This Post is Dedictated to All Things Welsh
In an attempt to mend fences with 
beccatoria who is blaming me on multiple internet fronts for *supposedly* talking her into watching Torchwood again and unleashing her inner Welsh rage, I felt I should probably say something about Children of Earth. In addition to spoilers, there shall be mocking, just to warn you.
The plot? Meh. Kids frozen in place and chanting I find neither terrifying nor creepy. If this is the best an alien race can do to instill fear in us and make us bow to their will, I say send them a copy of Independence Day for some pointers.
It was bad enough a temp was given access to top secret government information, but she is also, inexplicably, allowed to tag along to MI5 in order to stand outside a badly guarded door and witness a super secret project being built. Sigh. I have my suspicions that since Lois was a late substitution for Martha when Freema signed to do Law & Order: UK, only minor changes were made to the script and Martha, who was a member of Unit, would have plausibly been there.
As if the government wasn't looking bad enough, we are also shown they are supported by one of the worst trained military's in the world. I'm trying to decide witch is more laughable. A sharpshooter who not only missed both his targets after firing multiple rounds, but could barely hit the side of a building. Or a black opts squad outwitted and outrun by a guy driving a glorified forklift. If their own people are this incompetent, couldn't they have outsourced? I'm sure there are some disgruntled former navy seals they could hire.
I will cut the government some slack for believing Jack's immortality is tied to the rift. Given all the weird things they know are tied to the rift and that Jack has been in and around Cardiff for over a hundred years without aging, it's a logical leap to make. We just know better.
The big WTF?! still remains the horrible, tasteless, racist joke Gwen makes about adopting a Filipino child to clean the chimney. WHY was such a random and insulting 'joke' thrown in there like that?
Before you think I completely hated what I've seen thus far, I did enjoy some moments. For instance, just about anytime Rhys is on screen. I've grown to like him, a lot. Which makes me fear for him. :( I appreciate how supportive he is of Gwen and her work. It's also great he's allowed to offer his opinions and, much of the time, his ideas help them.
One thing I've felt the show has always handled well is the relationship between Jack and Ianto and there is some nice building on their relationship. Neither is reacting to the "couple" label particularly well. Jack is likely hesitant to commit to being in a relationship where he'll have to watch the person he loves grow old and die as he's done before. And Ianto seems to be struggling, more than I would have thought, with being in love with a man.
I thought part of Ianto's struggle might have to do with knowing he'd have an unsupportive family. Apparently, not. His sister was thrilled for him. I loved as Ianto was trying to dodge discussing Jack by pointing out his niece was in the room, his sister tells him that it's fine, the girl has a friend with two mommies. :) And I found it interesting, and believable, when he admitted it's not men he's attracted too, just Jack.
I had read spoilers about Jack having a daughter and was worried we'd end up with a deadbeat dad storyline. But, mercifully, his daughter is an adult and, in a nice twist, she's the one who pushed him out of her life. I actually felt a bit sorry for Jack - and I NEVER feel sorry for Jack - since it's not his fault he's immortal, but it's not the only problem his daughter has with him. The reason for his unexpected visit is to run tests on his grandson. Yes, Jack is trying to save the world, again, but he's being dishonest about his motives for being there and she's a rightfully pissed off mom.
Jack being blown up? Cool! Regenerating from a few pieces? Ridiculous!
And in convention news that made mego WTF? do a double take, Ioan Gruffudd will be appearing at Big Apple Comic Con October 16th-18th in New York City. I'm not aware of Ioan doing cons previously, but he might have appeared at Comic Con prior to one of the Fantastic Four films being released. But he has nothing FF or comic book related coming out according to imdb. So this just seems so random and weird. He does have a baby on the way, maybe he's looking to make some extra cash. If by some miracle Jamie were to appear at this con, FYI, I'll be in New York in October. ;p
beccatoria who is blaming me on multiple internet fronts for *supposedly* talking her into watching Torchwood again and unleashing her inner Welsh rage, I felt I should probably say something about Children of Earth. In addition to spoilers, there shall be mocking, just to warn you.The plot? Meh. Kids frozen in place and chanting I find neither terrifying nor creepy. If this is the best an alien race can do to instill fear in us and make us bow to their will, I say send them a copy of Independence Day for some pointers.
It was bad enough a temp was given access to top secret government information, but she is also, inexplicably, allowed to tag along to MI5 in order to stand outside a badly guarded door and witness a super secret project being built. Sigh. I have my suspicions that since Lois was a late substitution for Martha when Freema signed to do Law & Order: UK, only minor changes were made to the script and Martha, who was a member of Unit, would have plausibly been there.
As if the government wasn't looking bad enough, we are also shown they are supported by one of the worst trained military's in the world. I'm trying to decide witch is more laughable. A sharpshooter who not only missed both his targets after firing multiple rounds, but could barely hit the side of a building. Or a black opts squad outwitted and outrun by a guy driving a glorified forklift. If their own people are this incompetent, couldn't they have outsourced? I'm sure there are some disgruntled former navy seals they could hire.
I will cut the government some slack for believing Jack's immortality is tied to the rift. Given all the weird things they know are tied to the rift and that Jack has been in and around Cardiff for over a hundred years without aging, it's a logical leap to make. We just know better.
