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Post by beccaelizabeth on Apr 4, 2008 13:32:13 GMT -5
James Marsters and a lot of explosions... and no guarantee the whole cast will be back next season. *bites nails... in a happy sort of way*
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Post by beccaelizabeth on Apr 4, 2008 17:22:54 GMT -5
... Is less happy. Don't know how to react about Owen. He's on the declassified joking about how he escaped to the sewers and we don't really know what happened to him. I'd be fed up at the waste of good story mileage if they have got rid of him. He was all twisty and driven! Annoyed about Tosh. Mostly that she didn't really get a story for two seasons and then they killed her off. Not managing to be upset about Tosh because now the fans get to play with her. Might manage upset later. As for the plot... Okay, nuclear power stations? Don't generally speaking run out of power. That needed more explaining. Also, they have this thing called 'fail safe' which generally drops the rods whenever things get a bit dodgy, and hey presto, nice safe reactor. So really that whole thing was... odd. But Owen died of arrogance, since he sent the actual expert home (and where were the rest? Did they have no emergency procedures?) so that part was very much in character. Acting wise both Burn and Naoko knocked it out the park... to use an american phrase I'm not quite sure of. er, I mean, they did that real well. beccaelizabeth.livejournal.com/1400359.htmlfor more thoughts mostly of a complaining sort. The message seems to be 'sometimes you don't want to find lost people cause they'll be pissed off and try and kill you and then you'll have to freeze them rather than get any appropriate treatment'. with a side order of 'oh just let the murderer go, he's hot and he fancies you enough to try and dig you up 2000 years later rather than, just for instance, going back in 100 years time after Gray has left or possibly in 10 hours after same has-left and then digging him up before he's had the couple of millenia of torture'. ... er, anyway, I'm trying to ignore the bizarre plot construction which uses time travel without using it very well at all. but: If Gray is crazy he needs treatment not freezing or killing. If John is a murderer (which he is, we saw and he said and all) he should not in fact be free range. And it's plain bizarre the whole thing hung on an accident in Jack's childhood rather than, say, something he *actually* did in those years he was a torturer and time agent and con artist and could quite plausibly have pissed off a lot of resourceful people. *sigh*
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Post by Matthew on Apr 6, 2008 21:00:30 GMT -5
Wow. I'm gonna miss them. Damn. Shows how much Torchwood 3 is a dysfunctional agency that has to rebuild itself every few years, and why.
1870-odd years of pennance. PAINFUL pennance.
And cute little retcon of Tosh into that ep Aliens of London as herself, rather than as the same actress playing a different character.
and still, wow.
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Post by Queen E on Apr 6, 2008 22:10:01 GMT -5
This episode was a bit of a mind blower for me; I liked a lot about it, but...
Did anyone else think that the guy playing Gray was kind of sucky? Not to get all "Inside the Actor's Studio" here, but I didn't really buy his angst at all. It seemed as if he was playing it as if the torture left him with nothing inside except hate, but he just played it as if there was nothing inside at all. I got no sense of pathos, no sense of a tortured psyche; I found his performance and assertions of anger and hate to be completely banal...and it could have been an amazing character to work with. And working against James Marsters, you really have to bring it. JM was amazing here; I seriously didn't know where he was coming from until they were whisked back in 27 AD Cardiff, without feeling at all cheated.
As for the death of Tosh and Owen, as sad as it made me, I was glad they didn't have a last minute save, which they've done a bit too much this season. Owen, I can understand why they killed him; with his new frangible state, it would have started to stretch the plausibility to keep him from getting more and more broken.
I don't often say this lately, but this season actually would have benefitted from being longer. Unlike, say, my thoughts about Heroes being a better show with only a 13-episode order, this season of Torchwood would have totally been able to sustain a 22-episode season easily.
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 7, 2008 10:26:11 GMT -5
Rhys finds out about the Time Agency. Hee.
John Jack reunion 2.0
Credits.
Rhys finds out about the Weevils. Hee again.
Ghost sightings.
Are these ghosts or actors who wandered off the set of MacBeth?
Blowfish again. getting their use out of the makeup, eh?
Torture Time!?
Cardiff go boom?
Gwen takes charge.
27AD. WHOA! This is going to be cool.
So this is the elusive Gray.
Brotherly reunion. Somehow I feel like I should be a lot more moved by this than I really am.
And then Gray stabs Jack. Okay, then.
Hey, maybe we'll learn Jack's real name. Or his birth name at least, since Gray should know it.
Now Gwen's in charge at the police station?
So Gray's just pissed because Jack let go.
