So..

[tencrush]

I didn't want to write this long Torchwood post I was planning on writing, because I didn't feel it was fair of me to judge the show based on one episode. I VOWED that before saying any more about Torchwood: Miracle Day, I would at least watch one or two more episodes to get more of a feel for what was going on. I still haven't watched any more than that single solitary episode and having read the reactions to Ep 5, I suddenly realised that I probably won't actually be watching another episode ever again. Which probably means I won't ever write about what the fuck Torchwood has turned into and how much it disgusts me. You'll just have to take all that stuff as read, I guess. Sorry about that. But don't worry, that Ianto phonespam thing is still happening, it's just been delayed by technical problems.

But hey, dudes, MD episode 5: EDGY, right? Glad I'm not watching that gratuitous shock horror shit. Don't let the door hit your arse. Etc.

Comments

???

[as1mplegirl.livejournal.com]

What happens in ep 5 allegedly?

Re: ???

[tencrush]

It's all over the top edgy and dramatic and they start burning the dead people who aren't dead and one of the main characters dies and people are still worshippig the pedo or something. Hilariously, the episode reaction post on the main TW comm had 0 comments. People seem to be turning away and doing a sick in their mouth in droves now.

Re: ???

[as1mplegirl.livejournal.com]

Sounds riveting.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

CoE was dark but this latest episodes sounds just plain OTT. And what I watched of this series has just been people shouting at each other and shooting people inna face. Where is mah sci-fi gone?

[tencrush]

As far as I'm aware, we're on episode 5 and there's been no aliens as of yet. Which I was kind of expecting from what I'd heard. It's all CoE times one hundred about how awful humanity is and they'll even love pedophile killers and they'll put people in camps, moreso if they're poor or uneducated, and burn people alive and generally be cruel and unusual to each other and die pointlessly. I've seen all that before and I didn't like it much then, I certainly don't need to see it AGAIN WITH LESS SUBTLETY AND NO REDEEMING CHARM. And I have yet to undertsand how it qualifies as "sci-fi".

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen anyone liking this new season, whether or not they liked CoE, so whatever that did right for some people it's not doing it this time round. It's a pile of shit.

Rusty's best at stuff that's light-hearted overall with darker moments, but Torchwood tries to be the other way round so for me it's been floundering since it started a bit. But at least it was cracky and kind of stupid like when Jack drove in on a tractor and shot everyone in the legs, or when Ianto caught a bottle of life. And the vigilante fairies, that was special too.

We are witnessing a misanthrope writing about humanity.

[tencrush]

I loved all the stupid stuff with the pteranodon eating chocolate and the old ladies going "Bloody Torchwood" and Jack EMOTING at a space whale. Now it's just a hammer with the words PEOPLE ARE SCUM hitting you over and over and over, who the fuck would like that?

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Sometimes the Doctor looks at Torchwood and turns away in SHAME. And because Antiques Roadshow is on another channel.

[tencrush]

Actually, it's Sarah Beeny and people whose houses are falling down. The Doctor would totes be watching that shiz, I think he'd like Beeny.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Is that where there is a tragic family and people build them a new house out of charity?

[tencrush]

No, that's DIYSOS. Beeny is a perpetually pregnant know-it-all property developer who helps people who have bought houses either by going "I wouldn't do that to it if I were you" or "I would never have bought this house if it had been me." Which usually makes them cry. And then she watches them fix up their dud house until their money runs out and then she laughs at them.

[lorelei-chase.livejournal.com]

Wow, has Rusty outdone himself and made something even more shocking up its own arse and petulantly 'look how serious and dark this is' than COE? Wow, I'm almost impressed. I'm sensing this thing has cancelled running right though it ...

Looks like I made the right decision not to watch it. I'm happy to not have my memory of Torchwood sullied!

[rivier.livejournal.com]

Good God yes, exactly this. Real life hits us all with that particular hammer just fine, day in day out. I tend to prefer my fannish entertainment to be the stuff that maybe doesn't show the good guys winning every time, but at least has them winning sometimes. And always still trying to win, with humour and love. Clearly I'm too soft and bland and fantasy-hooked to endure RTD's bracing, searingly honest and integrity-laden life lessons. I'm just such a silly little woman.

[tencrush]

I see people now wishing that this shit was as lighthearted as CoE. That's just wrong on so many levels, it's almost funny.

[rivier.livejournal.com]

Certainly seems to have driven a fucking huge tractor straight through the middle of most of the MD squee, that's for sure. I can't imagine why. Still, it'll soon perk up when they're back to watching Jack fucking yet another new guy a few eps from now. Death camps? Pfft. SEXY GOOD TIMES Y'ALL!

[off_coloratura]

It's such a blatant Nazi parallel it's completely disgusting. Almost as disgusting as the insults to our intelligence in EVERY DAMN EPISODE.

See The One And Only Guy Whose Biometrics Can Open The Super-Secret Database of The Evilly Scheming Drug Company walking in the park with his wife and baby, allowing himself to get eye-, voice-, and finger-printed by strange and hyper passers-by (but it's okay because they're the HEROES!), and then walking ALONE through a deserted parking lot late at night!

The Guy Who Is In Charge Of The Evil Concentration Overflow Camps couldn't just be a regular guy, no, he has to be a cowardly, greedy, sexist asshole even before he Does Nazi Things, because otherwise we wouldn't REALLY hate him.

