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stakebaitOkay so first, STARZ knows how to throw a party. Free ticket PLUS free giant soda PLUS free giant popcorn PLUS free giant M&Ms. which, granted, is a bit wasteful since if I, a pushing 300 pound chick who missed her dinner, threw away more than half of it, I'm guessing we all did. But still, having waited on line just as long for a bit of fancy and thematically appropriate protein from Game of Thrones the size of my thumb, with no episode attached whatsoever, I say well done you.
Second, this really is Torchwood. it's not "the American Torchwood" like the American Queer as Folk. It's Torchwood, the one we all know and sometimes love and sometimes want to strangle. It's got Gwen being plucky yet conflicted. It's got Jack being rueful yet still deciding for everyone else. It's got Rhys fulfilling the traditional role of action hero wife as per usual. There is now an adorable baby being adorable, as well as cameos from GwenMum and GwenDa, but the best cameo nod definitely goes to a lovely old cottage in the middle of picturesque nowhere that had collateral damage written all over it.
The CIA people are nicely enough done and as sympathetic as you can well be when you're a new character competing with old friends. They've both been given comprehensible personal motives to care above and beyond the job. Their relationship is refreshingly close yet platonic for a man and a woman who both seem to be single -- I hope it stays that way. I like a good workplace romance as well as the next girl, at least in fiction, but it'd be nice for something to stay platonic once in a while, just for variety. Jack put retcon down the blond girl's throat and I remembered why I wanted to smack him. Once, just ONCE, find the plucky person doing the right thing on their own and let them help instead of trying to turn them innocent, ignorant and passive.
The premise is that everyone's suddenly stopped dying and no one knows why, which is nicely ambiguous in its second order consequences and a lot more elegant than some of Torchwood's larger plots. We also find out that Jack isn't healing as he usually does, and that the last recorded death on planet earth coincided with an email to the CIA about Torchwood which was not sent by Jack, and which "called Jack back" to make it disappear, or try to. Unclear where Jack was -- indeed unclear about what happened after the end of CoE in general, except that it has left everyone a bit touchy and scarred. Probably for the best, that.
Unexplained people trying to kill Gwen and Jack are, well, unexplained, as yet. Some doctors have extremely stretchy Hippocratic oaths and some not so much. A guy who has been specially designed to be the least sympathetic criminal ever gets out on double jeopardy when his execution doesn't take and drives out through an angry mob -- I am not sure why he didn't end up like Prometheus, and why he wasn't afraid of doing so either.
Injured CIA guy flies to Wales and is funny about being stuck in Wales and tracks down Gwen just in time to help run away from the unexplained wannabe killers and their helicopter; helpfully this lets Gwen get back in the saddle without actually breaking her promise to Rhys not to. Jack has brought a roofless jeep which seems silly to me compared to their own car which has cover, but it does allow for the shoulder mounted surface to air rocket launcher. And then CIA guy gets a horde of backup from the local cops and announces that he's extraditing the Torchwood team to America under the 456 provisions of something else with numbers in but the point is, it's an American something.
And then I lost my suspension of disbelief, because you can't extradite British nationals based on American amendments to American laws. None of these people are American citizens or residents; none of them have committed crimes against American citizens or on American soil -- at least, not that he knows of -- American law applies to them about as much as Welsh law applies to me. And if you think the NYPD would back up a random Welsh spy who tried to extradite me without so much as a reason, you are smoking the good stuff. Sure, you can KIDNAP them and you can call it extradition if it makes you feel better, but why in the holy hells would the authorities agree? And why couldn't you just make it international law and treaties and at least get your bullshit in the right ballpark?
It may see odd to you that I can stomach the death of death but not bad legal handwaving, but the death of death is supposed to be weird. It was almost certainly created by someone not human, and everyone is running around trying to understand it. Whereas the law, if it doesn't always make sense, is supposed to at least make consistent nonsense. it was created by humans, and I am prepared to bet that no one will spend any time whatsoever explaining what happened to it.
Also in the preview it looks like CIA lad gets home to find that he's been systematically undercut in his own organization, which makes how he swung this level of official support even less sensical. Unless he was meant to bring Torchwood back to the states so they can be killed.
All i can say is, there had better be some damned fine fanwanking in the works. Perhaps it ties in to the unseen Mr. Perkins, who is busy gathering all the Torchwood files into his hot little hands while everyone else is preoccupied with the whole not dying thing.
There were some adorable bits; jack giving owen's name when he's impersonating an FBI agent; Gwen putting earmuffs on the baby before going on a shooting spree. gwen and her da in his hospital bed being very deliberately anti-sentimental. I will probably watch more of it, if I can figure out how since I have no cable and am unwilling to download without permission. I heard people bitching in the lobby about the production values but it looked fine to me. However I don't mind telling you I was hoping STARZ would ride a tighter herd on RTD's version of "the magic moves at the speed of the plot" and it doesn't seem to me like they're gonna.
Unclear whether they are going to ride closer herd on Cap'n Jack's eclectic sex life. I hope and assume not, but it hasn't actually come up yet one way or the other.
Sadly I also sat next to the one woman in the theater who was sorry she'd come and said so repeatedly. She found the cheering of the die hards who'd been there since 9 a.m. offputting; I found her complaining the same, particularly as it developed she'd only come for the free food and to try and sneak into another movie. I would have assumed that was a unique thing except that taking the elevator up at the end it turned out that everyone else in the elevator but me had the same agenda. Amazing. these must be the people who see a broken down bus and spontaneously think to jump on and claim injury.
