Torchwood - Adrift
Apr. 6th, 2008 10:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gategrrlAdrift was more of an Enigma. That title's already been used by a movie about a true mystery and puzzle solved by cryptologists in the forties, so let's move on.
Adrift featured Gwen this time, with a small side helping of Tosh, a tiny bit of Owen and a few dashes of Ianto and a sizable amount of Jack. Once again, Gwen goes on the same journey of learning that she's not All That and doesn't know when to turn off her 'compassion' which is really just an excuse to prove she's right and everyone else is wrong. Haven't we seen this before in just about every other episode featuring Gwen? Gwen discovers something wanky in Torchwood, has to go against protocol as set down by Jack, and finds out that Jack does, indeed, know better than she does.
All that means is Gwen has a character arc of 'self-discovery' which is getting tiresome beyond belief, at least for this viewer.
There were a couple glaring plotholes. What the heck was Jack's motivation for keeping this to himself? One that was clearly spelled out in the episode? If he'd only had a short one sentence dialogue with Ianto discussing why he doesn't want anyone told, or at least Gwen, it would have been a much better episode. As it was, I didn't see any reason why he couldn't have told Gwen, "Look, deary, I've found a few of the people you're looking for, and they're physically and emotionally damaged in ways you can't even imagine. So keep your nose out of it or you're fucking fired. Okay?"
Yeah, that's one short conversation I would have enjoyed. A lot.
Eve Myles got to emote again, lots and lots. As usual, her fellow actor who plays Rhys got to tell off Gwen, and do it in a way that felt like a relief to me. Knock her off her pedestal again, would you please, Rhys? Hard?
The only thing I found interesting in the Ianto/Jack caught-in-the-act scene was Gwen's reaction to it - like seeing your parents or brother going at it - and Ianto's and Jack's "so what?" reaction to her seeing them. Seeing is believing, and from what I know about Gwen, she probably *knew* they were a couple, but didn't really *believe* it until she saw them in Jack's office. Gwen, knock next time, eh?
The only good things about this episode were the mother and the son who had the most powerful emotional arc I've seen on this show. I don't think the episode was up to Whedonesque levels, as the Guy said it was, but it *felt* a lot like a Whedon show, except for the parts where main characters acted stupid to move the plot along. Whedon likes to twist his characters emotionally so that their decisions to screw up come from how other characters make THEIR emotional or fact-based decisions. That doesn't seem to happen too often on Torchwood. The Torchwood writers like to leave things out that help flesh out their stories.
I'll watch the last episode of Torchwood coming up, but I think that's going to be it, for me. Unless Martha joins the cast, then I'm on it.
Adrift featured Gwen this time, with a small side helping of Tosh, a tiny bit of Owen and a few dashes of Ianto and a sizable amount of Jack. Once again, Gwen goes on the same journey of learning that she's not All That and doesn't know when to turn off her 'compassion' which is really just an excuse to prove she's right and everyone else is wrong. Haven't we seen this before in just about every other episode featuring Gwen? Gwen discovers something wanky in Torchwood, has to go against protocol as set down by Jack, and finds out that Jack does, indeed, know better than she does.
All that means is Gwen has a character arc of 'self-discovery' which is getting tiresome beyond belief, at least for this viewer.
There were a couple glaring plotholes. What the heck was Jack's motivation for keeping this to himself? One that was clearly spelled out in the episode? If he'd only had a short one sentence dialogue with Ianto discussing why he doesn't want anyone told, or at least Gwen, it would have been a much better episode. As it was, I didn't see any reason why he couldn't have told Gwen, "Look, deary, I've found a few of the people you're looking for, and they're physically and emotionally damaged in ways you can't even imagine. So keep your nose out of it or you're fucking fired. Okay?"
Yeah, that's one short conversation I would have enjoyed. A lot.
Eve Myles got to emote again, lots and lots. As usual, her fellow actor who plays Rhys got to tell off Gwen, and do it in a way that felt like a relief to me. Knock her off her pedestal again, would you please, Rhys? Hard?
The only thing I found interesting in the Ianto/Jack caught-in-the-act scene was Gwen's reaction to it - like seeing your parents or brother going at it - and Ianto's and Jack's "so what?" reaction to her seeing them. Seeing is believing, and from what I know about Gwen, she probably *knew* they were a couple, but didn't really *believe* it until she saw them in Jack's office. Gwen, knock next time, eh?
The only good things about this episode were the mother and the son who had the most powerful emotional arc I've seen on this show. I don't think the episode was up to Whedonesque levels, as the Guy said it was, but it *felt* a lot like a Whedon show, except for the parts where main characters acted stupid to move the plot along. Whedon likes to twist his characters emotionally so that their decisions to screw up come from how other characters make THEIR emotional or fact-based decisions. That doesn't seem to happen too often on Torchwood. The Torchwood writers like to leave things out that help flesh out their stories.
I'll watch the last episode of Torchwood coming up, but I think that's going to be it, for me. Unless Martha joins the cast, then I'm on it.
