Torchwood concluded

[glenatron]

The last episode of Torchwood persuaded me to watch once more and it was quite interesting, having watched the start of the series and had my attention kind of lapsed after a few episodes that wandered from very average to quite good. My good friend shanks01 has the term wannabe that he applies liberally to pretty much everything and everyone from time to time. Having watched the pilot of Firefly for the first time on Friday it really brought into relief what the problem with Torchwood is that it is a wannabe show- it is trying so very hard to be cool and as everyone knows nothing is as uncool as trying to be cool.

I quite like the premise and they make Cardiff look cool, but there are a few problems with the storylines and the way they have developed over the series...

• My brother's observation: How many shots of Captain Jack thinking "Damn I'm cool" does any one show need?


• Why is every member of Torchwood sleeping with every other member at some point? It's like they think they're being cool and adult by having lots of sex in the show but they're not being cool and adult they're just making it unrealistic. No-one has a workplace like that and there is no room for subtlety or growing relationships if everyone keeps jumping into bed with everyone else.


• My imagination can conjure up scarier monsters than your CGI team. Why not work with that?


• Don't have the heroes argue the whole time. I know you think you're creating a clever dynamic and friction and all of that, but you're not, what you're doing is making your lead characters fight amongst themselves the whole time and annoy your audience.


• You could have a few scenes where the team either a) act in a professional fashion or b) are just sitting round having a cup of tea. Happened in the first episode or two, never after that. It doesn't have to just be running about.


• Have some likeable characters! This is the big one for me- there was no character I could actually like. I'm sure there are arguments for having flawed heroes but if you make all your characters just out of flaws and then don't give them any kind of positive characteristics then there is no reason for the audience to be interested in or care about what they are doing. You need a team that people will be rooting for, not a bunch of bickering non-entities who are more at risk of stabbing each other in the back than being overrun by an alien menace.


• Where are the good jokes? Watch something written by Joss Wheedon and you will notice that the characters say and do genuinely funny things. JMS managed something similar with Babylon 5. If you want your rag-tag bunch of flawed heroes to hang together so an audience cares give them some good one liners and entertaining banter. And also give them some likeable qualities. And don't just have them bicker the whole time.

I really want Torchwood to be good, I'm probably right in the target audience, I've enjoyed a lot of the Dr Who series that spawned it and I would love for it to work, but they just haven't done anything to compel me to watch it. Here's hoping they can sort it if another series happens along.

Comments

[life-of-tom.livejournal.com]

I agree totally. I did enjoy the series at the outset, but there just isn't any light and shade to the writing; it's just crammed with conflict all the time, which is just artificial. I think the one writer, one episode approach to the writing is the problem, as each writer seems to have decided their episode is the climax of the series. No-one sets things up and lets them develop.
I do think some of their character arcs had (have) potential, but they need to give their characters more time to breathe, and more time to be real people in a situation. The one thing I think would really help this series is that Russell T Davies needs to get his writers in the same room a little more often.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Quite. You're in Cardiff. Next time you see him, let him know.

[life-of-tom.livejournal.com]

oh, he's getting such a talking to next time I see him...

[stu-the-elder.livejournal.com]

I shall bring the plank with nails through it, and a bag of sweets. I'm not sure if there WILL be a good cop, yet.

- Crump

[life-of-tom.livejournal.com]

Oh, and another thing. Christ allegories are dull, really they are. I'm a confirmed agnostic, I don't find these things offensive, I just find them dull.

And the way they beat that big thing, too; what was that? the worst thing about it that was that I found myself wondering what could have you done to fix it and have it make sense, and I pretty quickly came up with a scene that would have lasted about thirty seconds, and could have easily fitted in if you just cut some of those tedious scenes of people shouting at each other. If I can come up with that solution, then by god, why couldn't they?

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

That new job you were looking for, I think I know what it is...

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Being a participative licence-payer I sent a slightly edited version of this to the BBC Wales feedback address. Without viewer feedback, how will they know they are missing the mark?