I've been going through my computer lately trying to free up some space on my poor little hard-drive for all the screen caps I'm going to make for season two, and along the way it got me to thinking about series 1 of Torchwood. It seems so long ago now and the five main characters have been burned into my brain so much that I'm left trying to think if I can remember what my first impressions were. So, out of duty (and not at all because I'm suffering from withdrawal and wanted an excuse to re-watch... again) I sat through the entire season, trying to keep an open mind, asking myself some questions whilst trying to remember what my first impression of the series actually was and if I actually did notice all those 'flaws' that people constantly ramble on about.
Question 1 - Does the show really have all that much swearing?
Answer - No.
Where I will be the first one to admit that Ep 1x01 (Everything Changes) does contain an excessive amount of swearing (no fewer than 21 at my last count) I don't think this was true for the rest of the series. It seems to be more down to Character than anything else:
Jack - Jack Doesn't swear at all in season one, this is mainly due to the fact that he's a character from a family show and so doesn't swear for that reason. You actually don't notice unless you consciously think about it.
Ianto - Ianto is a fairly restrained chap, but he does swear twice in the series, however, both of these instances were during Ep 1x04 (Cyberwoman) and I think it works. His hoarse cry of, "Have some fucking mercy!" made the scene powerful and had he said, "Oh let over Jack," it might not have had the same impact.
Toshiko - Tosh doesn't swear much at all, in fact off the top of my head the only swearword I can recall her using is in ep 1x11 (Combat) when she uttered "shit" whilst tracing Janet through the streets with the tracker device.
Owen & Gwen - I'm putting these two characters in the same box mainly because they are the worst offenders. They swear more than anyone else in the show and it just seems to be the way they speak; everyone knows someone who slots in a random swearword into a conversation for no apparent reason, and that just seems to be the way these two characters operate.
In my opinion there wasn't too much swearing, however, cutting down on the amount wouldn't have been a bad idea either.
Question 2 - Is there too much sex?
Answer - No.
With the exception of Ep 1x02 (Day One) thee was actually very little sex in the first season. One sex scene between Owen and Diane (ep 1x10, Out Of Time) was about as juicy as it got. Of course we did see Tosh face a sexual encounter with a very sexy alien in Ep 1x07 (Greeks Bearing Gifts) but we only saw the buildup and the aftermath. So to say there was too much sex is, in my opinion, people not looking beyond episode two.
However, there may not have been a lot of sex, but there was a fair deal of sexuality, but I don't see this as a bad thing in a show that centers around the characters in a way that Doctor Who never could. If a show is going to centre around a team and their relationships, then it makes sense for sexuality to pay a big part in it.
Question 3 - Are there plot holes?
Answer- Yes.
One of the weaknesses of Torchwood season 1 there were more than a few plot holes, and no I won't list them. They ranged from small plot holes, to craters, but in some way that made me like the show more. There's something nice about missing pieces of the puzzle in a show like Torchwood that keeps me interested (it also gives fan-fic writers plenty of ideas which is always a good thing).
Of course plot holes weren't the only problem; there's no denying that some of the characterisation was patchy and some stories just didn't fall right, but they are all things that can be fixed (and look to be in season 2 if reviews are to be believed.) What a lot of people forget is that a first season of a show is never perfect, and flaws can be forgiven. You show me a first season that's perfect and I'll show you an impossible dream; if something is perfect then there's no room for improvement and where's the fun in that?
So where did the main problems lie? I would say a big part of it was the imbalance of screen time. Gwen topped the screen time tally with an average of 23.3 minutes per episode, Jack was second with 19.8 minutes, followed by Owen with 17.4 minutes and Toshiko with 15.3 minutes. Right at the bottom of the list with a shameful 8.7 minutes was Ianto (if you take into consideration that he topped the screen time in Ep 1x04 with 30:03 minutes this shows just how underused he was in season one). The difference of 14.6 minutes between the average screen time between two characters is a very big gap and it left many people feeling as though we had just seen too much Gwen. Jack was meant to be the lead character in Torchwood, yet he still came second place to Gwen which seemed to make the series feel unbalanced.
So one of the show's main failings was Gwen Cooper; many fans found her overcooked, and in fact Chris Chibnall and Eve Myles admitted this themselves on the season one commentary. Gwen was a gateway character that not many people seemed to identify with; her role as 'heart' of the team was more vague than anything else and we didn't really see her create a solid role for herself (she didn't really liaise with the police much if that was supposed to be her role.)
