Torchwood: 2.10 (From Out of the Rain) and 2.11 (Adrift)

[selenay]

These are going to be shorter than usual reviews because I want to go to bed before midnight and I sense that my return to work tomorrow will leave me seriously inundated with crap problems to fix with little goof off time.

From Out of the Rain
Things I liked:

- The kind of vaguely spooking atmosphere that was never really scary, but rather a bit otherworldly.
- Ianto being a cinema geek. Much love.
- The tiny hints of Jack/Ianto we got. I love how the relationship is woven into the episodes without being the subject of them, meaning we get just enough to wet our appetites while leaving lots open to speculation. Do I say this every week?
- The costumes. I'm not normally a costume geek, but I did love the circus costumes this week.
- The hint at Jack's life before, although it left me wanting more (as usual).
- They didn't cop out and save everyone, but they left a hint of hope, too.

Definitely not a perfect episode, but I enjoyed it a lot. I'm still waiting for Tosh to have more to do than just babble three lines of tech each week. I liked the feeling of camaraderie in Ianto talking some workmates into trying out the cinema despite the chaos is caused. This team feels more like a team this year than last year and I really do like that.

Adrift

So many things to love about this episode:

- It was a Gwen episode and I genuinely enjoyed it. Score for Torchwood.
- Gwen was selfish sometimes and Rhys called her on it. In fact, Rhys was just generally great again, particularly with the comforting in that last scene.
- The tragedy of what had happened to the Rift victims was beautifully portrayed and had me a little chokey.
- The reason Jack was getting angry with Gwen's insistence on finding the Rift victims was because he's helpless to do anything to save them. Nobody had to state it out right and JB got the tone of Jack's scenes just right.
- OK, OK, Gwen walking in on Jack and Ianto was both funny and oddly hot. I am a pervert, most people reading this already knew that.
- Rhys again. I cannot mention Rhys enough.
- That place on the island gave me shivers even though I know that there's nowhere else to care for them properly.
- Jordan's mum had me a little teary at the end with her hope shattered and the pain at losing her son amplified by her sight of what he's become.
- I still really love the Gwen/Rhys dynamic because it's not always perfect and yet it still works.
- The episode was shot absolutely beautifully. The framing, the locations and the camera work were perfect.

Please, the only thing I ask for next season is a Tosh episode where she does more than spout techno-babble and doesn't fall inappropriately in love. I'm really sure that there are other things that Tosh can do.

Apart from the continuing under-use of Tosh, this was a great episode. I'm sure that others will point out all the quibbles and problems that I'm overlooking, but I thought that this was a well-written, well-acted, beautiful piece of work.

Ten weeks ago I was cheerfully anticipating the return of my shiny, crappy little show with glee. Now I'm rejoicing that my shiny little show is no longer crappy but a really rather good show with great writing and decent performances. Who knew that this would happen? There are only two episodes to go now, but this feels like it's been a much more even year than the first season with an overall higher standard. Yay! May Torchwood go on for many more years if we can keep equalling and bettering this season.


Do I have to go back to work tomorrow?

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Heh. I spotted you over the weekend, but didn't come over to say "Hi!", as I got hit by the fear that I didn't actually have anything interesting to say in person, where I can riff off your LJ comments instead.

I'm going to have to finally give up on my Torchwood confusion: I've spent this season being thoroughly frustrated because it's not as crappy as I expect it to be. Instead, it's been "OK" (but not great). So I've been unable to rant about it, and haven't been able to actively love it either. It's had its moments, sure (Owen's almost likeable, now he's dead).

But Adrift's finally cracked that. It was good. Not really good, but yes, good enough to be part of a good season. If they can keep them at that standard I'd appreciate it.

Continued, due to LJ's 4300 character comment limit...

[wimble.livejournal.com]

What was wrong? Oh, so many bits, which they needed for the episode to work, but didn't quite ring true.
The first one is (obviously?) the opening credits. "The 21st Century is when everything changes. And Torchwood is ready!" No they're not. They're hanging on in there by the seat of their pants. And in Jack's case, we know how reliable that is. Hell, the season opens with a little old lady having a crack at their incompetence. "Something Borrowed": retconn the entire wedding guest list, and call it a success? Ahem. Yeah, how are they going to explain that social faux pas. "From out of the Rain", they save 1 child out of the seven(?) victims, and call it a success. Not what most people would call a good success rate. (Sorry, I'm just painting a scene here, I'll return to this point below.)

As soon as Jack said he was coincidentally at the barrage, he was shifty. I think that's kudos to John Barrowman, but it might have been my plot-device detector firing off.
The meeting where he shuts Gwen down, she should have shouted at him. Later, tripping over him and Ianto ("Hey Gwen, fancy a threesome?" "Oh, fuck off!" Sorry if it hits your buttons, but Jack was being objectionable there), she should have yelled at him more, even if she hadn't done it the first time: Jack wanted her around to be the Heart, and here she is, actually doing it. And he blanks her (and worse, as it turns out, it's not because he's guilty). Some damn yelling, Gwen! It's the other thing you're good at.

I did like the way the asylum was portrayed. But it was an asylum, reminiscent of the dramatic portrayals of 19th Century Bedlam. Couldn't Jack get some decent lighting in there, at least? I was wondering whether it'd turn out that Jonah was becoming a Weevil.