The big WTF?! still remains the horrible, tasteless, racist joke Gwen makes about adopting a Filipino child to clean the chimney. WHY was such a random and insulting 'joke' thrown in there like that?
Before you think I completely hated what I've seen thus far, I did enjoy some moments. For instance, just about anytime Rhys is on screen. I've grown to like him, a lot. Which makes me fear for him. :( I appreciate how supportive he is of Gwen and her work. It's also great he's allowed to offer his opinions and, much of the time, his ideas help them.
One thing I've felt the show has always handled well is the relationship between Jack and Ianto and there is some nice building on their relationship. Neither is reacting to the "couple" label particularly well. Jack is likely hesitant to commit to being in a relationship where he'll have to watch the person he loves grow old and die as he's done before. And Ianto seems to be struggling, more than I would have thought, with being in love with a man.
I thought part of Ianto's struggle might have to do with knowing he'd have an unsupportive family. Apparently, not. His sister was thrilled for him. I loved as Ianto was trying to dodge discussing Jack by pointing out his niece was in the room, his sister tells him that it's fine, the girl has a friend with two mommies. :) And I found it interesting, and believable, when he admitted it's not men he's attracted too, just Jack.
I had read spoilers about Jack having a daughter and was worried we'd end up with a deadbeat dad storyline. But, mercifully, his daughter is an adult and, in a nice twist, she's the one who pushed him out of her life. I actually felt a bit sorry for Jack - and I NEVER feel sorry for Jack - since it's not his fault he's immortal, but it's not the only problem his daughter has with him. The reason for his unexpected visit is to run tests on his grandson. Yes, Jack is trying to save the world, again, but he's being dishonest about his motives for being there and she's a rightfully pissed off mom.
Jack being blown up? Cool! Regenerating from a few pieces? Ridiculous!
And in convention news that made me
-
sleepy
I'm rather surprised that more people didn't know this was a five night event rather than a weekly series as the previous two series were. I've seen people ask where they could get this week's episode and thought, "They're all this week."
I'm willing to give Warehouse 13 some time. It's nothing special at this point, but it didn't induce rage so that's something.
As you know, my opinions on the good/bad roughly align with yours. Usually children doing creepy things freak me out, but really? It was creepy the first time. You know, I got that being creepy - probably more than you did. But by now I'm just like, what, AGAIN? Oy.
It's no "Are you my mummy?" I'll tell you that much. Probably because it's not really combined with any particularly scary other thing. The gasmask boy was a herald of really freaky shit. These kids - the first time it was scary because I thought it was gonna be too, but by now it's the least scary bit of everything. I'm more intrigued by the fear of people in-the-know than I am by the actual kids.
I was somewhat mollified by Lois when I found out she signed the official secrets act and stuff. I don't think she is a temp. I think it's just actually her first day on the job. So while "it's just crazy," is a BIT of a leap to give the new girl access to stuff she shoudln't (even if they don't realise) and drag her around everwhere, I do think that there's some leeway there with regard to the fact she was interviewed and vetted and signed these things and in theory is just another employee of the department. I mean, it's not ENOUGH and it's still silly, but now it's silly rather than fourth-wall-breakingly distracting.
You make an interesting point about her potentially being a Martha stand-in. I'm not sure since it's not UNIT, but I do think that perhaps there were early plans to use Martha (since she's been on Torchwood before) that got scuppered if she was in L&O. Though I have no idea of filming schedules.
For some reason, I really didn't mind the regenerating thing, although I wish I'd SEEN less of it, and of John Barrowman!
I haven't seen Day 3 yet, but while watching the first five minutes of Day 2, much as I loved Gwen smashing people's faces in with a fire extinguisher, it was a real OMG WORST SNIPERS EVER moment. It was bad enough when they made Gwen do the two guns thing while jumping out of the ambulance (American action movie conventions are applied straight-faced to Britain in Hot Fuzz for a reason: BECAUSE IT CANNOT BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!) had me laughing my head off. And Ianto? They had a STRAIGHT SHOT AT HIM running in a STRAIGHT LINE with NO COVER and they miss him?! Oy.
Stormtroopers indeed.
I still recall the first time I saw 'The Empty Child', alone, late at night, in the dark. I don't scare easily, but I had trouble getting to sleep that night. Not only was the boy a herald to something totally unknown, but he, himself, was an unknown quantity. Was he a child? Was he a lost, lonely boy desperately in need of his mother? Was he an alien? Was he the harbinger of doom? And then you found out he was dead. Eek!
But in CoE, we knew the children were children, that aliens were speaking through them, and that the children were fine after a minute or so. There's not much suspense there.
I probably shouldn't refer to Lois as a temp. That makes it sound as if she was sent over from some agency. I know she was already employed by the government, but was filling in or on temporary assignment to those offices. It still seems odd the new girl was given so much access. However, given everything she ended up doing to assist Torchwood, I'm disappointed she didn't play a larger role in the final episode.
It was bad enough when they made Gwen do the two guns thing while jumping out of the ambulance
And she was shooting badly! Which made it even more ridiculous! But, after seeing the finale, I can't even bitch about the small stuff like that anymore.