how much of all the subtle complexities we are seeing is intentional, and how much is just fortuitious coincidence?
I think it's a bit of both. The writers are people, and so any stories they tell will be stories of people. The stories that draw us in the most will be the stories of things that we the audience can connect to. We don't love To The Last Man because we understand a rift break between 2008 and 1918, we love it because we identify and empathize with Tosh and Tommy and them both giving up something they want for something they both know they need. We've all had to make a choice like that sooner or later, and so we get drawn into the story. I think S2 had a bit more coherent season-wide story arc (meta forthcoming after I finish the fic I'm working on), and so we would get more intentional nuance and shading there.
At the same time, once the script leaves the writers and gets into acting/direction, the actors and directors add all sorts of things that the writers may or may not have intended. Some of them are good, some not, some just unexpected. Case in point: Ianto. Aside from Cyberwoman, he was at best a bit role in the written script for S1. Once the shooting started, an unknown young actor with massive screen presence that *nobody* expected turned him into a powerhouse role. There is no way the writers could have known that would happen, but it worked out well in the end.
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I think it's a bit of both. The writers are people, and so any stories they tell will be stories of people. The stories that draw us in the most will be the stories of things that we the audience can connect to. We don't love To The Last Man because we understand a rift break between 2008 and 1918, we love it because we identify and empathize with Tosh and Tommy and them both giving up something they want for something they both know they need. We've all had to make a choice like that sooner or later, and so we get drawn into the story. I think S2 had a bit more coherent season-wide story arc (meta forthcoming after I finish the fic I'm working on), and so we would get more intentional nuance and shading there.
At the same time, once the script leaves the writers and gets into acting/direction, the actors and directors add all sorts of things that the writers may or may not have intended. Some of them are good, some not, some just unexpected. Case in point: Ianto. Aside from Cyberwoman, he was at best a bit role in the written script for S1. Once the shooting started, an unknown young actor with massive screen presence that *nobody* expected turned him into a powerhouse role. There is no way the writers could have known that would happen, but it worked out well in the end.