So Jack's been spending all this time looking for Gray? Really?
The actor who's playing Gray has managed to copy John Barrowman's accent. Cool.
Ah, buried alive eternally.
So Gray knew about Jack becoming immortal? Did I miss something?
And John is under Gray's thumbs and that's the reason for making contact with Jack again?
Also, Gray is just too pretty. Wow.
We're going to find Jack in the present again now, aren't we.
So John rescued Gray (or did he?).
Yep, Jack's in the corpse freezer. So he was there the entire time?
Torchwood 1901.
So... Owen "dies" for real?
And... Tosh dies?
Is there going to be a reset or something?
Tosh's final message.
So... they're really dead then? And there's going to be new characters to take their places next season?
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Post by Spaced Out Looney on Apr 7, 2008 10:32:07 GMT -5
So, in conclusion, this season had a definite shift from last season. Not sure if it was better, per se, but I think the showrunners were closer in realizing the show as they wanted it to be. Of course that leaves a bit of disconnect, but with a few more seasons, that will be easy to handwave.
That being said, I'm not in love with the show really. Captain Jack/John Barrowman are enough to keep me watching, and occasionally it really grabs my attention, but in general, I'm only watching this show with less than half of my brain (probably closer to 10-25%) and I doubt that I will ever be inspired to analyze it in greater detail.
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Post by artemis on Apr 19, 2008 21:44:06 GMT -5
wow, this episode was all over the map. i'm not sure yet what to think of it. i feel sad though that they killed tosh and owen off so soon after fleshing out their stories and personalities and all. i think the episode would've been better if the actor who played grey had been, well, a decent actor. i agree with a comment above - i felt like the actor presented more the absence of emotion altogether than hatred or pathos. which is not really generally a very interesting thing to watch. i also agree about time travel not being used very well in this episode, like the writers didn't really think it through very well - including using a childhood event instead of one of the things that jack had done in his lifetime to legitimately piss people off. i wish james marsters had had more to do in this episode, though what he did do, he of course did brilliantly. ;D
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Post by KMInfinity on Apr 20, 2008 15:13:03 GMT -5
Torchwood continues to be one of those shows I really like but feel really never reaches its potential. The characters and situations are intriguing, but the writing is sometimes less than wonderful. I agree with the comments that Grey wasn't well realized, that the Time traveling was used poorly, and that it was a waste to kill off both Owen and Tosh (if they're really dead dead.) Yeah, the "cool" thing now is for dramas to be unafraid to kill off main characters, to make the show life-like in that regards. BUT...a better team of writers could find a way to keep those characters around without the "last minute" saves AND keep the sense of life's ephemeral and arbitrary nature. JM was great. I'm glad his character wasn't as black as painted in the first act, because, well...then probably no more James in the future. A question about the time travel. Capt John couldn't go back to AD 27 a few minutes later and rescue Jack because Grey had set the device for ONE trip only, correct? And he didn't want to strand himself and Jack in AD 27. So he returned to Torchwood to help rescue Jack using his one trip. So is Capt. John now trapped on Earth? Jack made mention of something and John responded he wanted to see what Jack liked about Earth, but I kinda missed the exchange.
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Post by Rachael on Apr 20, 2008 19:15:51 GMT -5
*sigh*
Owen, that makes sense.
Tosh, I am pissed off about. She needed more story, before they offed her.
Not quite up to the rest of this season, IMO, this ep. I felt the story was a bit...well, held together with spit and chicken wire.
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Post by Lola m on Apr 20, 2008 19:33:21 GMT -5
OK, here we go . . . . "I was the only one who could control him." And that's why they partnered the two of them. Hmmmmmm. Heh. Rhys is getting some more eye-opening in this ep. We don't have a song. And if we did, it wouldn't be this song. Heh! ;D I really do love you - machine gun. OK. This is gonna get nasty? Um. Nastier? Eeeep! Using the Weevils . . . someone with the ability to control the Weevils. And now medevial killer monks? (Heh! I love how they just Ianto and Tosh just look at each other so calmy and shoot them down. Heh - Owen going after the eating alien. Love how cynical and world-weary he when talking to the doctor. Eeeep. Bondage non-fun. Does he just want to torture Jack? Now you're interested. Hmmmmm. Somehow I think there's more to this than just being mad that Jack snubbed him. I mean, John is sociopathically looney and so I think the "I'll torture you 'cuz you don't want me the way I want you" thing is real. (Also, I believe he really is bugged by the fact that Jack can't die/has all this time.) I just think there's also more to it than just that. Aha. "Ripples in the pond." And "it's beyond my control". Definitely something more. "Stop me. I hope you can. Really." Yep. Something more going on. Heh! "Jack can't come to the comms right now, but if you leave a message I'll be sure and pass it along." Heh! Fun. Carnage. So easy to mix them up . . . Holy crap. Hmmmm. "Hold me." And he's looking all slightly sickish and like "whew, that's done". What's behind all this? What's really going on? There's another or more plot here, and John's using it to get Jack to himself for a bit . . . It's all gonna be OK. And then the hug lets him teleport Jack somewhere with him . . . Whoa. The nuclear power plant might go boom too? "We are gonna find Jack and we're gonna punish John." Um. Good luck with that.
