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I JUST REALISED!!
WHY I HATE FROM OUT OF THE RAIN SO MUCH.
It just... so little thought went into this episode when it comes to characterisation, like I and many other people have mentioned, it just DIDN'T MATTER who was the centrepiece of the story, there were no character-related reasons for it to be Ianto, it could just as easily have been Tosh, or anyone. The writing focussed SO MUCH on getting the plot across to the viewer (and IT EVEN SUCKED AT THAT), that no thought went into which character was fulfilling what role.
IF I COULD REWRITE FROM OUT OF THE RAIN, it would go like this, and it's really very simple and it solves a myriad of problems of exposition and such whilst at the same time dealing with some bits and bobs of characterisation and answering some questions that are still mulling around in the minds of your average avid fan:
OPENING SCENE: Carnies. Weirdness. Spooky, yah, cut to credits.
NEXT BIT: Guy does stuff with film, Jack hears spooky music in the Hub, asks Ianto WTF? Ianto tells him to STFU and hands him his coat. Jack and Ianto go to Electro for night out.
REST OF EPISODE: Same, with slightly less exposition needed due to Jack already being clued up, giving us a bit more time to let the baddies actually be scary.
SIMPLE AS THAT. Seriously, if anyone had put any thought into this episode from a character arc perspective, that's how it would have played out. It would have shown us quite cleanly that Jack and Ianto do indeed have a relationship that involves more than sex in the Hub, which I believe is what the writers would like us to believe. At the same time, the resulting spookiness would have amusingly shown us how patently impossible it is for these two to keep their work and private lives separate, which would have been a nice segue into the shagging in the Hub in Adrift (without the shagging in the Hub coming across as QUITE SO CARNAL, but more of an acknowledgement that they're really just going to have to get it where and when they can.) Clean. Simple. Easy as that. AMINORITE? YUS?
It just... so little thought went into this episode when it comes to characterisation, like I and many other people have mentioned, it just DIDN'T MATTER who was the centrepiece of the story, there were no character-related reasons for it to be Ianto, it could just as easily have been Tosh, or anyone. The writing focussed SO MUCH on getting the plot across to the viewer (and IT EVEN SUCKED AT THAT), that no thought went into which character was fulfilling what role.
IF I COULD REWRITE FROM OUT OF THE RAIN, it would go like this, and it's really very simple and it solves a myriad of problems of exposition and such whilst at the same time dealing with some bits and bobs of characterisation and answering some questions that are still mulling around in the minds of your average avid fan:
OPENING SCENE: Carnies. Weirdness. Spooky, yah, cut to credits.
NEXT BIT: Guy does stuff with film, Jack hears spooky music in the Hub, asks Ianto WTF? Ianto tells him to STFU and hands him his coat. Jack and Ianto go to Electro for night out.
REST OF EPISODE: Same, with slightly less exposition needed due to Jack already being clued up, giving us a bit more time to let the baddies actually be scary.
SIMPLE AS THAT. Seriously, if anyone had put any thought into this episode from a character arc perspective, that's how it would have played out. It would have shown us quite cleanly that Jack and Ianto do indeed have a relationship that involves more than sex in the Hub, which I believe is what the writers would like us to believe. At the same time, the resulting spookiness would have amusingly shown us how patently impossible it is for these two to keep their work and private lives separate, which would have been a nice segue into the shagging in the Hub in Adrift (without the shagging in the Hub coming across as QUITE SO CARNAL, but more of an acknowledgement that they're really just going to have to get it where and when they can.) Clean. Simple. Easy as that. AMINORITE? YUS?
no subject
Chris Chinbnall on Ianto's story in Fragments: "...Gareth [David-Lloyd] added a wonderful depth to it, when, unseen by Jack, he starts to cry at the end."
This just proves that Gareth really does know Ianto better than the writers. If you take that scene out the entire flashback has a very different feel.
no subject
It scares me that we really do owe Ianto to Gareth, not the writers. I'd be really frightened for series 3 if I knew Chibnall was involved, frankly.
no subject
Yeah, Ianto's not cold by any stretch of the imagination. At least Gareth knows that, even if the writers don't.
'Gwen's lines were assigned to Ianto in FOOTR? I guess characters really are interchangeable.'
*nods* The first rule of writing is you write your plot around the characters NOT the other way around.
'I'd be really frightened for series 3 if I knew Chibnall was involved, frankly.'
I figure it can go one of two ways; either they replace Chris with someone who knows what their doing (maybe they'll finally have a show bible) or the writing gets even worse (I don't see how that possible).
'They really didn't have a storyline planned for Ianto this series, did they?'
I'm hoping they give him a storyline in series 3 but I'm not counting on it. The only character the writers really seem to care about is Gwen.