But as easy as it is to talk about what they got wrong it's often forgotten that they also got a lot of things right; one of these things was the creation of the character Ianto Jones. He started off as a background character, notching up a painfully low 2:21minutes of screen time in the first episode, and he could have so easily faded into the background. But thanks to a few good lines, sharp suits, realistic sense of humanity (all be it with a dark undertone), and a fantastic actor to do him justice he quickly became a fan favourite. And yes, it may have had a little something to do with the fact that the actor was painfully gorgeous, but as gorgeous as someone can be it can never make up for talent and the ability to sell a scene and emotion in the way that Gareth David-Lloyd has manged in this role. He turned a character who could have been a background figure into a major player (in fact cult-spy recently announced him as a cult icon.)
Episode-wise Torchwood S1 was a little bit of a mixed bag, not every episode was brilliant (I don't think any series can promise that) but none of the episodes were anywhere as bad as some of the so-called 'fans' said they were (not even Random Shoes), and I found them all good stories with characters I really found myself loving. And of course the blossoming, if not frustratingly ambiguous, relationship between Jack and Ianto certainly kept many a fan girl on the edge of her seat.
Of course it's impossible to say whether or not season 2 will fix all these flaws, but the reviews so far seem to suggest some of the problems have been ironed out. Time will only tell, but if there's one thing that this fangirl is sure of it's that she'll be sitting on the edge of her seat every Wednesday at 9pm fr 13 weeks, watching the wonder of Torchwood unfold in front of her eyes and most likely loving every minute of it, flawed or not.
PS: (thanks to Crabby Lioness for all the screen time figures)
Question 1 - Does the show really have all that much swearing?
Answer - No.
Where I will be the first one to admit that Ep 1x01 (Everything Changes) does contain an excessive amount of swearing (no fewer than 21 at my last count) I don't think this was true for the rest of the series. It seems to be more down to Character than anything else:
Jack - Jack Doesn't swear at all in season one, this is mainly due to the fact that he's a character from a family show and so doesn't swear for that reason. You actually don't notice unless you consciously think about it.
Ianto - Ianto is a fairly restrained chap, but he does swear twice in the series, however, both of these instances were during Ep 1x04 (Cyberwoman) and I think it works. His hoarse cry of, "Have some fucking mercy!" made the scene powerful and had he said, "Oh let over Jack," it might not have had the same impact.
Toshiko - Tosh doesn't swear much at all, in fact off the top of my head the only swearword I can recall her using is in ep 1x11 (Combat) when she uttered "shit" whilst tracing Janet through the streets with the tracker device.
Owen & Gwen - I'm putting these two characters in the same box mainly because they are the worst offenders. They swear more than anyone else in the show and it just seems to be the way they speak; everyone knows someone who slots in a random swearword into a conversation for no apparent reason, and that just seems to be the way these two characters operate.
In my opinion there wasn't too much swearing, however, cutting down on the amount wouldn't have been a bad idea either.
Question 2 - Is there too much sex?
Answer - No.
With the exception of Ep 1x02 (Day One) thee was actually very little sex in the first season. One sex scene between Owen and Diane (ep 1x10, Out Of Time) was about as juicy as it got. Of course we did see Tosh face a sexual encounter with a very sexy alien in Ep 1x07 (Greeks Bearing Gifts) but we only saw the buildup and the aftermath. So to say there was too much sex is, in my opinion, people not looking beyond episode two.
However, there may not have been a lot of sex, but there was a fair deal of sexuality, but I don't see this as a bad thing in a show that centers around the characters in a way that Doctor Who never could. If a show is going to centre around a team and their relationships, then it makes sense for sexuality to pay a big part in it.
Question 3 - Are there plot holes?
Answer- Yes.
One of the weaknesses of Torchwood season 1 there were more than a few plot holes, and no I won't list them. They ranged from small plot holes, to craters, but in some way that made me like the show more. There's something nice about missing pieces of the puzzle in a show like Torchwood that keeps me interested (it also gives fan-fic writers plenty of ideas which is always a good thing).
Of course plot holes weren't the only problem; there's no denying that some of the characterisation was patchy and some stories just didn't fall right, but they are all things that can be fixed (and look to be in season 2 if reviews are to be believed.) What a lot of people forget is that a first season of a show is never perfect, and flaws can be forgiven. You show me a first season that's perfect and I'll show you an impossible dream; if something is perfect then there's no room for improvement and where's the fun in that?