Gwen should have taken Andy along when she went back to the island with Nikki. He deserved it by then. But what a patient boat captain!

I twitched over the optimistic ending of "A Day in the Death", where Owen finally talks Maggie into not jumping off the building, essentially using the argument that "that if she can see even a glimmer of hope then it must be worth taking a chance" (quoting Wikipedia). As somebody who suffers bouts of depression, I'm not fan of the argument that continued pain is trivial in the face of hope. (I mentioned this to nickeyb, and she didn't get my point. I'm jealous of such optimism ;-)
This is, again, produced at the closure of "Adrift": Nikki berating Gwen, as the hope of Jonah's continued existence is shattered in the face of his actual state. While I can sympathise with the immediate shock, it's usually portrayed that the closure is better that the continued stress and grief. My TiVo recorded the first couple of minutes of the following confidential, which starts off with Eve Myles explaining that the episode is about the lack of closure of losing a child. That's not what the characters express. Mark Everest (I think) claims it's an issue of loss. But that's not what Nikki portrays: she's (wrongly, I think) all about the hope. She really owes Gwen an apology. In this case, what's actually happened is a success! (Well, Gwen's part is, anyway.)

And while I liked the portrayal of Rhys, and his anger, I did think that if Gwen could just wait for him to finish ranting, and say "There's people. Missing." she'd have a fair chance of finishing the explanation, and getting him onside to solve the problem (but that would have resolved their conflict, and shortened the episode). Similarly, Jack finally giving up and explaining to Gwen on the island. Why not do it sooner? Why's it such a secret that he couldn't tell the rest of Torchwood? Ok, they can then argue over whether it's productive to tell people about the victims, but that's more useful than simply sulking like a 14 year old who's been caught doing something wrong (but, of course, that would have drastically shortened, or altered the episode).

I know it was all about Gwen (and Andy and Owen), but yes, they really do continue to underuse Tosh don't they? Owen and Ianto get a handful of lines between them too. (But, at least Ianto does get a different handful, and other use. So there's something for squee ;-)

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Damn. It's gone midnight. I'd better not watch "Fragments" now...

[selenay]

Good plan on the not watching 'Fragments'. It's good to get sleep sometimes :-) I have it waiting for me tonight and I haven't seen any reaction yet (I'm hiding from reactions until I've seen an episode so that I can come to it fresh) so I'm quite looking forward to it.

I agree that Torchwood does still have problems, many of them. They often have to sacrifice the straightforward, logical approach to create a good story which isn't a good sign, yet they do it well enough that I'm not conscious of it until someone points in out afterwards.

I suppose that I'm a persistent optimist because I liked the way that Day in the Death ended. It really worked for me. Then again, I'm in a position where I have to stay optimistic and try to find a bright side to everything because otherwise my own situation would often have me curled in a corner, unable to remember why I'm so determined to keep going. So the message that life is worth it if you can find a glimmer of hope or even a slight reason to continue resonates well for me. I think that it was one of those episodes that depends greatly on the person watching it as to how well it works.

I can also see the reasoning behind Nikki's reaction, although I agree with you that this definitely isn't an episode about lack of closure. For Nikki there was that fantasy and hope that she would find her son one day and everything would be fine again. To find Jonah as he is, shattered and insane, not only destroyed that hope, it destroyed the happy memories of him that she had been holding onto. She'll remember that scream and his pain rather than her happy, loving son and it's going to take her many years to get past that. If she ever can forgive Gwen and apologise for what she said, it's going to take a lot of time.

For me, I saw Adrift as an episode about helplessness and grief. Yes, Jack should have told Gwen about the island sooner (although it would have been a shortened episode that way), but the island is almost a symbol of just how little any of them can really do to protect the people they're supposed to help. Torchwood definitely isn't ready, no matter what that opening spiel says.

That scene in the office with Jack and Ianto didn't fit with the rest of the episode and probably would have worked much better in one of the comedy episodes. It wasn't an episode that needed the light relief (and distraction).

For me, part of the episode was about the gulf there still is between Rhys and Gwen in terms of understanding each other. Rhys needed to hear why Gwen is scared to have children, but Gwen still hasn't worked out how to phrase things to make Rhys understand how her work affects her. The end scene, where they finally started to understand each other a little, showed that they are starting to get it a little.

Tosh is my big frustration with TW. Owen has had several very strong episodes this season. Ianto has had a lot of the best lines this year, but there hasn't really been a big episode for him. The thing that I'd like for next season is for the writing to continue strengthening and for Tosh and Ianto to each get a good episode that doesn't rely on inappropriate unrequited love. Hell, I'd settle for a good Tosh-and-Ianto episode if it was really good!

[honorh.livejournal.com]

I was so glad that in "Adrift," they ended with Rhys asking Gwen to tell him everything. She was wrong to put him off in favor of work and with what she said at the park. However, he needed to realize that Gwen *needs* someone outside of work to talk to about these things. At the end, they both gave, and that's what makes a marriage work.

[selenay]

*nods* That's why I liked that ending. They spent most of the episode just not getting each other and not being willing to hear each other out, so to see them both giving a little and finding common ground was a lovely way to end it.