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Post by Lola m on Apr 20, 2008 19:42:13 GMT -5
Cardiff in the past. Aha! Walking bomb, monitored and "he has me doing anything I'm told". Grey. Sorry's not good enough. Ah. So then Grey is behind this all. Well, that's extremely nasty. Gwen rallying the troops. Go, Gwen!! Ianto and Tosh heading off to try and fix the nuclear plant. Ick. Grey describing being captured . . . "I want you to suffer. I want your life." Ring tossed down and then John has to bury him. Hmmmm. Sentimental value only? I'm thinking . . . maybe something that will help Jack? And now Grey goes to get some more Weevils.
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Post by S'ewing S'cubie on Apr 20, 2008 19:44:13 GMT -5
I'm very upset about Tosh. Owen not so much since he's been dead for several weeks already. But Tosh.
OTOH JM looked pretty. It's nice to have a series that has its slash built in.
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Post by Lola m on Apr 20, 2008 19:56:54 GMT -5
What if this is how the world ends? Rhys believes in her. You're a bloody hero. **sniffles** Gwen goes to TW . . . where she doesn't know that Grey is the one to worry about. "On your knees." "Honestly, it's just sex, sex, sex with you." ;D "It took me too long to realise he had learned terrible things." (And now, of course, I'm so cynical I'm wondering if this is all a con too. ;D ) For one, of course, I don't believe that Grey just let him go. Even if John truly thinks he did, I don't believe that Grey really meant it. Searching for Jack's signal and then . . . Eep! The Weevils are roused! Oh, damn! That's right! Owen is . . . King of the Weevils. (Damn, I love the continuity with that.) Heh! Rhys and Andy at the station. "It's like Fort Apache, the Bronx, innit?" "Apart from the fact that the surrounding forces are savage aliens and we could all die, it's almost exactly the same, yeah." Heeee! ;D ;D Ah. And of course Grey traps them in with the Weevils.
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Post by Lola m on Apr 20, 2008 20:08:12 GMT -5
Owen at the nuclear plant. Heh. Pretty good run down for a layman, Owen. "I don't want you to panic, but the reactor has already hit the critical point." I think I'd be panicing at that moment, frankly. Holy holy holy crap!! Tosh!!!! Death as a relief. Grey wanting to know how she feels. **shivers** He's icky scary! What's banging? Tosh crawls for the communicator . . Holy moly!!! Jack, in the vaults!!! "I forgive you." 1901, Torchwood Hub. They hear a signal. Dig him up. Oh, and they think he's their Jack! Can't cross the time lines. Asked them to freeze him. And then. He just walks. Jack forgave Grey, now "do the same for me". But the creatures didn't hurt you because of Jack. It's not his fault either. But this is all he's got. And Jack drugs him. Puts him down?
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Post by Lola m on Apr 20, 2008 20:22:32 GMT -5
John figures out how to call the Weevils back. Interesting. I thought he was working on a way to get them out of the cells. Oh, Tosh. She's still getting things done, getting Owen the power and info he needs. Too late. Gotta be an option. Answer is to flood the space he's in to contain the meltdown in the facility. And he's got to escape. Hmmmm. Somehow I'm not getting a good feeling about this. And not getting a good feeling about Tosh either. "Thank you." "That's what I'm here for." Yeah. Sooooo not getting a good feeling about this for either of them. Oh, the ring was the signal! Duh! I'm sooooo dumb that I didn't get that before! Oh, crap. Owen is stuck. "Not like this! Get me out of here. I've died once already." "Stay calm!" "Oh why should I do that? Where's the fun in that?" Why not go out screaming? "Because you're breaking my heart." And then he says he's sorry and that she's not to blame. What a very Owen way to go out. Tosh looks really crappy. One little smile for Jack. Ah, that's it for our Tosh then? Damn. I'm all teary and sniffly now. Crap!!!
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