amatara

All in all, I enjoyed this season more, and was annoyed by it less, than what fandom reactions had led me to expect. Not that all of the criticism wasn’t justified, because yes, characterizations jumped all over the place, some stories were either unoriginal or cheesy or plain bad, plus there were instances of Very Bad Acting (yes, Gareth David-Lloyd in Cyberwoman, I’m looking at you) – but, apart from a few real clunkers that managed to suffering from all those flaws at once, I actually didn’t mind so much. And there are some minor annoyances throughout – like, why does the SUV have Torchwood printed on it in big letters if they’re supposed to be a secret organization? Are they a secret organization? – but those aren’t really a turnoff, more a source of amusement.

It makes a huge difference, I’m sure, that I saw Children of Earth before the rest of the series, hence being aware of the characters’ potential and the kind of persons they eventually become. I have an image in my head of what makes them tick, and whenever the writers fail to portray any of them consistently, I find myself trying to fill in the blanks on my own, and moving on from there. Without COE, I might not have been half as touched by Gwen and Rhys, or found it in my heart to sympathize with Ianto, or have seen Jack as more than a bitter, brooding shadow of his old self. Still, it would have been nice to have gotten a deeper glimpse of, say, what exactly made Ianto decide to stick around after all; or if the writers had shown Gwen, who was a policewoman after all, acting a little less like a flailing, frightened teenager. But as it is, enough of the seeds of character development were there for my perception of the characters to remain intact.

It’s different for Owen and Toshiko, whom I didn’t know in advance except from what I’d heard through the grapevine. Early season 1 Tosh was a bit too one-dimensional to my liking, too lovelorn and distant, but once her storyline shifted away from hinging solely on Owen (basically after her conversation with Gwen at the end of Greeks Bearing Gifts), she grew on me rather quickly. Owen I’m still in two minds about: the characterization lurches to and fro, and I’m swinging wildly between fascination, annoyance, fierce dislike, and a cautious acceptance at the very end of the season. Burn Gorman seems a fine actor, though, and manages to sell most of the individual slices of Owen that we see, even if those slices don’t always form a consistent whole.

Jack I’m loving with a fierce love that, for some reason, Tennant’s Doctor has never quite been able to evoke in me. I do have a thing for screwed-up, shameless flirts with a big heart doing dark deeds (part of the reason why I fell for Babylon 5’s Londo and G’Kar), and Jack’s plight touches me more than most. In a way, Torchwood’s season 1 Jack also reminds of Dr Who’s season 3 Doctor, with Gwen being to Jack what Donna is to the Doctor – the one to show him that saving the world can never end well unless one also cares about said world, and the individuals in it.

Some thoughts on the individual episodes:

Everything Changes

The Best: Introducing us to the series through Gwen, as opposed to from the viewpoint of Torchwood itself, was inspired and worked quite well. I liked Gwen pretty much instantly, and I guess that would have been the case even if I hadn’t known her before.

The Worst: God, that title sequence is awful. Brings back memories of Babylon 5’s first season intro – wooden voice work, cheesy lines – only worse. I hope they get a new one in the second season. Also, I wasn’t quite convinced by Suzie’s reasons to start killing in order to test the glove.

Lessons Learned: When planning to keep an organization secret, don’t order pizza under its name.

Day One

The Best: Gwen telling Jack that saving the world should, ideally, also involve helping people, and Jack actually listening for once. It makes sense that Jack would be drawn to Gwen as a confidante; she acts more real and more human than anyone else on the team, and honesty tends to evoke honesty.

The Worst: The teenage sex scene, which made me cringe and want to avert my head. We’ve watched all of Six Feet Under, so have had our share of screwed-up, hard-to-watch sex scenes, but this one topped everything. Also, Owen acting like enough of a prick it pretty much ruined my chances of sympathizing with him anytime in the next several episodes.

Lessons Learned: It’s always handy to have a big fridge in the cellar stowed with bodies. After all, you never know when you might need one.

Ghost Machine

The Best: This one had a pretty good plot, and a good payoff, and the scenes between Owen and Ed Morgan were suitably chilling and very well-acted, even if I had some difficulty believing the sudden switch from Owen-the-tough-bastard to Owen-the-avenger-of-innocent-virgins. But once I got over that, this was actually quite decent. Also, Rhys is sweet. And that scene where Jack shows Gwen how to shoot? I’m in no way shipping Jack and Gwen (or Jack and anyone, at this point) but damn, that was hot.

