Hello Everyone :-)
Last Thursday night the final episode of the current run of Torchwood was broadcast so it’s about time we reviewed the last three episodes of the series, ‘End of the Road’, ‘The Gathering’ and ‘The Blood Line’. Expect a couple of minor spoilers about episodes 8 and 9 but I’m not enough of a cow to reveal anything about the series finale, so if you’ve not seen that one, fear not.
Episode 8 carries on exactly where episode 7 left off, Jack, Gwen, Esther and Rex are with the mysterious woman who was blackmailing Gwen. They arrive at her house where some questions are answered about who started ‘the Miracle’ and what Jack has to do with it. Meanwhile Oswald gets the rug pulled out from under him as Jilly drops a bombshell about his soon to be ending celebrity status. Oswald goes on the run and Jilly gets an interesting new job offer from the Blue Eyed man.
In my opinion this is the dullest of the episodes so far. There’s an awful lot of plot exposition which is good in a way because it answers some questions to which I have desperately wanted answers but they could have done it in a better way, it’s mainly people standing in rooms talking. There’s a load of made up Torchwood jargon as well which hasn’t been handled particularly well. I’m still not sure what a ‘morphic field’ is and its episode 8…
My favourite bits of the episode are actually the Oswald and Jilly scenes. I haven’t properly praised her thus far but Lauren Ambrose has been great as Jilly Kitzinger. She’s suitably jaded and cynical as a result of the nature of her job but she’s also a consummate professional. I like how she’s a sort of an ‘anti-Gwen’, Gwen is all jeans, boots, big heart and a big gun, Jilly is Dresses, Lipstick, press releases and a heart of stone.
There’s another interesting idea raised in these scenes as well, the notion of a category 0. Oswald hears from a prostitute he’s hired that he’s soon to become a category 0 and when he confronts Jilly about this she explains that criminals that have committed crimes and heinous as Oswald will be rounded up and sent to the ‘Modules’, thus prompting Oswald to flee. It’s a nice idea, I know I spoke last time about my annoyance at the ‘45 Club’ idea not going anywhere but I think that and ‘Category 0’ are just little notions that give the viewer an idea of what kind of times these are.
Like I said, I enjoyed the Jilly and Oswald scenes but they were too few in an episode that was overwhelmed by explanations and confusing made up science. My least favourite episode of the series.
Episode 9 picks up two months after the previous episode with Gwen back inWales , Esther and Jack hiding out in Scotland Wales
This sat a lot better with me than the last episode. There was genuine tension when the raid was going on in Gwen’s house, I enjoyed the mystery on Jilly’s trip to Shanghai, it was nice to have the whole team under Gwen’s roof, Rhys had his moment of genius and of course the big reveal of ‘The Blessing’ (more of which later).
For my money Eve Myles is the star of this episode. I welled up a bit when she was begging the man leading the raid (who reminded me of Major Toht from Raiders of the Lost Arc) to spare her dad. Her performance has been wonderful. She’s had to be a family girl, a soldier, a best friend a wife, a spy and Myles has been pitch perfect every single time. I always say Eve Myles is criminally overlooked when awards season rolls round, give that woman a BAFTA!
As much as the episode was a good one, I did feel like they were leaving a lot till the end. Although there was the big reveal of ‘The Blessing’ there was never an explanation of what it was. I was left none the wiser and that’s an awful situation to be in with one episode to go. A marked improvement on last week’s rather beige episode but I’m still not happy with the amount of stuff they’ve got left to sort out.
So, the finale. Episode 10, ‘The Blood Line’, kicks off where ‘The Gathering’ left off. Esther and Rex are in Buenos Ares, Gwen and Jack are in Shanghai, both are trying to gain access to ‘The Blessing’ and the families are all trying to stop them.
I have said that this series has lacked action in places but I think they may have been saving it all for this episode. Lots of shootings, lots of stuff blowing up, lots of fights and many many nameless henchmen dispatched. It’s excellent, if you were holding out for some action, consider it done.
There is a twist in the last 30 seconds of this show which means another series of Torchwood is definitely on the cards. I’ve asked my friends and family what they think and the results are mixed to positive. My mum loved it and a couple of my mates quite liked it but had reservations. I liked it; it’s a nice idea, it’ll be interesting to see where they take it. Fans of logic prepare yourself because the final revelation will annoy you. There is a massive gaping plot hole that’s been bugging me for the past few days. I won’t tell you what it is because it explains how the Miracle happened, but needless to say it’s doing my head in.
Eve Myles is my star of this series. She has put in an absolutely stellar performance; Gwen is the heart and soul of the show and always has been. She’s fantastically heroic and I’m glad that Torchwood has its younger audience because she’s a fantastic role model for young girls; she’s the ultimate working mum :-) I’m much happier with her relationship with Jack as well. In series 1 and partly series 2 I always felt like there might have been something more to Jack and Gwen’s relationship which never seemed right to me. Partly because I adore Rhys and the idea of Gwen cheating on him makes me cross but also it didn’t benefit the storylines in any way. I’m a lot happier now their love has been officially defined as platonic.
