Torchwood: Miracle Day--Episode 5 (spoilers to this part)

[rabid1st]

Well, I suppose some of you are wondering what in the world am I doing watching Miracle Day at this late date. I will tell you that when the show originally aired in the US, I was very ticked off at Russell T. Davies and, some of you might remember this, I was sure the show would be absolute rubbish. This prediction was born out for me by my FList and so, I didn't even bother. However, having started a new Fic, I am back in the RTD era and thought...what the hell? How bad can it be?

Of course, I was well warned that the show would be crap. And I know RTD. But despite going in prepared, there are a number of annoyances with the DVD that even I wouldn't have predicted. First, let me just say, John and RTD salivating about how great each episode is...sort of makes them look like fools. Desperate fools, longing to be loved and knowing they are not worthy of our time. Second, Jack is completely out of character once we hit California with the new team. Why in the world would JACK want to turn everyone gay? I can't believe RTD would lose such massive sight of his core character to not only make him mortal...but also...no longer multisexual. But...oh, wait...he did the same thing to THE DOCTOR! Anyway, Jack's lack of character development is not mysterious, it is just wrong.

Third, the new team, pretty much as useless as the old team. Here I should mention that, of the old team, I liked Suzie and Ianto. I didn't care for the rest of the team, so their poignant deaths didn't move me. And I don't particularly care for Jack anymore, since Children of Earth. So...not much to complain about with the new team, as they are as lacking in personal charisma as the previous team. I did like the female doctor. She was just toasted, not sure if that will be permanent, but...it hardly matters...as she was revealed to be as stupid as a sack of rocks just prior to dying. This put her in excellent company with Gwen who, in the middle of smuggling her dad out of the top secret mission, loses her cool and blurts out that she is a spy...and one they are looking to kill, as well. I mean, really? What part of undercover do these morons not understand?

Fourth, it looks like the part where you don't announce who you are to all and sundry. I'm all for love in the trenches, stolen kiss or much more in the heat of battle. But, going to the trouble of getting a fake passport and papers to infiltrate security that is trying to actively kill you...only to smooch the heck out of your undercover husband in front of everyone in the middle of the airport? Come on!

Seriously, do we care if these people die, RTD? Certainly they shouldn't breed. Too late for Gwen, I suppose on that front. How can we invest any sort of interest in these chicken-headed wastes of ink and paper? Also, here's a tip, RTD, if your characters have to act like complete idiots or behave completely out of character for you plot to move forward...there is something WRONG WITH YOUR PLOT!

I so want to rewrite the orgasmic opening comments from RTD so that he says, "Episode Five, this is the episode where I ran out of ideas to pad the story, so my adult characters behave like small, spoiled children, throwing tantrums right in the middle of their secret missions, so I can have another episode where they magically escape from harm. Or alternatively, where you, the audience can grieve the one character with any nuance." Good Lord, what tripe! Sorry...I was warned that I'd already seen the best of the series with episodes 1-3. And, yet, I press on to episode six.

Rae

Comments

[susanb03.livejournal.com]

It was pretty disappointing. I don't even remember most of it.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Sadly, it is not getting any better. Episode 6 featured another truly inappropriate smooch between Gwen and Rhys.

And SUSAN! It is you. I was a little worried about you when you failed to comment on the last chapter of I&B, since you are all..."YAY!" I thought you might be having more medical nightmares.

Good to see you out and about on LJ!

[kitsune17.livejournal.com]

At first I thought you were talking about the one with the kids, but then I remembered the "Party in the USA" miniseries. There were some cute scenes/scenes that I liked, but overall I agree with your analysis.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Ah, Children of Earth. I have longer reviews on here about that one, which I did watch as it aired. I enjoyed it very much until the episode where they killed Ianto. And you know, I'm not even that upset because Ianto was my favorite character. I was upset because it was such an idiotic thing to do, given the rest of the episode. This is almost exactly why I was upset by JE, too. RTD didn't know how to craft a sustainable emotional gut blow and he went for the most ridiculously inept manipulations.

Take the death of Jack's child...well...RTD had to know this was his final solution. And it is a gut wrenching one...perhaps it was all that could be done...I would have worked for a neater solution to my story or I would have explained the inevitable better...but...whatever. Say, you have decided to kill this child...and you want Jack heartbroken over it all, a broken man? Then, you leave Ianto alive. Ianto turning his back on Jack at the end, would have been so much more powerful than his daughter. Because the audience is deeply invested in Ianto, we would have been much more invested in the real horror of killing that child. But RTD wastes the audiences emotional investment, before the ending episode. Just to waste it, it seems.

