tencrush | DAY ONE

Entry tags:

DAY ONE

So I DO have a few thoughts on Children of Earth, Day One, and I DO have ten minutes to write them down, but probs not to comment. They're randomly here below the cut.

I'm finding Ianto's extremely working class roots kind of hot. I feel like Jarvis Cocker. But yeah, Ianto's three-piece-suitedness suddenly aquires a whole new depth when you see where he's come from. Giving Ianto new levels of depth probably doesn't bode well, though.

Ianto's dorky what-the-fuck-are-we, do-we-hug-when-you-die-? position in the Jack/Ianto relationship was really fucking cute.

Having said this, I thought we'd established that Ianto was bisexual. Perhaps not out but certainly a guy who knows about himself that he's attracted to both sexes. I always quite loved this about Ianto, as I've said before, because I loved the fact that he was bisexual but not a televisual bisexual-who-sleeps-around stereotype. Now we find out that he seems to view himself as hetero, it's just that Jack's that awesome. I was spoiled for this episode, so I knew this was happening, but it still grated on me when it did. First of all because it annoys me that someone can't just be bisexual on the telly, like bi is such a bad thing to be. Secondly, obviously, because it feeds that tired slash trope of I'm-not-gay-I-just-love-your-cock that I really fucking hate. And last but not least, it is, once again, that Russell thing of using one character to tell me just how awesome another character is (oh, and the one doing the telling, that one'll probably die to prove it, yeah?) There just seems to me to be no narrative reason to make Ianto gay-only-for-Jack, other than to establish the awesome power of Jack's cock. I wish they'd just make Jack be more awesome instead of resorting to this. Gah.

Gwen gets more awesome as time goes by. Her pregnant-is-that-good-yes-I-think-so face was for the win.

Lois is SPUNKY and INQUISITIVE and KINDA CUTE and if we don't get to keep her I will be VERY VERY ANGRY. She's going to die, isn't she?

Is the big bad, apart from the 456 which is alien, some sort of rogue team of evil civil servants? Is it significant that Ianto's sister calls him a civil servant? Is it an anti-UNIT? I know Russell likes this whole let's-keep-a-nice-broad-grey-area thing regarding who, exactly, in the government-Torchwood-UNIT-other axis are the good guys and who the bad guys, but I wish he'd make his mind up just a wee bit more. Especially when it comes to UNIT.

That honeymoon thing just read to me as "LOLS, she ain't never coming back to the 'verse, we don't really like the girl." I've never really been fond of Agyeman, but I can imagine those who were were perhaps a bit miffed?

I'm going to end my sentences with the phrase "and I've got tupperware" more often from now on.

Threaded | Flat

Lois is SPUNKY and INQUISITIVE and KINDA CUTE and if we don't get to keep her I will be VERY VERY ANGRY. She's going to die, isn't she?

i sincerely hope so...she gets on my very last nerve. i wanted to keep not!owen much, much more.

Okay the het thing really annoys me - stupid Rusty and his turning Jack/Ianto into another relationship he's written that is just about worship. I wish Rusty had stayed away from Torchwood.

If they really hated Martha/Freema, they'd have killed her offscreen for added DRAMA. Having her be on honeymoon keeps their options open if they can get her back later.

And, yes, it's not looking good for Ianto, is it?

You want to know my cynical theory about the Ianto's-only-gay-for-Jack thing? RTD must know about the criticism leveled against portrayals of gay characters in TV/film - if they're sympathetic, they die, because God forbid the homos should ever be happy. If Ianto isn't REALLY gay (or even bi) then nobody can accuse RTD of sacrificing the queer character again when Ianto dies.

I feel like Lois has a better chance of surviving if Ianto dies. She knows her way around a computer system and brings hot beverages. Fuck.

I thought it just means Ianto's a one-person sort of guy, so "just Jack" After all, he went to quite extraordinary lengths for Lisa, who may, after all, may be his first and only before Jack? (And does he do anything else other than Torchwood after meeting Jack? It's posisble he probably just doesn't know if he likes other guys...)

If 456 turns out to be not alien, but human in origin...it will be very disappointing.