Jack has taken a backseat throughout the whole series (save for episode 7) and I didn’t mind it. I think because ‘Children of Earth’ was so Jack-centric it didn’t bother me. It made sense considering he’s the one mortal person in the world, he’s not been that vulnerable for a very long time, he wouldn’t want to stand out. Irrelevant of how often he’s been on screen John Barrowman has been a wonderful screen presence and episode 7 is, in my opinion, his best work to date.
I’m hesitant to criticise the writers because when it’s been good, it has been very good but it’s like they got it into their head that they had a 12 episode run and then when they were having their episode 10 script meeting someone popped their head round the door and said “you do know that you’ve got two episodes left and a shit load of stuff to explain?” and then everyone went mental and tried to cram everything into the last episode. I can’t help but think it they’d condensed it down, took the time to talk about the important stuff but not dwelt too long on things that don’t have a bearing on the plot, we would have had 5 or 6 episodes of great stuff rather than 10 episodes that vary in quality.
The squashing of the plot aside, I think the writers dealt with the characters really well. The old characters were made older and wiser; the new characters were naive and headstrong and there were some characters that fell into a moral grey area. I thought Esther’s story about her sister was good; I have a bit more difficulty with Rex and his relationships though. I thought the brief mention of Rex’s father went nowhere and was totally unnecessary, likewise the half arsed attempt of making Dr Juarez Rex’s love interest. They were both pointless plot devices to try and garner sympathy for a character that was brash, macho and massively unlikeable.
Episode 8 carries on exactly where episode 7 left off, Jack, Gwen, Esther and Rex are with the mysterious woman who was blackmailing Gwen. They arrive at her house where some questions are answered about who started ‘the Miracle’ and what Jack has to do with it. Meanwhile Oswald gets the rug pulled out from under him as Jilly drops a bombshell about his soon to be ending celebrity status. Oswald goes on the run and Jilly gets an interesting new job offer from the Blue Eyed man.
In my opinion this is the dullest of the episodes so far. There’s an awful lot of plot exposition which is good in a way because it answers some questions to which I have desperately wanted answers but they could have done it in a better way, it’s mainly people standing in rooms talking. There’s a load of made up Torchwood jargon as well which hasn’t been handled particularly well. I’m still not sure what a ‘morphic field’ is and its episode 8…
My favourite bits of the episode are actually the Oswald and Jilly scenes. I haven’t properly praised her thus far but Lauren Ambrose has been great as Jilly Kitzinger. She’s suitably jaded and cynical as a result of the nature of her job but she’s also a consummate professional. I like how she’s a sort of an ‘anti-Gwen’, Gwen is all jeans, boots, big heart and a big gun, Jilly is Dresses, Lipstick, press releases and a heart of stone.
There’s another interesting idea raised in these scenes as well, the notion of a category 0. Oswald hears from a prostitute he’s hired that he’s soon to become a category 0 and when he confronts Jilly about this she explains that criminals that have committed crimes and heinous as Oswald will be rounded up and sent to the ‘Modules’, thus prompting Oswald to flee. It’s a nice idea, I know I spoke last time about my annoyance at the ‘45 Club’ idea not going anywhere but I think that and ‘Category 0’ are just little notions that give the viewer an idea of what kind of times these are.
Like I said, I enjoyed the Jilly and Oswald scenes but they were too few in an episode that was overwhelmed by explanations and confusing made up science. My least favourite episode of the series.
Episode 9 picks up two months after the previous episode with Gwen back in
This sat a lot better with me than the last episode. There was genuine tension when the raid was going on in Gwen’s house, I enjoyed the mystery on Jilly’s trip to Shanghai, it was nice to have the whole team under Gwen’s roof, Rhys had his moment of genius and of course the big reveal of ‘The Blessing’ (more of which later).
For my money Eve Myles is the star of this episode. I welled up a bit when she was begging the man leading the raid (who reminded me of Major Toht from Raiders of the Lost Arc) to spare her dad. Her performance has been wonderful. She’s had to be a family girl, a soldier, a best friend a wife, a spy and Myles has been pitch perfect every single time. I always say Eve Myles is criminally overlooked when awards season rolls round, give that woman a BAFTA!
As much as the episode was a good one, I did feel like they were leaving a lot till the end. Although there was the big reveal of ‘The Blessing’ there was never an explanation of what it was. I was left none the wiser and that’s an awful situation to be in with one episode to go. A marked improvement on last week’s rather beige episode but I’m still not happy with the amount of stuff they’ve got left to sort out.
