i am doomed.

[kaydeefalls]

I made the mistake of reading one too many Doctor/Rose/Jack fics tonight, and decided I needed a proper Jack Harkness fix. I'm about ten or so episodes away from his return to Who, so instead of doing the logical thing and rewatching "Parting of the Ways" or somesuch, I conceded defeat and downloaded the Torchwood pilot.

Oh, my god, I'd heard it said before but it is so true: the Torchwood team is too stupid to live. OH MY GOD. Thanks to fandom osmosis, I already know and at least vaguely care about all the main characters, and my love for Jack Harkness knows no bounds, which is good because who the hell is writing this thing? Russell T Davies, what the hell, man. I mean, nothing wrong with most of the dialogue, and I quite like Gwen, but dear god we have some serious plot issues. This show makes no sense. How have these people not been killed a hundred times over by their own idiocy already? (Oh, wait, because Jack can't die.) And I'm sorry, the whole wrap-up with Susie was really dumb and not well established at all, and no one even seemed to care about her in the first place! And the last few minutes with Jack and Gwen on the roof -- that dialogue was painful to listen to. (Not to mention, wtf with Jack's newfound standing-dramatically-on-roofs fetish?)

I hear the show starts getting better later on in the first season, and then improves dramatically in the second. Which is good, because I'm already doomed to watch the whole damn thing just because of my stupid, stupid love for Jack, so it's some comfort to know I won't be shouting WHY ARE YOU SO DUMB at the screen all the time.

(Mostly, I just want to match up the timelines between the two shows -- so, get to the end of the first season or Torchwood and the Jack episodes of series 3 Who at about the same time, match up "End of Days" with the end of series 4 Who, etc. The Canary Wharf references in the Torchwood pilot already made me wibble a lot. Maybe I'll alternate episodes? That could work.)

Comments

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

That's funny...you thought the show was stupid but rather liked Gwen. I love the show but have pretty much hated Gwen from the moment she appeared. :)

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

Well, I like Jack better. Also Ianto, although I suspect that's just because he keeps popping up in Who/Torchwood crossover fics, and also because he's everyone's favorite and that sorta seeps into you by osmosis. I certainly wouldn't watch the show just for Gwen. I dunno, I've seen a lot of Gwen-hate around the fandom -- maybe that makes me twice as determined to give her a chance.

I'm pretty sure we disagree about Rose, too, for that matter. :) It's all good.

[kalliopeia.livejournal.com]

I can pretty much guarantee you that we disagree about Rose. :)

There is a lot of Gwen hate. Much of it, I think, is because people see her as an obstacle to Jack/Ianto. Which seems silly to me as there are a lot of legitimate and non-hysterical reasons, IMO, to dislike Gwen.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I do suspect I'll be a Jack/Ianto shipper. Since I sort of am already.

And I don't actually think the show itself is stupid -- it's not Who, but it's not bad at all. It's just that the writers seem to think that the only way to create plot is by having the characters do appallingly dumb things...

[such_heights]

I hear the show starts getting better later on in the first season, and then improves dramatically in the second. Which is good, because I'm already doomed to watch the whole damn thing just because of my stupid, stupid love for Jack, so it's some comfort to know I won't be shouting WHY ARE YOU SO DUMB at the screen all the time.

Hahahahaha, YES, THIS. My absurd love for Jack carried me all the way through the first season, along with Tosh and Ianto being awesome, and then in the second season I no longer wanted to punch Owen in the face and Gwen reached new heights of utter win. Good times.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

Yeah. It's not that it's a bad show, because it's definitely not. It's just that the characters all do really dumb things a lot, which is a bit boggling given how smart they're supposed to be. Stupid writers.

I totally want to punch Owen in the face. And I'm preemptively trying not to fall TOO hard for Tosh, given that I've been utterly spoiled for the end of S2 already.

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

Haha, they are the stupidest team that ever lived, it's true! But they have their moments. And even in the absolute depths of lameness, they are often unintentionally hilarious.

I've always liked Gwen, although she often makes me want to punch the writer.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

It really is a pity that you have these writers capable of snappy dialogue and decent characterization, yet who can only figure out how to create drama by making their characters do appallingly dumb things. Oy.

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

Yep.

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

Actually, also:lefaym has a Torchwood timeline here (http://lefaym.livejournal.com/9411.html), and another one linked from that.

[kaydeefalls.livejournal.com]

Ooh, nifty!