So where did the main problems lie? I would say a big part of it was the imbalance of screen time. Gwen topped the screen time tally with an average of 23.3 minutes per episode, Jack was second with 19.8 minutes, followed by Owen with 17.4 minutes and Toshiko with 15.3 minutes. Right at the bottom of the list with a shameful 8.7 minutes was Ianto (if you take into consideration that he topped the screen time in Ep 1x04 with 30:03 minutes this shows just how underused he was in season one). The difference of 14.6 minutes between the average screen time between two characters is a very big gap and it left many people feeling as though we had just seen too much Gwen. Jack was meant to be the lead character in Torchwood, yet he still came second place to Gwen which seemed to make the series feel unbalanced.
So one of the show's main failings was Gwen Cooper; many fans found her overcooked, and in fact Chris Chibnall and Eve Myles admitted this themselves on the season one commentary. Gwen was a gateway character that not many people seemed to identify with; her role as 'heart' of the team was more vague than anything else and we didn't really see her create a solid role for herself (she didn't really liaise with the police much if that was supposed to be her role.)
But as easy as it is to talk about what they got wrong it's often forgotten that they also got a lot of things right; one of these things was the creation of the character Ianto Jones. He started off as a background character, notching up a painfully low 2:21minutes of screen time in the first episode, and he could have so easily faded into the background. But thanks to a few good lines, sharp suits, realistic sense of humanity (all be it with a dark undertone), and a fantastic actor to do him justice he quickly became a fan favourite. And yes, it may have had a little something to do with the fact that the actor was painfully gorgeous, but as gorgeous as someone can be it can never make up for talent and the ability to sell a scene and emotion in the way that Gareth David-Lloyd has manged in this role. He turned a character who could have been a background figure into a major player (in fact cult-spy recently announced him as a cult icon.)
Episode-wise Torchwood S1 was a little bit of a mixed bag, not every episode was brilliant (I don't think any series can promise that) but none of the episodes were anywhere as bad as some of the so-called 'fans' said they were (not even Random Shoes), and I found them all good stories with characters I really found myself loving. And of course the blossoming, if not frustratingly ambiguous, relationship between Jack and Ianto certainly kept many a fan girl on the edge of her seat.
Of course it's impossible to say whether or not season 2 will fix all these flaws, but the reviews so far seem to suggest some of the problems have been ironed out. Time will only tell, but if there's one thing that this fangirl is sure of it's that she'll be sitting on the edge of her seat every Wednesday at 9pm fr 13 weeks, watching the wonder of Torchwood unfold in front of her eyes and most likely loving every minute of it, flawed or not.
PS: (thanks to Crabby Lioness for all the screen time figures)
7 comments:
Interesting blog. I agree that Ianto Jones was way underused in season one and he will hopefully have equal screen time in season 2. I will keep watching your blog space! XD
I'm hoping for more Ianto, out of the suit...and I mean that both with and without filth.
Your right though, people are far too critical. I don't understand the point in taking an hour or more out of your week to sit down and watch something if your just going to tear it apart.
Seems hateful to me.
This is an excellent take on the first run. I think the creators/writers/etc. were, according to one interview I read, under intense pressure to get the ball rolling on the series, and so things got overlooked/overcooked to a certain degree.
I still adored the season regardless of these "blips." There were sublime moments, there were "WTF?" moments, and everything in the middle. That keeps the brain agile, right?
Great recap, I definitely agree!
you... words.. right out of head
*ahem* clears mind
i agree
I couldn't agree more. There were achingly beautiful moments (Jack/Jack made me cry), but there was some really bland dialogue as well. There are two sides to the TW season 1 story, but in the end, I find myself loving the series no matter what.
Also, a big, big YAY for a more equal time share for the characters, I can't wait to see more of Tosh and Ianto. Yay!
I didn't think series one had too much swearing, I swear more then that doing my washing! I also think the sex was over played by many including Russel T & John B in the interviews they did, in fact I would say part of the problem was the interviews given leading up to the series, instead of saying what the show was really about they keep saying things like "adult" and making references to it being post-watershed.
In the end it was pretty much nothing more grittier then say Life on Mars, or This Life (although I do remember Russel T also making that comparison).
I think the main problem was they took it all too seriously on the show, the thing in my 30 and more years of watching Doctor Who and other scifi is that I find humour can mean the difference between a mediocre scifi show and a good one.
How can we take some of the things that came out of Jack's mouth seriously? I couldn't, it was all too much.
Lastly I think it became for some a past time to hate Gwen, I never joined in, I actually think she was a bright spot and for me that is rare normally I hate the way female characters are written in scifi, I think of Rose and Martha and shudder for example but Gwen seemed to be so normal and make normal human mistakes and of course she paid the price for those mistakes but folks still want to hate her for being.
I just hope with a new series with humour attached (yes Russ has promised) that Torchwood can be a bright spot in my TV viewing week.
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