Lois annoys me for reasons mentioned above....*sighs*

I'm not well versed on cliched representations of bisexuals, other than the most obvious one, ie the bisexual who will sleep with anything, ie Jack. (I've been poking through Bisexual Characters In Film for some ideas.) But I wonder if Ianto's sexuality is not intended to be "really heterosexual", but undefined. This could be reflected in his uncertainty about what his and Jack's relationship exactly is.

"Only Jack" could mean "I am not attracted to men other than Jack" but it could alternatively, or additionally, mean "I'm in a monandrous relationship" - especially if he suspects his sister assumes he's promiscuous, or at least playing the field.

If RTD has a political intention here, it may be to subvert the insistence of both straights and gays on defining who is "really" bisexual - related to the "quaint little categories" thing, where sexual identity is a phase the culture's going through. Given his past record, though, I think it's more likely the whole thing serves a story purpose instead: Ianto is committed to Jack but isn't sure if the reverse is true, and the rest of the miniseries is going to answer that question. IMHO the most likely outcome is that they end up as a couple. "Bisexual Characters in Film" suggests this would be an unusual portrayal; the world, but not the screen, is full of bisexual people in committed monogamous relationships.

OTOH, it might just have been Jack's aftershave.

ETA: Well, of course TV Tropes has useful information! Should've headed there in the first instance.

Edited 2009-07-07 08:50 (UTC)

I choose to read Ianto's "I'm Harkness-sexual" conversation as a wind up of his sister. Otherwise it is too annoying.

I am assuming Lois is an investigative journalist. At first I thought she'd die but we'd get Rupesh, but now that he's not coming we might get to keep her (fingers crossed).

Also, Jack's daughter was awesome!

I loved the fact that he was bisexual but not a televisual bisexual-who-sleeps-around stereotype. Now we find out that he seems to view himself as hetero, it's just that Jack's that awesome.

I'm choosing to believe he's just as you say but he's not out even to himself yet so for now he's using the ''it's just this guy' excuse. He's clearly coming to terms with it himself at this point.

I don't want Ianto to die. I really do not. And people are so *convinced* that he's going to die, that I think he might.

D:

Also, I love the whole Jack/Ianto in this series. It's brilliant.

1. Yeah, I was a bit miffed as well with the whole bisexual thing. Though, I did like the intensity in which he said "It's only him". Well delivered.

2. The fact that Ianto was from the ghetto is AWESOME. I'm trying desperately to imagine a little Ianto that cusses all the time and throws BRICKS at OTHER PEOPLE'S CARS.

(The bit where the car got stolen? FUCKING COMEDIC GOLD.)

3. I really felt that all the Jack/Ianto lines were rushed until the end. Like, they didn't have a lot of time for them to say their lines, so they BOTH just... sped through them. The tupperware thing, however, made me laugh so hard I had to stop and rewind to watch again, haha.

4. I hope that the adorable, spunky girl CALMS DOWN a bit, because right now, she's annoying me. Why? I'm not sure. I think it's because she looks just... TOO eager and TOO smart and TOO clever and TOO... everything. She feels a bit Mary Sue-ish but I feel she has potential too.

5. Jack had his bitch pants on in this episode. "Now who's in a couple?" made me wonder who put nails in his cereal this morning.

I liked Lois. She's cute. I'll keep her. Loved the Tupperware line. Loved that whole scene, really.

Hated the Ianto's gay for Jack thing, if that's what it was. Loved the scene overall, but not that. I hope it was Ianto just feeling his way through his feelings and not being sure what to say to his sister, or just trying to say, he's totally in love with Jack and couldn't possibly be interested in anyone else. I'm terribly fond of bisexual Ianto, even if he never acted on it before Jack. I don't want to have to completely jettison my personal fanon on that score.

I'm sure you're right about the Martha's on her honeymoon, can't bother her thing. Ridiculous.

You know what made me think about Ianto really dying? Is when they were bantering when they came back into the hub, and they were talking about how Jack dies all the time and Ianto would stay dead.

Nicole

Threaded | Flat

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject