, it feels very much like early first season; Ianto looks emo, there are references to bits of Jack's Man Of Mystery past that ultimately don't amount to anything, the team interaction feels generic and bland rather than having the sparkle and uniqueness about each character it had in all the other episodes this season, and there is a depressing ending.
(The one exception to the blandness is when they're watching the circus clips, Gwen teases Jack about doing standup and Jack and Owen have that freak show exchange. But that's it.)
It's not a boring episode - Hammond brings on the creepy reliably - but imo it misses out so many opportunities that could have made it into something better. For example - Jack never talks to the travelling show people. Given that he knew them personally, given that he fondly reminisces about two of them (not the Night Travellers, of course!) when they're watching the clips, how much more poignant would it have been if those two always arguing wrestlers/clowns he spoke fondly of at the end had been begging him to keep them alive and ask him why they can't stay if he is also there, out of his time? Or: that promising beginning with Gwen, Ianto and Owen going out together. Now that's a team-up we haven't seen often (though of course each of them have interacted with each other). It could have been both fun and interesting if they, instead of Jack and Ianto, had been the main team to solve the mystery in this episode. We could have seen more than just snippets of Gwen and Ianto interaction (though said snippets demonstrate yet again that as opposed to fanon, they're fond of each other), we could have seen both of them interact with Owen now that he's started to adjust to his new state, all three of them could have shown us something of how the months without Jack must have been like when they and Tosh became a successful team of their own and bonded. Or: at the end, I kept waiting for Travelling Show!Jack stepping out from the screen as well, so that either Ianto or Jack or both would essentially have to kill Jack himself. Instead of gratitiously killing off most of the victims, which felt like an afterthought and a very s1 kind of "life is cruel, there's not much point" kind of thing, that could have served the need for darkness just fine and could have told us something about Jack, or Ianto, or both.
And lastly: how come NOBODY made a reference to the Purple Rose of Cairo?
Ah, well. One filler episode per season is probably inevitable, and I enjoyed/liked/loved most of the other episodes so much that I can shrug it off.
Seriously, I can't help suspecting P.J. Hammond wrote this one last season in addition to his episode with the fairies, and they just updated it a bit with the reference to Owen's state of being. Because otherwise, it feels very much like early first season; Ianto looks emo, there are references to bits of Jack's Man Of Mystery past that ultimately don't amount to anything, the team interaction feels generic and bland rather than having the sparkle and uniqueness about each character it had in all the other episodes this season, and there is a depressing ending.
(The one exception to the blandness is when they're watching the circus clips, Gwen teases Jack about doing standup and Jack and Owen have that freak show exchange. But that's it.)
It's not a boring episode - Hammond brings on the creepy reliably - but imo it misses out so many opportunities that could have made it into something better. For example - Jack never talks to the travelling show people. Given that he knew them personally, given that he fondly reminisces about two of them (not the Night Travellers, of course!) when they're watching the clips, how much more poignant would it have been if those two always arguing wrestlers/clowns he spoke fondly of at the end had been begging him to keep them alive and ask him why they can't stay if he is also there, out of his time? Or: that promising beginning with Gwen, Ianto and Owen going out together. Now that's a team-up we haven't seen often (though of course each of them have interacted with each other). It could have been both fun and interesting if they, instead of Jack and Ianto, had been the main team to solve the mystery in this episode. We could have seen more than just snippets of Gwen and Ianto interaction (though said snippets demonstrate yet again that as opposed to fanon, they're fond of each other), we could have seen both of them interact with Owen now that he's started to adjust to his new state, all three of them could have shown us something of how the months without Jack must have been like when they and Tosh became a successful team of their own and bonded. Or: at the end, I kept waiting for Travelling Show!Jack stepping out from the screen as well, so that either Ianto or Jack or both would essentially have to kill Jack himself. Instead of gratitiously killing off most of the victims, which felt like an afterthought and a very s1 kind of "life is cruel, there's not much point" kind of thing, that could have served the need for darkness just fine and could have told us something about Jack, or Ianto, or both.
And lastly: how come NOBODY made a reference to the Purple Rose of Cairo?
Ah, well. One filler episode per season is probably inevitable, and I enjoyed/liked/loved most of the other episodes so much that I can shrug it off.
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