The Worst: Not much to dislike here, actually, apart from my gripe with Owen.

Lessons Learned: Knowing the future is seldom a good idea. Also, if you don’t know what it is – be careful using it, maybe?

Cyberwoman

The Best: Um. The – action was decent? And dark cellars with eerily blinking lights made for a good mood to set a violent killer scene in? Seriously, I hated this, in almost every possible way, and it was all I could do to keep watching till the end. So I won’t bore you with summing up the worst, either. J

Lessons Learned: There’s such a thing as too much pathos. Also, staggering around all weepy and desperate and chewing scenery like William Shatner on his absolutely worst days – does not equal good acting. Sorry, Ianto.

Small Worlds

The Best: I get the impression this episode isn’t much liked, but really, I rather enjoyed it – though the fact it came after Cyberwoman might have had something to do with that. *g* Death by roses was gruesome in a chillingly pretty way, and Jasmine came across as convincing enough in her wanting to be taken, that it managed to sell Jack’s decision to let the fairies have her (which was, admittedly, maybe too easy a solution; shouldn’t he have put a bit more effort into saving her?). Was also quite touched by Jack and Estelle – he’s a flirt, yes, but when he loves, he does love fully.

The Worst: As I said – the ending came across as a little pat, and the plot itself wasn’t overly original. Also, the whole evil stepfather cliché is becoming a little tired.

Lessons Learned: Kids can be cruel creatures. So can adults.

Countrycide

The Best: Finally, an episode where all the characters get an equal amount of screentime. Liked the "last person you snogged" conversation as well, in what it told about each of them. And of course they had to team up Gwen with Jack ànd Owen (because of the tension thing, y’know) but that also meant Tosh and Ianto would go off together, and I enjoyed the interaction between those two, and how they worked together. A bit surprisingly, Gwen/Owen actually worked for me here – both the part where he took care of her bullet wound (the first time, I think, where we actually see Owen acting as a doctor) and them ending up as (temporary) lovers.

The Worst: This isn’t really a genre I enjoy, and probably not a very original premise in the genre. And Jack continuing to repeat Tosh and Ianto would be fine, was a little odd – didn’t quite know what they tried to accomplish there.

Lessons Learned: “Because it makes me happy” is not a good enough reason to start slaughtering one’s fellow countrymen. No, it’s not.

Greeks Bearing Gifts

The Best: As a way to get us to sympathize for Tosh, this worked better (way better) than what Cyberwoman tried to do with Ianto. I didn’t (and still don’t) see Tosh as a person who’d crack easily, but I could accept the combination of the pendant’s effect, and getting pretty much slapped in the face with Gwen and Owen’s affair, as the straw that broke her back. My favorite part was the exchange between Tosh and Gwen near the end, concerning Owen, which was one of the most adult conversations carried out over the course of the show. I hope they’ll form some sort of friendship eventually. They both deserve it.

The Worst: The relationship between Tosh and Mary didn’t really affect me. Also, it all happens a bit quickly, and is taken a bit far, to be entirely convincing.

Lessons Learned: If a present turns out to be creepy alien tech, best don’t accept it.

They Keep Killing Suzie:

The Best: This was the first episode where I pretty much went “wow” over the entire package – both premise and execution. Suzie was portrayed as much more two-dimensional than your regular “villain of the week”, and her reason for wanting to come back – there’s something moving in the darkness – was a chilly punch to a very atmospheric scene.

The Worst: That was a rather convoluted web Suzie spun around her own death – too convoluted to have worked in real life, I’d guess, but let’s not nitpick about that. Also, Ianto and Jack and the stopwatch remark? Um… If this is the writers’ way of telling us Ianto and Jack are sleeping together, they might’ve taken some time building up to that revelation, rather than hitting us over the head with it. “Character building” is not a dirty word, y’know, dear writers.

Lessons Learned: You mean, apart from the Many Uses for Stopwatches? Um - *brain fries*

Random Shoes

The Best: A pretty decent idea to build an episode around, and Eugene made for a good, if not overly interesting protagonist. Liked this, but wasn’t wildly enthusiastic either.

