Torchwood 2x10: Out of the Rain

[jadesfire]

I need to start this by saying that I am a HUGE fan of PJ Hammond. Sapphire and Steel is a work of genius. An insane genius, but still. Genius. I really enjoyed Small Worlds last series, and was thrilled to bits at the trailer. For the first half an hour or so, I was captivated. Then...something happened, and the sparkle disappeared. I wish it hadn't because up to then, I'd been glued to my screen and jumping out of my skin. But around the 2/3 mark, it just seemed to lose something.

I think they started to explain things.

For me, there was just too much to fit into the episode. The pacing went from slow, steady and creepy, to frantic and rushed. I was really loving the slow build, but the pay off didn't work. That's it? That's all that happens? Jack films them and they evaporate? Actually, that wasn't my problem. As explanations went it was silly, but against people walking out of film, a pterodactyl, secret underground base, real 'fairies' and a box that's bigger on the inside than the outside? Not so silly. My problem was the way it was done. There was no dramatic build up to it, no pay off for the understanding that we've been building of the baddies. No emotion clincher. It lacked punch.

I couldn't tell whether the problem was in the writing or the directing, but I'm suspecting the former. It felt like he'd spent so long building the characters - the bit that I lovedlovedloved - that he'd forgotten he had to do something with them. There were flashes of really, really good stuff here. The whole scene with Christine and Jack was lovely. Jack telling Ianto about the Night Travellers. Jonathan's frantic panic for his parents. The fact that all those people died (what? If they never kill anyone, the tension ceases to feel real.)

The production was lovely, the actors playing the Ghost Maker and Pearl did a good job of difficult parts. The Electro was fantastic (Cardiff folks - where IS that? Z, can we go see it?). It was a really good idea. Owen and Gwen gave sterling support, Tosh was woefully underused as per usual, but I've resigned myself to that now. But I keep wanting to say 'but', all the way through this. And that's a terrible shame.

Also, for pretty much the first time ever, I have the urge to write an episode fix. To give it exactly the same ending, but drive the emotion home a bit harder. Because while everyone was very pretty, it ended up feeling as thin as one of those pieces of film.

Comments

[dark-aegis.livejournal.com]

Yes! A thousand times yes. I was enjoying it up around that point and then it went a little 'meh'. I wanted more, which I sadly didn't get. I just want more Tosh scenes (good scenes beyond "Hi! I'm the brains of this outfit!").

*dares you to write an episode fix-it*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

So much potential, so little delivery. Typical Torchwood. ;)

*rolls eyes* I'll add it to my list, after my SGA Gen ficathon piece and the two Big Bangs...

[aeshna_uk]

Agreed, alas. There was a hell of a lot of great stuff in there - the Jack backstory, the family who owned the cinema, the use of Owen's predicament, the old lady, the thoroughly-tempered happy ending (like you, I loved that they had a mass kill-off of victims - it doesn't always end with everybody being saved, sometimes they just have to take what they can get) and yet somehow it never quite gelled. A part of me wonders if it should have been told in a longer format, but I'm not convinced that there was really enough to it to warrant that.

I must admit (*grabs hardhat*) that I found Ianto quite thoroughly uninspiring as a sidekick, which may have been a part of the problem - Gwen made a great Scully in Small Worlds but Ianto was just sort of... there, vaguely bland and anonymous. It was as if he was just there to give Jack someone to talk to and I think I'd have preferred Tosh in that role if anyone, given what they were doing. I don't have a great feel for Ianto as a character at the best of times and was hoping for something more solid here, but if anything I have even less sense of him as a character than I did this time yesterday! That he and Jack were on strictly-professional terms didn't trouble me - I've never had the sense that they're more than happy fuckbuddies (at least from Jack's perspective) - but I would have liked to get a bit more about Ianto as a person.

Still, there was a nice bit of Jack backstory (to be fleshed out, no doubt, on the website next week and in fanfic forever after!) and a few good characters to throw into the General Background pot. And I guess we can't really complain if that was the weakest of the series so far! And next week's looks absolutely cracking.... :D

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*nod nod nod* One of Sapphire and Steel's strengths was that it managed style over substance, and with decent plot pacing, you make a tiny idea go a really long way (hell, that's how I write half the time!). Like you, I'm not sure there was enough here for more time, and I wanted what was there paced out a bit better.