So, the finale. Episode 10, ‘The Blood Line’, kicks off where ‘The Gathering’ left off. Esther and Rex are in Buenos Ares, Gwen and Jack are in Shanghai, both are trying to gain access to ‘The Blessing’ and the families are all trying to stop them.
I have said that this series has lacked action in places but I think they may have been saving it all for this episode. Lots of shootings, lots of stuff blowing up, lots of fights and many many nameless henchmen dispatched. It’s excellent, if you were holding out for some action, consider it done.
There is a twist in the last 30 seconds of this show which means another series of Torchwood is definitely on the cards. I’ve asked my friends and family what they think and the results are mixed to positive. My mum loved it and a couple of my mates quite liked it but had reservations. I liked it; it’s a nice idea, it’ll be interesting to see where they take it. Fans of logic prepare yourself because the final revelation will annoy you. There is a massive gaping plot hole that’s been bugging me for the past few days. I won’t tell you what it is because it explains how the Miracle happened, but needless to say it’s doing my head in.
Eve Myles is my star of this series. She has put in an absolutely stellar performance; Gwen is the heart and soul of the show and always has been. She’s fantastically heroic and I’m glad that Torchwood has its younger audience because she’s a fantastic role model for young girls; she’s the ultimate working mum :-) I’m much happier with her relationship with Jack as well. In series 1 and partly series 2 I always felt like there might have been something more to Jack and Gwen’s relationship which never seemed right to me. Partly because I adore Rhys and the idea of Gwen cheating on him makes me cross but also it didn’t benefit the storylines in any way. I’m a lot happier now their love has been officially defined as platonic.
Jack has taken a backseat throughout the whole series (save for episode 7) and I didn’t mind it. I think because ‘Children of Earth’ was so Jack-centric it didn’t bother me. It made sense considering he’s the one mortal person in the world, he’s not been that vulnerable for a very long time, he wouldn’t want to stand out. Irrelevant of how often he’s been on screen John Barrowman has been a wonderful screen presence and episode 7 is, in my opinion, his best work to date.
I’m hesitant to criticise the writers because when it’s been good, it has been very good but it’s like they got it into their head that they had a 12 episode run and then when they were having their episode 10 script meeting someone popped their head round the door and said “you do know that you’ve got two episodes left and a shit load of stuff to explain?” and then everyone went mental and tried to cram everything into the last episode. I can’t help but think it they’d condensed it down, took the time to talk about the important stuff but not dwelt too long on things that don’t have a bearing on the plot, we would have had 5 or 6 episodes of great stuff rather than 10 episodes that vary in quality.
The squashing of the plot aside, I think the writers dealt with the characters really well. The old characters were made older and wiser; the new characters were naive and headstrong and there were some characters that fell into a moral grey area. I thought Esther’s story about her sister was good; I have a bit more difficulty with Rex and his relationships though. I thought the brief mention of Rex’s father went nowhere and was totally unnecessary, likewise the half arsed attempt of making Dr Juarez Rex’s love interest. They were both pointless plot devices to try and garner sympathy for a character that was brash, macho and massively unlikeable.
When I liked the series the best it was talking about humanity. Episodes 4, 5 and 6 were all about what can go wrong when people blindly follow instructions and what can happen when government decides who lives and who dies. That stuff was great.
All in all I’ve enjoyed this series. I’m a firm fan of the one story arc format as opposed to the monster of the week format of series one and two, for one thing it’s preventing the dodgy ‘alien orgasm cloud’ type storylines of series one. I also like the new setting, part in Wales , part in America Cardiff
Has this series been a success? Yes, but not a complete success.
Now I need some…
Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. Liam Hemsworth has joined the cast of ‘The Expendables 2’. I feel I must explain myself because usually action films of this ilk don’t register on my movie radar (moviedar?). Well I went to the pictures to see ‘The Expendables’ and I quite enjoyed it. I liked the bromance between the two main characters; I thought the story was fine, predictable but fine and the sheer amount of munitions used was hilarious. It was a fun, action filled jolly. Any who, I’m glad they’ve roped in Mr Hemsworth because what the new film needs is a dose of youth. As much as I like the idea of geriatric kick ass assassins, I fear it could not sustain itself for more than one film, Sly Stallone and Jason Statham have a combined age of 109 and as gorgeous and beef cake-ey as the Stath is, the they needed an injection of youth. To be fair I can think of no one better than Liam ‘Brother of Thor’ Hemsworth to step into that role. He’s set to play the uber masculine Gale Hawthorne in ‘The Hunger Games’ film adaptation out in march 2012 and quite frankly anyone that takes roles away from Taylor Lautner is fine by me :-)
2. There’s a new Muppets parody trailer out! Yaaaaaay! I’m so excited! In fact I’m going to start a ‘Muppets Countdown’! So as of today there are 149 days left till the release of the new Muppet film :-)
That’s all for today.
Goodbye till next time :-)
x x x x x x x x x x
No comments:
Post a Comment