The Worst: A bit of an anticlimax there at the end – I’d hoped the explanation would have been a little less generic – and, as I mentioned, things were never quite surprising enough nor moving enough for me to really be dragged into the story. But works as a nice, quiet introspective piece, which is a first for this show.

Lessons Learned: Be careful when going golfing – alien body parts might fall out of the sky.

Out of Time

The Best: I think this was my favorite of the season so far. Okay, so at first it was just another time travel story, but all three of the “castaways” were genuinely interesting and likable, and I loved how the writers, rather than going for humor or just the cheap love story, turned this into a study of letting go. And I love how Jack, Gwen and Owen each learn something valuable about themselves in the process. While Owen suddenly turning all kind and supportive was a bit hard to believe, Diane as a character appealed to me very much, and this was actually the first sex scene the show did that was tasteful and lovely and fitting. Gwen and Emma talking about Rhys, and life outside Torchwood, and Rhys catching Gwen at a lie – very moving. But the part that got to me the most was Jack and John, both wanting to die. Honestly, I found their interaction more touching than what we saw in Captain Jack Harkness later in the season, which seems to be the fan favorite.

The Worst: Hard to say, really. Owen, OOC, bothered me less than it might have, thanks to Diane being a very good counterweight. The rest was rather perfect.

Lessons Learned: Jack is pretty when he cries. Seriously – John Barrowman is a good crier, and man, do they use it! Still, even though I know they’re doing it just to tug at out heartstrings, it gets to me every time. Remembering COE, and Steven, might have something to do with that, I guess.

Combat

We ended up skipping this, because I’d read it was pretty much Fight Club with Weevils, and badly done too, and I didn’t want to ruin my budding enjoyment of the show by watching a complete clunker. I’ll watch later, while ironing some shirts maybe.

Captain Jack Harkness

The Best: Jack and Tosh are just wonderful together. How she smiles and tells him “I chose this” when he tries to apologize for getting her into this mess – that’s the Tosh I love. And he acts so fragile around her, so very much without the mask. Jack/John was pretty, and the mood was lovely, and the episode in general reminded me in many ways of ST: TOS’s The City on the Edge of Forever – Captain gets stuck in past, falls in love, has to let person he falls in love with die. TOS did it just a little better, imho, but still this was much prettiness. And Bilis was a suitably creepy villain.

The Worst: Owen and Ianto fighting over the Rift – liked Ianto’s characterization here, Owen’s not so much. I still find it hard to believe he’d be so desperate to get Diane back (because, say what he wants, he wasn’t doing this mainly to get back Jack, never mind Tosh). Plot required it, I’m sure, but that’s not the best of reasons, issit? Also, a military man in the early 1940s dancing with another guy? The other dancers didn’t seem very shocked at that, which is a little too good to be true, I daresay. Of course, that would have spoiled the kiss, wouldn’t it, and we wouldn’t wantss that, no, preciouss…?

Lessons Learned: Toshiko can be awesome, too. And Jack, when falling in love, falls hard.

End of Days

The Best: From what I’d heard, I wasn’t expecting this to be very good, but I ended up enjoying most of it, except for the monster bit. (Bit of a pity, seeing as Abbadon was supposed to be the big climax of the grand season finale, but yeah.) Owen shooting Jack, then collapsing into his arms sobbing at the end, gave me goosebumps, and that final scene did a lot to increase my sympathy for Owen. And Gwen’s reaction to finding Rhys dead was absolutely devastating. Fine acting by Eve Myles.

The Worst: One word: Abbadon. I mean, just as they were showing Torchwood’s at its best without scary monsters and CGI, they turn around and do the exact opposite. Bit of a waste of a good villain, too – I would have liked Bilis to have had a better motivation for the whole setup than what it turned out to be. And the whole mutiny think was decided pretty quickly – I can see why Gwen and Owen did what they did, but for Tosh and Ianto to just jump in and follow them… not enough buildup for that, I think. So, a mixed bag, but one I had a good time watching anyway. Look forward to season 2.

Lessons Learned: Even an immortal looks pretty damn afwul when having been dead for three days.