I think I agree with you about Ianto (*starts building a bunker*). I still can't quite get a grip on him. I know facts about him, but I can't find him in my brain, which is frustrating. They've given him tone and hints of backstory, but what really makes him tick? What's he really like? I feel like he's still just out of reach.

There's enough material here to keep fanfic writers supplied for about the next century, I think, and next week looks awesome. I love Jack and Gwen fighting - they yell at each other so well, and she really gets under his skin, which I love.

Now all I have to do is rewrite the ending of this, and I'm happy as Larry ;)

[naomi-jw.livejournal.com]

"The Electro was fantastic (Cardiff folks - where IS that?)."

Not a Cardiff girl, but I read on OG it's the Paget Rooms in Penarth, and they do live music and sometimes screenings there.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool, thanks. I shall definitely have to go have my picture taken there :)

[kohl-rimmed-eye.livejournal.com]

At the end of the episode, I was left going "is that it then?" I just felt that everything was underused. Jack filming them as they came out of the screen and then running after the Ghost Maker guy and filming him and then all of them disappearing seemed too... easy, especially given the number of people they managed to kill off. It felt kind of like an anti-climax, to be honest.

I think it might have worked better as a double episode sort of thing, with the opportunity for the slow build-up to become a big climax, rather than a short one crammed in because there wasn't enough time. I certainly wouldn't have minded some flashbacks to maybe Jack's time in a travelling show, and also maybe a little more about the Night Travellers themselves. While obviously to give it all away wouldn't have worked in the context of the episode, I feel that a little more information/exposition wouldn't have hurt anyone!

It was a great idea, but sadly not really played out to its full potential.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*nods* Anti-climax is probably the best description of it. It wasn't that it didn't work at all, it was just...saggy at the end.

Hammond doesn't really do exposition - he likes teh cryptic - but yes, a little more would have been good, as well as a sense from the Torchwood folks that this is all seriously weird, even for the Rift. It could have been great, and it just fell that little bit short.

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

...This is why I didn't tell you what I thought of it, cos I knew you were looking forward to it and I was a bit underwhelmed too.

The Electro isn't real, unfortunately. It was filmed at the Paget Rooms in Penarth, and is a small-scale theatre which shows amateur pantomimes and the like. The outside's a mite shabbier than they made it look on TW, but I'm kind of fond of it anyway - I like Penarth a lot. It's a proper genteel seaside town, and I'd be delighted to take you there.

For the record? I wanted to punch Ianto in this. And I speak as probably his greatest fan. His relationship with the team was drab, his leading of the investigation uninspiring, his relationship with Jack was meh (which just adds to my theory that the whole Jack/Ianto thing was an afterthought - that line from Gwen 'oh is that what you're calling it now' was soooo added in it hurt), and his emotional reaction baseless. Why was he so affected by it? He was nearly in tears most of the way through - was he just having a bad day? Where did that come from? GDL is a superb actor, and it's sad to see him used this way.

Aaaand this is turning into a rant. I'll stop here, and go and post over at my own LJ ;)

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

Hate to say it, but I partially agree with you. It was as if Ianto was as film-thin as the baddies - in fact, the badies were more 3D. Ianto was there, saying his lines, but there was no connection. No connection between any of them. It was like as S1 episode - they were all running around doing their own thing.

I fear this may be a result of the writing, which is sad. I loved the first half of the story, and then I lost the plot. I spent so long trying to figure out Jack's leap of logic in getting rid of the Night Travellers that I probably missed a couple of important points. I liked it, but I spent a lot of time giggling while having the vague feeling that I ought to be scared.

Hmm. I think it lost me when it turned to daylight. If the whole thing had been resolved in one night, it would have been pacy enough and been much spookier.

I also wanted to punch Ianto, mostly because of that crying fit at the end, with the kids. And the frankly dreadful dash to save the bottle (yet more leaps of logic that I had trouble following). Sheesh. If that's what sleeping with Jack does to somebody, Torchwood had better stick a warning notice on the back of Jack's coat. Don't want anyone else going loopy.