If Ianto had still been alive, he would have tried to stop Jack. Ianto would have to be tricked as the daughter was, and would end up comforting the daughter...in the end. He would have still left Torchwood, turned his back on Jack. Then, we would all have felt the blow to Jack at one concentrated point...and there would be a much larger debate about the ethics of the situation RTD had created. Also, the Ianto/Jack folks would have tons of things to occupy them...rather than simply abandoning the Torchwood world. RTD could, as a writer, always say, "Sorry, there is no change of Ianto ever coming back to Jack." But the audience could keep the love alive in their heads. So, it would have been a win-win for the franchise...with people they could have back for reunion episodes in twenty years time, too.

There's just no excuse for the huge opportunities that RTD loses with the decisions he makes. Just as we could have had more stories around Doctor Who and a greater fanbase, we could have had more Torchwood stories, too. But both times, RTD screwed up royally.

Rae

[kitsune17.livejournal.com]

Very well explained. I have no arguments.

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

You were indeed warned. :D

And the last episode is far and away the worst, so I look forward to your eloquent indignation at that point. (Unless you are reduced to just exclamation points and dashes by your fury.)

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

You've summed up nicely.

But I expect the team to be utter tools. I most minded the character assassination of Jack. Holy Out of Character, Batman! Sexual politics should not have trumped a brilliant cad who'd shag anything that moved.

I have not watched it since its original air dates, and when I see it pop up on my dvr from time to time, I automatically delete.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I know. When that Rex fellow asks Jack if his goal was to turn everyone around him gay...I was like..."Not the ladies!" which was what Jack would say...and instead...Jack is like..."You bet" or whatever he said. Anyway, I was like...oh, someone screwed up a line...then, I noticed someone screwed up JACK! Admittedly, I suppose killing your child and your love in one mini-series might screw with someone's head...perhaps Jack has decided he can't risk another child and has gone all man all the time, but it makes him a diminished character and that's never a good author choice...though...of course...RTD makes these type of diminishing choices all the time. Hello! Rose/Ten!

Rae

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

I still haven't watched Miracle Day yet, so you're doing better than me! I'm sure I'll watch it at some point, but I feel no great burning desire to do so.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen so far, there is no great need to watch this. I am debating returning the last two discs without bothering to view them, after watching Episode 6. The stupid is just too much to tolerate. Nobody, including RTD, seems to have a clue about normal human behavior. I can't imagine anyone, let alone a trained CIA agent or 400 year old immortal guy, after being taken prisoner and immobilized AND after seeing his coworker roasted alive, that...he knows everything is going to tell everyone. PUH-LEEZ!

[dharkapparition.livejournal.com]

I can't remember where I stopped watching, but the stupid was so over overwhelmingly frustrating. Not sure if I will ever try to finish it or not. There's just too much good stuff to finish.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I know, I mean, nobody undercover, let alone a trained CIA agent, would confess everything as soon as they are captured. These people go out of their way to act like idiotic victims. And we are supposed to admire that? At least when Eleven goes around bragging about how he is going to bring his enemies to their knees because he is THE DOCTOR...he has some historical precedent for his bravado. These people are just idiots.

[dharkapparition.livejournal.com]

I'll probably just look up the ending so I don't waste several more hours of my life.

[phdelicious.livejournal.com]

I prefer Miracle Day over CoE mostly because I felt the actual plot resolution was less "I'm going to shoot myself in the foot in the name of making the audience FEEL" but I wasn't particularly impressed with either mini-series and haven't rewatched them since they aired.

But you touched on one of my biggest gripes about RTD's handling of Jack and that is the fact that Torchwood Jack is not Doctor Who Jack. I could see it coming all the way back in S1 of TW but the fact that the took Jack from pansexual to gay basically for the 'shock' value and sexual politics of having those scenes on tv annoys the hell out of me.

I find S2 to be the high point of TW.

[susanb03.livejournal.com]

Oh rats! I must have missed it. I'll look right now!

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

It doesn't get better, I'm afraid. And it goes on far, far too long. Part of RTD's huge emotional self-indulgence, when I lost all patience with him.

A shame because it was an interesting concept, and the Latino doctor (Vera? Don't remember) was such a promising character - far, far better than that irritating Jilly woman.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I felt Vera was a far better character than Rex. I would have rather he was burned to death in some oven and she saw it...and showed the intellect she'd shown to that point in the story and kept quiet. I could even see HER have the breakdown that Rex has later while in chains. Rex having it was just ridiculously out of character for a CIA agent. They are, after all, trained not to give away any information under torture. And he wasn't even being tortured he was just a chatty Cathy working out the clues. Ridiculous.

I didn't care for Jilly either, but I can see the place for a CIA trained desk jockey in Torchwood. Her ditzy tendencies would be exactly why she wasn't a field agent.

I just watched the one where Gwen and Jack go at it like vicious bloggers when she takes him hostage. As you say, just a load of RTD justifications for his emotional baggage and definitely self-indulgent.

Nice to see you here, as always. New fic by next Friday, I think. I was held up by RL events this past week.