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Mar. 13th, 2008 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
doyleMaybe my expectations were unreasonably high due to PJ Hammond's reputation and his episode last year, but god, that Torchwood episode was rubbish. Really nice idea, with the sinister circus folk coming to life from film - I don't mind that it was a magic plot, I'd rather leave it as 'a wizard did it' than have an "as you know, these are actually advanced aliens from planet Zipulon VI" exposition - but it would've been much scarier if we'd just seen them advancing on the woman, rather than having an interminable chat with her, then bottling her breath in the flask... it means Torchwood's about 20 minutes behind the audience, and when they finally catch up with someone who knows what's going on we have to listen to a description of what we've already seen. And wasn't that convenient, that Jack repeated the catchphrase in front of the one nurse who'd worked with the old woman and who had no niggling qualms about patient confidentiality? Then we get to see the Ghostmaster and the mermaid wandering around in daylight, looking perfectly normal and non-sinister, having more interminable chats among themselves, where they exposition about stealing people's life into the flask. Again.
No emotional continuity at all. Gwen's apparently back from honeymoon, but for all we know the wedding might have been a week ago or three years. Or maybe we've jumped back in time. The only way we know this whole episode isn't a season 1 flashback (it'd fit with the 'and loads of civilians, including children, died' ending) is that Owen's dead - which is used in exactly the same way as it was last week, with a monster going to attack him and then recoiling. There's hardly any sort of characterisation going on; you could make Gwen instead of Ianto the main character and not change a line.
Oh, and people in the dark days before TV and the internets must have been easily impressed if a woman waving her arms around qualifies her as a mermaid. She could have at least been underwater or something. I would have wanted my thrupenny bit back. Humph.
Thank god I have the OG to tell me that I'm only complaining because I'm a Jack/Ianto fanbrat crying about the lack of sex and/or hate Gaimanesque fantasy, though, because there's no possible reason that people could dislike the episode on its own merits.
No emotional continuity at all. Gwen's apparently back from honeymoon, but for all we know the wedding might have been a week ago or three years. Or maybe we've jumped back in time. The only way we know this whole episode isn't a season 1 flashback (it'd fit with the 'and loads of civilians, including children, died' ending) is that Owen's dead - which is used in exactly the same way as it was last week, with a monster going to attack him and then recoiling. There's hardly any sort of characterisation going on; you could make Gwen instead of Ianto the main character and not change a line.
Oh, and people in the dark days before TV and the internets must have been easily impressed if a woman waving her arms around qualifies her as a mermaid. She could have at least been underwater or something. I would have wanted my thrupenny bit back. Humph.
Thank god I have the OG to tell me that I'm only complaining because I'm a Jack/Ianto fanbrat crying about the lack of sex and/or hate Gaimanesque fantasy, though, because there's no possible reason that people could dislike the episode on its own merits.
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on 2008-03-13 11:44 am (UTC)It was a really, really good premise and I love the idea of a creepy ghost story. But it needed a sense of team to go with it, and the dialogue made me wince - again it worked on paper, but onscreen not so much, there's only so many times I'll forgive the characters repeating what has just happened. And as you say, no character was really individual, anyone could have been anyone.
I have to say, what really got my got was the nurse overhearing a snippet, and then volunteering the patient name, patient history and the place of treatment. I'm sorry but just... no. The most basic editor should have picked up on that and at least inserted some line wherein the staff are told that TW have clearance or something to explain why they are happy to share everything without question. By the end of the ep I was just turning off my brain and just enjoying the pretty visuals, because that was all there really was for me. (Okay, that's a bit harsh - I did actually like the mermaid and ghost master, thought they were genuinely creepy and very very good, but even those actors couldn't rescue this one.)
no subject
on 2008-03-14 12:24 am (UTC)No, not just you *g*