How they killed my Janto, dudes.

[tencrush]

I'm still full of hate after Something Borrowed, and I'll attempt to explain why.

In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, we were given a promising glimpse of Ianto-with-a-spine. He basically stated he wasn't interested in being Jack's part time office shag and wanted more, or no deal. Jack seemed to be au fait with this and looked to be pursuing the relationship. My little shipper heart went YAY, and that didn't really change, especially after To The Last Man, when I, along with everyone else in the world, pretty much saw what appeared to be a declaration of love from Jack. OMG WOW. Then... what the fuck happened?

I started to develop hate when Ianto said he and Jack 'dabbled'. While I could defend Jack's trying to hide the relationship based on what he said in Meat (he has an emotional investment, it makes you vulnerable, and he really shouldn't be forming EMOTIONAL bonds with his team, because it affects his abilities as their leader, yeah? Fine.), here, though, we suddenly have Ianto downplaying what I had assumed was an emotional attachment to Jack, and why? Dead Man Walking, again, shows Ianto on the defensive with regards to the relationship. "It's not like that", right, OK. Funnily enough, Ianto seems too unsure to expand and tell Owen what it IS, in fact, like. He's become almost apologetic, and why? Oh, roll on Something Borrowed, HERE'S WHY! He's IN LOVE. He's a lovesick puppy, thinking about wedding dresses and looking to settle down. If there's one thing we know about Ianto, you see, it's that he is wickedly loyal, faithful and, one would assume, MONOGAMOUS. Yet suddenly, since Adam, the relationship seems to have taken a turn into roleplaying toy-based sexamalympics. There's been no emotional connection since the kiss in TTLM. What bugs me is that Ianto is shown to be perfectly satisfied with this turn of events. It's almost like the Date Conversation never happened.

Now, I can buy that Jack is capable of loving more than one person. I can buy that Jack loves Gwen. I can even buy that Ianto is perfectly happy to know this and not care. That all makes perfect sense to me. What I can't buy is that Ianto has become such a lovesick boytoy, so impressed with Jack's avant garde sexual prowess, that he is happy to settle back into his role as office based shag, taking whatever nuggets of affection Jack sees fit too throw his way. And it's not Ianto's character making me think that that's how the relationship has progressed, it's Jack's, yet again. Jack, who makes these grandiose declarations about the nature of love to Gwen. Jack, who pines after a long dead wife. Jack, who we thought perhaps was a bit more flexible when it came to who and how many people he gives his heart to, who is QUITE OBVIOUSLY showing us that he believes in OMGONETRUELOVE, and between the lines quite blatantly showing us that Ianto isn't in the running. NO AFFECTION, throwaway lines about red caps and "doing Ianto", that's no longer a guy trying to hide the fact that he's in love with one of his subordinates, that's an omnisexual slut, not at all embarrassed about what he and the teaboy do with hockey sticks. AND I WOULD BE FINE WITH ALL THAT. If it weren't for the date conversation telling me that Ianto wants more, and Ianto's fawning in this episode blatanly telling us HE IS WICKED IN LOVE WITH JACK. Why is he settling for this? What have they done to my boy? Who said in the first episode that some fetishes should be kept to yourself? How many fetishes have he and Jack been broadcasting to the world since Adam? There's something so OFF in this relationship, and I think it's something you either see and hate or you just don't notice AT ALL.

One of the things that squicks me is Jack's flippancy about past conquests (all male, have we noticed yet??) and his obvious love for Gwen and DeadWife. It's almost like the implication is that while dabbling and sexual gymnastics is something Jack does with men, settling down is something he does with women. And Ianto and that dress? Just makes me feel like Jack hasn't yet let Ianto in on that fact, and the joke's on him. Ha ha.

NONE OF THE ABOVE MAKES ANY SENSE, I AM AWARE OF THAT, I JUST CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON WHAT IS WRONG IN JANTOLAND. I JUST... HATE IT.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

RTD is easy to explain. He is and always has been an APOLOGETIC gay man. Uhm, Hello? Have we looked at his gay characters? The UK version of Queer as Folk, screw everything that moves and string along the unrequited love of your best friend to keep him under thumb. I can't remember the other show where he made the gay man fall in love with a woman. Hell, even the show where he had Gareth David-Lloyd play the supposed gay "Yanto Jones" he had him abandon the boy for a group of girls.

Once upon a time I worked as a script development coordinator for a little show produced by Mutant Enemy, as the only gay person (ahem, MALE at that) on the staff, even I did a better job of making sure the lesbian relationship had an emotional foundation.

RTD uses gay characters/relationships for shock value; but consistently falls back on the "real love is man/woman". But some of the problem can be placed on Chibnall's piss-poor job as Show Runner (the trade term for the producer that actually oversees the storyline development and production.) Little birdies have told me that writers for TW do not receive character bios or undercurrent themes so its not surprising that there's a distinct lack of consistency in character behavior.

I hope when Chibnall leaves for Law & Order London (aka boring formulaic police drama) that RTD and Jules find someone willing to invest real time in developing these characters and make real use of the talent that they are wasting.

syd

[prongsy.livejournal.com]

I love you.

Everything you say is EXACTLY why I take issue with this show. Not just the undercutting of homosexual relationships as "never love, only sex" (barf), but the whole bit on character development. F**k-ing A!!! This is ridiculous. I expect it from those CSI shows (and hence don't watch them) but from something that tries to be character driven, it's bloody pathetic. I know they want to be like that little show you worked on so much and often compare TW to it, but Whedon-verse shows would never stand for it (look at Firefly best written show EVER... especially on character continuity... those characters were so well fleshed out that they felt like my friends... down the street... who… live in a spaceship o.O). Can you go give them a clue, please? Blahhhh…

There’s a reason I’ll never show TW to friends… it’s embarrassing.

[erinnthered.livejournal.com]

But some of the problem can be placed on Chibnall's piss-poor job as Show Runner (the trade term for the producer that actually oversees the storyline development and production.) Little birdies have told me that writers for TW do not receive character bios or undercurrent themes so its not surprising that there's a distinct lack of consistency in character behavior.

But the problem isn't Chibnall. Although, I think he and Richard Stokes could use a kick in the ass. I mean, having to shoot five episodes at the same time? How do you get yourself into that kind of predicament with a 7 to 8 month shooting schedule for 13 episodes. It's not like they do a ton of on location shooting out side Cardiff. The time suck should be in post, dammit...sorry, where was I...anyway, the problem is RTD. He doesn't understand episodic television at all.

RTD is the reason there's no show bible and he seems pretty involved in development. You are a lot more in the know than I am, but from Chibnall's past work ,and where he's headed in the future (aka Dick Wolf's new bitch), I tend to give him a little slack. Not that his scripts are all that spectacular, but it seems that he's been stuck trying to make a something out of a load of complete chaos. The Big Boss Man doesn't seem to be helping any.

The worst thing is that the most likely internal candidate for new show runner, Cath Tregenna, doesn't understand the need for a show bible. Idiots.

[tencrush]

Maybe we could start a Serious and Very Concerned Online Petition for them to institute a show bible? We, the undersigned, think you, the show peeps, should do us all a favour and reconsider your what you think is a revolutionary and we think is a retarded idea of not having a show bible etc etc signed, with love, that sort of thing???