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Torchwood 2x10: Out of the Rain
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.
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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.
no subject
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...
no subject
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.