Edit: I will admit, I had sudden attach of Cher during the episode. I couldn't stop "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" running through my head. Not could I refrain from singing it at work the day after. :)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of it like that, but yes, it did have more of a S1 feel to it. Hammond doesn't really do character - plot and atmosphere, yes, but character's not his strong point and I think it showed.

If that's what sleeping with Jack does to somebody, Torchwood had better stick a warning notice on the back of Jack's coat.
*giggle* "Warning! Sleeping with this man can seriously sap your character" :)

Wanna help me fix it? ;)

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

Wanna help me fix it? *pouts*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

What? Give me a chance, woman, I'm still typing the email...

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

You bet I do! *grin*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* You were very restrained and I appreciate it. And I'm going to hold you to the Penarth trip.

Ianto was...not at his best in this, it has to be said. Not sure what happened, but he just didn't quite work as Jack's sidekick. I didn't mind the 'so that's what you're calling it now' line, because having spent so long in previous episodes building up the Jack/Ianto, it needed _something_ in there. I don't want much, just a little continuity.

But then, this is Torchwood, who laugh in the face of continuity and embrace plot devices *facepalm*

[pwcorgigirl.livejournal.com]

(I've become a shameless convert to watching on YouTube because the U.S. is so far behind the U.K. in airing the episodes.)

The fault, I think, was in the direction and in having a story that was too big and too rich to cram into under an hour. The atmosphere reminded me a lot of "Something Wicked This Way Comes," which also is about an evil carnival and is one of my favorite movies (and book, too). This needed to be movie-length. The beginning, with the lovely old theater, Cardiff in the rain, and the two characters at the ruined swimming pool, worked much better than the ending.

They so need for Ianto's reactions to things not to run the gamut from (A) astonishment to (B) tears. There was at least one scene, when he was listening to Christine, in which his expression could best be described "moronic." I couldn't believe the director considered that the shot to air. The tightness and very tiny shifts in Jack's expression worked much, much better for expressing how her story affected them.

And one gets very tired of weepy men. In reality, men do not cry that easily unless they're mentally unhinged. They may have very tender hearts, but they'd really rather hit something than bawl at the drop of a hat.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

(*grin* Welcome to the Dark Side. We have donuts.)

I think this definitely could have supported a two-parter - it was very old-fashioned television, with a slow, atmospheric build that never quite paid off. One review I read talked about Chekov's gun - they built up the Night Travellers so much, and then didn't really do anything with them at the end. It was like watching something directed by two different people.

I definitely agree with you about the Christine scene - usually in these things, it's Ianto who has the subtle part, and JB who gets a bit carried away. This was absolute proof to the JB critics that the man can really act - when Christine talked about his eyes, yes it was a cliche, but they got away with it because of his expression. But GDL did himself no credit there at all. It just felt so off.

Jack gets away with crying more than the other characters, because, well, he's Jack, and he laughs (and cries) in the face of social norms, but it just didn't work for Ianto, not at all. *sigh* It promised so much and delivered so little, that I'm definitely going to have to write that episode fix...

[ginger-rude.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. It felt like they were going for a cross between "Something Wicked" and "The Ring," which could've been awesome; but not in an hour.

I don't mind Jack crying, pretty much ever (when he's done it), because he's got more of a range (and also Barrowman is a naturally very expressive person, more so than the character, so it's nice to see it creep in); but Ianto does come off a bit emo, yeah, gotta say.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with everything you said, and what was said in the comments here. But because it was directly after the episodes it was I thought it was just grand in comparison. Had it immediately followed KKBB for example, I probably wouldn't have liked it as much.

The film footage of the traveling show? Utterly and completely creepy. Just perfect.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*nods* That's a good point. I didn't hate it - I thought the first 30 minutes were pretty much the best Torchwood's been. This is what Torchwood can do, what they can be. Then it just seemed to sag, which I think left me more disappointed than I would have been otherwise - I'd expected so much, whereas usually I don't expect anything!

Next week's looks great, but I'm determined not to get my hopes up this time!