The working class vs. alien junkies
Jul. 17th, 2009 10:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sabotabbyDid...did they just throw a Wobbly slogan in there? And then repeat it, like, three times?
Also,
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seaya, I see what you mean about the standardized tests. I think I may need to burn a copy to show to all of the other teachers I know, because that was probably the most astute commentary on the public school system I've seen in I don't know how long.Really, really gripping TV. I mean, I am rather irked at the whole Bury Your Gays thing (we're going to pretend that my reaction to this is because it reinforces a heteronormative discourse or something), but damn if this isn't some amazing writing.
(Even if the Abrupt Genre Shift this season gave me whiplash. Didn't last season start with a guy with a blowfish for a head and Spike and Captain Jack beating each other up and then making out?)
Also, I still need to know if the pterodactyl survived.
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Date: 2009-07-18 03:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 03:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 04:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 01:50 pm (UTC)You *are* talking about *Torchwood*, right?
Date: 2009-07-18 07:01 am (UTC)Oh yes, you are. And so am I — if fervently praying to a god in which I don't believe for a wish I know to be internally impossible can be considered needing "to know".
Did...did they just throw a Wobbly slogan in there? And then repeat it, like, three times?
Oh yes. They did.
Really, really gripping TV. I mean, I am rather irked at the whole Bury Your Gays thing (we're going to pretend that my reaction to this is because it reinforces a heteronormative discourse or something), but damn if this isn't some amazing writing.
To buttress your argument (or pretence), I'll note that when the series started, Torchwood (the organization) only had three (count 'em!) out five (six?) surviving characters. If one of the two (since Jack can't shuffle off this mortal coil) had to die, it made more dramatic sense for it to be Ianto.
And yeah, it's the one hell of a piece of writing. My "summer blockbuster" is a television show, unless Bruno is twice as cringingly hilarious as I expect it to be. I'm working on a rave and am struggling with the desire to explain to people who disdain F/SF that this is actually a really worthwhile progamme — I sure as hell never thought I'd watch scenes in which I couldn't help but see analogues to the Wannsee Conference that actually made me feel empathy to war criminals.
Also, when you've got some free time and before the summer's brilliance fades to shades of indigo and ivory and the pungent turquoise veins shot through a slumping French cheese, we should meet for our Annual Pint.
Re: You *are* talking about *Torchwood*, right?
Date: 2009-07-18 02:11 pm (UTC)I'm not entirely convinced that it made dramatic sense. It depends on what they do next series, if there is a next series. It certainly made dramatic sense if they plan to end it there.
before the summer's brilliance fades to shades of indigo and ivory and the pungent turquoise veins shot through a slumping French cheese,
How is it that you managed to simultaneously make me laugh and make me depressed? Okay, so I am gone until Aug. 2, and then I am free for beering.
Re: You *are* talking about *Torchwood*, right?
Date: 2009-07-18 10:29 pm (UTC)But I'm now firmly in the I-hope-it-comes-back-for-a-fourth camp. And I'm thanking god we'll soon have a third series of The Sarah Jane Adventures to keep us going during this relatively sparse Whoniverse year.
How is it that you managed to simultaneously make me laugh and make me depressed?
Because I'm brilliant? Good grief, that was quite the baroque little sentence, wasn't it?
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Date: 2009-07-18 07:31 am (UTC)Except Rhys, who's a little bit awesome, but still not quite a major player, Torchwood-wise.
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:14 pm (UTC)I guess the cast would be Jack, Lois, and maybe what's-her-face-assassin chick? I'm not sure that they could have Rhys on if Gwen has a small child.
...if there's another season and Gwen's in it, they'd totally kill off the kid for angst.
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Date: 2009-07-18 10:18 pm (UTC)For cast, I figure Jack (maybe back a few months later after spending 100 years somewhere else?), Gwen (with the baby somehow written around), Lois and, if they can steal her away from Law & Order, Martha Jones. Oh, and hopefully Spike.
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Date: 2009-07-19 07:13 am (UTC)I do think Lois needs to be part of the New Torchwood, if it ever happens, but I'm worried Gwen's baby will have superpowers thanks to exposure to free radicals and alien slime at the Hub.