People love the creepy murdering pedophile! Except they want to kill him! Except they love him and he's their hero! Except they beat him up! Except he's their messiah! Except they're throwing bottles at him! WTF.

The inexplicable Gratuitous Sex Out Of Nowhere! The Cult That Paraded Through The Streets And Then Was Never Mentioned Again! Jack's weird stalking of the pedophile, with no reason! The LUDICROUS ignorance of Ameriocan and British law processes! The FUCKING CRAZY leaps of logic that are somehow EXACTLY what is happening! Gwen's sudden inexplicable aversion to her daughter wearing pink!

It's not shock horror, it's a bad Holocaust metaphor with idiotic plotting and no characters.

I'm only watching it because I need a channel for my anger.

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

You forgot to mention that everybody now communicates with the Evil Triangle People via the Dark Side of the Moon album cover.

We can't forget the Evil Triangle People - or the crazy, red-headed PR woman who can Apparate and mysteriously just show up where there's a tiny chance she might be needed.

[meleth.livejournal.com]

But he'll be fucking another guy in an angsty, manpain-y way. ANGST.

[meleth.livejournal.com]

I really, really loved the fairies.

[wounded-melody.livejournal.com]

Your posts are always pure awesome.

[radiant-pip.livejournal.com]

Jack's weird stalking of the pedophile, with no reason!

He's trying to get his MD man-sex quota up to three? Jack likes a challenge.

MD has the same problems I had with COE, just worse. I guess maybe they thought those particular "problems" were actually strengths (since I was one of those wacky few who didn't think COE was the best TV EVER!) and that's why we're getting more, more, more...crap.

I agree with the comment from above; once Jack has more sexy fun times, people will be loving the show again. 'Cause that's all fans REALLY want, after all!!!

[fide-et-spe.livejournal.com]

Looking at the reactions to ep 5 I was horrified. I've seen some handwaving as well. Like "oh why are they behaving like the Nazis". As if it's just a regular thing.

You really have to be careful with Holocaust metaphors. I have watched more than just the first episode, and they haven't built up to this in any sort of thoughtful way that suggests they can get away with it.

It just sounds like more nihilistic crap.

[tencrush]

If I think too long and hard about what happened to this show I really used to love, it literally makes me want to cry. So I'm trying not to think about it too much.

Anwen was wearing pink in episode one, wasn't she? I take it it was just put in so Gwen could belittle Rhys or something? That little bit of contempt between the hero and their loved one is always essential with Rusty. Oh, wait, that means Rhys will probably die. Oh well.

[off_coloratura]

It was put in so Gwen could bitch about her mother, since she was the one taking care of Anwen.

I liked Rhys' answer to Gwen: "Who's looking after Anwen?" "No one. I left her with some petrol and a lighter." Kickass.

[off_coloratura]

Do not diss my beloved Lauren Ambrose. She is a lone island of awesome in this wretched series.

[tencrush]

Lol, I love Rhys. I bet he dies. :(

[a-silver-story.livejournal.com]

I'm not dissing Ms. Ambrose. Her performance is, as you say, a lone island of awesome in this wretched series.

It's the writing that I was referring to. Jilly is eccentric, and she is also blessed with mysterious 'Apparate to where there may be a plot point' powers.

[jo02]

Oh - I lol'd really hard at this :)

[wounded-melody.livejournal.com]

"Kill them, kill them all! We're missing Antiques Roadshow!"

[takenatwork.livejournal.com]

I made up my mind not to watch it, when I saw the synopsis, because I knew it would be all about Russell, his beliefs and thoughts and agendas. There is an irony in there somewhere, I can't be bothered to wrap my head around, regarding Danes/who would listen/beliefs/fiction/followers/viewers.

I think what would kill me if I had watched this (just like CoE), is the Classic Romanticism that will engulf it at the end. All this revulsion for mankind, mankind's cruelty, will fall on one character's shoulders (Jack??) and it will be a tragedy, a tragedy on a huge scale. BUT it will be romantic and we will love that character more, because of the suffering he/she has to endure. All the shit, all the bad stuff that happened to others, all the sanctimony, all mankind's failures, will be pushed to one side and forgotten, so that we can glory in the tragedy of this one character. It's just so manipulative and hypocritical.

[stlscape.livejournal.com]

Anwen was wearing pink in episode one, wasn't she?

Yes, indeed. She was. Right down to matching pink earmuffs that no self-respecting child of my acquaintance would have left on their head for more than two minutes. Guess the writers forgot about that, too.

[stlscape.livejournal.com]

But don't forget - the last scene will be Gwen, standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean, with the wind dramatically realistically blowing her hair back from her face, watching at the rising/setting sun, with Anwen in her arms one arm while she holds a machine gun in the other with a rocket launcher strapped to her back, and we'll know that the world is a safe place to live in because Gwen is looking out for us and for her child. So the whole show ends on a hopeful note, you see, just like COE ended with her still being pregnant.

Personally, I don't think it'll end with anything close to *my* interpretation of hopeful, but RTD and I use dictionaries with widely-differing definitions.

ETA: Jack? Who the heck cares about Jack. He was only used to get the show greenlighted. He's useless as a character.