Didn't someone post figures somewhere from an internal Nielson poll ranking viewers' character preferences? I seem to recall that Gwen came in dead last among the regulars.
And I have no idea why RTD thought being "normal" would be a selling point for a TV character. Well, okay, an "everyperson" being caught up in extraordinary events/situations is a well-established trope in story-telling, but they are interesting because of how they step up and take on the extraordinary circumstances, proving themselves to be actually "above normal" in the process. And they did do that with Gwen to a certain extent, like for instance her fighting off the retcon in Everything Changes. But then they keep on harping on her normal-ness long after it's outlived its usefulness, to the point it becomes a turn-off, actually. Yes, okay, she's normal. What else can she do? And that's where the writing and the acting both fail, I think. The writing doesn't give Gwen an identifiable character trait or skill other than being normal, and Eve Myles isn't GDL, who apparently pulled Ianto out of thin air.
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Date: 2008-05-13 09:10 pm (UTC)And I have no idea why RTD thought being "normal" would be a selling point for a TV character. Well, okay, an "everyperson" being caught up in extraordinary events/situations is a well-established trope in story-telling, but they are interesting because of how they step up and take on the extraordinary circumstances, proving themselves to be actually "above normal" in the process. And they did do that with Gwen to a certain extent, like for instance her fighting off the retcon in Everything Changes. But then they keep on harping on her normal-ness long after it's outlived its usefulness, to the point it becomes a turn-off, actually. Yes, okay, she's normal. What else can she do? And that's where the writing and the acting both fail, I think. The writing doesn't give Gwen an identifiable character trait or skill other than being normal, and Eve Myles isn't GDL, who apparently pulled Ianto out of thin air.