Seriously, how else are they going to incorporate Mommy Gwen?
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Date: 2009-07-19 04:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 08:00 am (UTC)The Working Class commentary and the whole so-very-British (global in fact) classicism thing being put to the forefront.
I haven't written about it, but I probably will, there's so much in those five episodes to talk about.
I disagree about the whole Bury Your Gays thing. In the context of the over-all show it works without being thrown back as that homophobic trope, maybe if no one had seen Torchwood before, they could thing that... but regardless... the writing and drama was just so fucking good. I cried all three times I watched it... aaaaand lets ignore that little fact shall we.
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:19 pm (UTC)The reason why I think it was a trope (and possibly unnecessary) is that this was the series where they finally decided to make a big point of Ianto being gay. (Which he's not. He's bisexual.) Introducing gay angst and then killing him off, particularly when "I'm having a long-running affair with the guy who killed my cyborg girlfriend" angst was much more interesting, draws a connection between teh gay and teh death that throws it into Unfortunate Implication territory. (Much the same as killing Tara on Buffy made sense from a narrative point of view, but killing her right after she'd slept with Willow made it Bury Your Gays.)
It worked 'cause the writing was great, but it entirely set my teeth on edge. And not just because I liked the character.
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:38 pm (UTC)I wrote quite extensively about the whole "Dead Queer" thing in my LJ, if you're interested. Here and here.
I don't think there was a whole lot of "gay angst", there was a whole lot of self-worth and self-perception angst from Ianto. Jack and Ianto have a pretty fucked up relationship throughout the show. Comparing it to Willow and Tara doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me, as the problems between the two girls were shown to be compounded by the Hellmouth, but were the most "normal" (in the context of BtVS) and lacked the hierarchy that exists between Jack and Ianto. As you say, the angst is much more about the fact that he's shagging his boss who happened to also bring about the Final Demise of his (already dead) girlfriend.
In any event the gay angst was resolved very nicely by Ianto stating quite clearly that using the word Queer in the way Clem did was not acceptable. Not to mention, that Clem smelling his Queerness, just by himself, without knowing about Jack is a very clear statement about who Ianto is, his own identity which has nothing to do with Jack. Ianto owns his queer sexuality, which is quite awesome since it's something we barely see on teevee in such a strong and positive.
Something that was interesting and came up in the podcast I linked to was how Torchwood S1 and S2 are in fact a kind pomo-sexual bubble, where anything goes because Jack's past is our future. In CoE that bubble is burst and they have to deal with the outside forces of society. Which do include, much to our misfortune and anger, homophobia.
Dude... that was long. Sorry for ranting!
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:47 pm (UTC)I like your analysis a lot. Though I'm still unconvinced that it was necessary (Jack sacrificing Steven and then taking off is actually more angsty if Ianto is still alive and gets left behind...again) if they're planning on another season. If they aren't, it's absolutely necessary because Jack's tragedy is to outlive everyone he cares about.
Interestingly, last night I finished my analysis on A Game of You, which had exactly the same problem in regard to commenting on homophobic culture and conventions while still falling into them. My feelings about that are pretty similar to my feelings about CoE.
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:57 pm (UTC)No one on TW gets a happy ending. I'm now going to appear very very pathetic but bear with me: Remember in the S2 ep "To The Last Man" Ianto and Gwen are looking at old photos by TW operatives of the past and Ianto says they all die very young and he's obviously thinking of himself and his buddies from TW London.
There is the moment in which we know that Ianto accepts the fact that he will die, especially given the fact that the very next episode he has a gun shoved in his face (notice... Ianto is always threatened with death and dies, on the fourth episode of a series... must think of what that means).
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Date: 2009-07-18 03:04 pm (UTC)...this would in no way be a problem if there was more representation of gay characters in pop culture.
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Date: 2009-07-18 03:08 pm (UTC)Agreed with you on all accounts. I guess I just didn't feel bitter about it other than the fact that my fave character on teevee was killed... *wibble*.