Second, this really is Torchwood. it's not "the American Torchwood" like the American Queer as Folk. It's Torchwood, the one we all know and sometimes love and sometimes want to strangle. It's got Gwen being plucky yet conflicted. It's got Jack being rueful yet still deciding for everyone else. It's got Rhys fulfilling the traditional role of action hero wife as per usual. There is now an adorable baby being adorable, as well as cameos from GwenMum and GwenDa, but the best cameo nod definitely goes to a lovely old cottage in the middle of picturesque nowhere that had collateral damage written all over it.
The CIA people are nicely enough done and as sympathetic as you can well be when you're a new character competing with old friends. They've both been given comprehensible personal motives to care above and beyond the job. Their relationship is refreshingly close yet platonic for a man and a woman who both seem to be single -- I hope it stays that way. I like a good workplace romance as well as the next girl, at least in fiction, but it'd be nice for something to stay platonic once in a while, just for variety. Jack put retcon down the blond girl's throat and I remembered why I wanted to smack him. Once, just ONCE, find the plucky person doing the right thing on their own and let them help instead of trying to turn them innocent, ignorant and passive.
The premise is that everyone's suddenly stopped dying and no one knows why, which is nicely ambiguous in its second order consequences and a lot more elegant than some of Torchwood's larger plots. We also find out that Jack isn't healing as he usually does, and that the last recorded death on planet earth coincided with an email to the CIA about Torchwood which was not sent by Jack, and which "called Jack back" to make it disappear, or try to. Unclear where Jack was -- indeed unclear about what happened after the end of CoE in general, except that it has left everyone a bit touchy and scarred. Probably for the best, that.
Unexplained people trying to kill Gwen and Jack are, well, unexplained, as yet. Some doctors have extremely stretchy Hippocratic oaths and some not so much. A guy who has been specially designed to be the least sympathetic criminal ever gets out on double jeopardy when his execution doesn't take and drives out through an angry mob -- I am not sure why he didn't end up like Prometheus, and why he wasn't afraid of doing so either.
Injured CIA guy flies to Wales and is funny about being stuck in Wales and tracks down Gwen just in time to help run away from the unexplained wannabe killers and their helicopter; helpfully this lets Gwen get back in the saddle without actually breaking her promise to Rhys not to. Jack has brought a roofless jeep which seems silly to me compared to their own car which has cover, but it does allow for the shoulder mounted surface to air rocket launcher. And then CIA guy gets a horde of backup from the local cops and announces that he's extraditing the Torchwood team to America under the 456 provisions of something else with numbers in but the point is, it's an American something.
And then I lost my suspension of disbelief, because you can't extradite British nationals based on American amendments to American laws. None of these people are American citizens or residents; none of them have committed crimes against American citizens or on American soil -- at least, not that he knows of -- American law applies to them about as much as Welsh law applies to me. And if you think the NYPD would back up a random Welsh spy who tried to extradite me without so much as a reason, you are smoking the good stuff. Sure, you can KIDNAP them and you can call it extradition if it makes you feel better, but why in the holy hells would the authorities agree? And why couldn't you just make it international law and treaties and at least get your bullshit in the right ballpark?
It may see odd to you that I can stomach the death of death but not bad legal handwaving, but the death of death is supposed to be weird. It was almost certainly created by someone not human, and everyone is running around trying to understand it. Whereas the law, if it doesn't always make sense, is supposed to at least make consistent nonsense. it was created by humans, and I am prepared to bet that no one will spend any time whatsoever explaining what happened to it.
Also in the preview it looks like CIA lad gets home to find that he's been systematically undercut in his own organization, which makes how he swung this level of official support even less sensical. Unless he was meant to bring Torchwood back to the states so they can be killed.
All i can say is, there had better be some damned fine fanwanking in the works. Perhaps it ties in to the unseen Mr. Perkins, who is busy gathering all the Torchwood files into his hot little hands while everyone else is preoccupied with the whole not dying thing.
There were some adorable bits; jack giving owen's name when he's impersonating an FBI agent; Gwen putting earmuffs on the baby before going on a shooting spree. gwen and her da in his hospital bed being very deliberately anti-sentimental. I will probably watch more of it, if I can figure out how since I have no cable and am unwilling to download without permission. I heard people bitching in the lobby about the production values but it looked fine to me. However I don't mind telling you I was hoping STARZ would ride a tighter herd on RTD's version of "the magic moves at the speed of the plot" and it doesn't seem to me like they're gonna.
Unclear whether they are going to ride closer herd on Cap'n Jack's eclectic sex life. I hope and assume not, but it hasn't actually come up yet one way or the other.
Sadly I also sat next to the one woman in the theater who was sorry she'd come and said so repeatedly. She found the cheering of the die hards who'd been there since 9 a.m. offputting; I found her complaining the same, particularly as it developed she'd only come for the free food and to try and sneak into another movie. I would have assumed that was a unique thing except that taking the elevator up at the end it turned out that everyone else in the elevator but me had the same agenda. Amazing. these must be the people who see a broken down bus and spontaneously think to jump on and claim injury.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-06 01:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-06 02:24 am (UTC)I would say bring a book and a folding stool if you have trouble standing, but by the standards of other fannish stampedes or the previous night's fireworks it was actually pretty mellow. Of course there's no guarantee Torchwood fandom in your neck of the woods might not be larger than the local theater can accommodate...
no subject
Date: 2011-07-06 07:04 pm (UTC)And then I lost my suspension of disbelief, because you can't extradite British nationals based on American amendments to American laws.
Hahaha, I've been thinking that since I saw it mentioned somewhere quite a while ago. I was hoping it would make more sense in the actual ep ... Oh well. *g*
no subject
Date: 2011-07-07 01:10 am (UTC)