But you know what, RTD isn't perfect, nor should he be, the narrative and over all arc was just so good and tragic (*weeps* for Jack) that I felt he managed to convey that death as a Good Death - heroic, meaningful, Jack is devastated and his hesitation in sacrificing Stephen was more for Alice's sake that anything else.
Ianto was his anchor way more than his biological family.
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Date: 2009-07-18 03:11 pm (UTC)Jack is devastated and his hesitation in sacrificing Stephen was more for Alice's sake that anything else.
And that was disturbing as all hell. I found it really unsettling. I can't tell how much of that was my reaction to bad things happening to children and how much was what this says about Jack.
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Date: 2009-07-18 03:16 pm (UTC)But then... he always did want to emulate the Doctor... he pretty much succeeded in that one.
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Date: 2009-07-19 04:30 am (UTC)Oh yes ...
Date: 2009-07-18 10:40 pm (UTC)I feel certain Davies wanted us to be unsettled. Other than the numbers involved (and the fact Jack wasn't also doing anything for himself, unlike the Cabinet members), the parallel between Jack's solution and that of sacrificing the "worst" 10% of your children to the 456 was pretty clear.
This sure as hell wasn't a feel-good summer special.
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Date: 2009-07-19 04:29 am (UTC)But the books are shite, omg. Badly written fanfic is better.
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Date: 2009-07-19 08:35 am (UTC)I mean, if they're not part of canon (which the Radio Plays are), why should I spend money to read fanfic?
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Date: 2009-07-18 08:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 02:21 pm (UTC)I loved the scenes in the estates. Those and the government scenes were my favourites.
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Date: 2009-07-18 11:22 am (UTC)Also, I still need to know if the pterodactyl survived.
I know! She's my favorite character. If they kill off pterodactyl I'm boycotting!
ETA RANT
The "Martha's on her honeymoon" excuse was lame especially after a day or so and not even UNIT was like uhm where's The Doctor? Don't they have his phone number? Martha does so wtf? The laziness around The Doctor not being there bugged the poopie out of me.
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:25 pm (UTC)That was pathetic. Then again, there's a part of me that never wants to see Mickey, Jackie, Martha, or Milligan on the show again, because I want to imagine them all having happy endings.
The Doctor's absence only worked for me because of Gwen's video at the end. That was chilling. It made no sense in the context of the story's larger universe, though, unless maybe the Doctor was like mid-regeneration or something.
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:42 pm (UTC)If this was a spontaneous invasion I can see why this would be a "where the hell was the Doctor?" outrage. But humanity set a precedence for child/drug dealing... why would the Doctor get in the way of economics?
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:49 pm (UTC)Though your theory is in keeping with what Gwen said. Perhaps the willingness to trade the children before disgusted him so much that he stayed out of this.
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 02:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 02:59 pm (UTC)This show is for us commie queers uber-nerd-geeks who also read Harry Potter! :D
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Date: 2009-07-18 10:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 04:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 02:27 pm (UTC)I'm told I need to get into Leverage, though. The bit I saw of it was great.
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Date: 2009-07-19 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 12:30 pm (UTC)(fixed a typo!)
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Date: 2009-07-18 02:31 pm (UTC)I also loved the other woman, the one who was just in the background the whole time and then stood up at the end and was like "IM IN UR MEETINGS, FILMING UR DISCUSSIONS." She came the closest out of any of the characters to making me wibble.
The solution bugged me, like all 30 second solutions bug me. It'd have been better if they figured it out earlier but Jack held it off until the last minute because it would involve sacrificing a kid.
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Date: 2009-07-18 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-18 07:46 pm (UTC)I thought they handled the politics way better than on any of the previous New Who/TW. Much as I appreciated the sentiments with the Massive Weapons of Destruction and the 45 seconds, it was clunky. But that whole discussion of the selection of the children, and especially that line: "If we can't identify the lowest achieving 10%... then what are school league tables for" was brilliant - actually achieved genuine satire.
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Date: 2009-07-18 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-07-19 04:34 am (UTC)Why were their no gathered-up kids who had obvious disabilities?
I mean, I know he was going somewhere else, but...
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Date: 2009-07-19 05:30 pm (UTC)Cannot.Wait.