So it all comes down to this. After nine weeks of up and down story telling, with a series that was padded to within and inch of its life. We finally reach the end of this series and the best has been saved until last. The story flips between Shangai and Buenos Aires. Rex and Esther are in Buenos Aires with Gwen, Jack and Oswald in Shangai. This episode was co-written between Russell T Davies and writer of the woeful Immortal Sins. The story sees both parties trying to finish this once and for all and being Torchwood, it wasn’t going to shy away from the possibility of the main characters being killed. It seemed obvious weeks ago that once things went back to as they were then Rex was snuff it but more of that later.
The 24 element of this section of the series was strangley enjoyable. Charlotte’s working against the CIA and sets a bomb with shockingly kills John de Lancie. It did look like for a moment that she did it under hypnosis but then at the end its clear that she knew what she was doing. I just wish that they hadn’t killed of de Lancie because he has been fantastic and has rivalled Bill Pullman as best supporting actor. I was expecting a lot more sentimentality from a Russell T Davies story. He does have a track record, just watch Doomsday or Last of the Timelords or Journeys End to see what I mean. But to be fair its reigned in significantly. There is a wobble towards the middle section but compared to what RTD has done in the past I thought this was quite enjoyable and was relevant to the story.
The big scene was all about explaining what this strange thing that everyone was looking at was. To be honest I didn’t understand it at first but when they took a second swing at trying to explain what it was then it finally sunk in. It was quite a clever idea that it was the earth that had switched the setting and it would take Jack’s blood to switch it back. Oh, we’re all meant to think, how are they going to get around this and I was half expecting some cop-out designed to get around this as quickly as possible but those doubts were misfounded. The twist that Rex had been filled with Jack’s blood seemed like quite a clever plot twist and then by the end it had become something far more important.
Both John Barrowman and Eve Myles were great in this episode. They have both had their share of good and bad episodes this series but when it mattered they both delivered. I am also amazed at how Mekhi Phifer has come along since episode one. If you had asked me five weeks ago whether I would be glad or sad that he stayed at the end of episode ten then I would have said sad but actually I have really grown to like the character and think that Phifer should be applauded for making such an irritating character likeable. If I had an issue then it was with the decision to kill off Alexa Havins’ character. Ok I had different reasons as to why I disliked the character but like Phifer’s character, I had grown to like Esther. If only she had been filled with Jack’s blood!
Bill Pullman as ever is superb in this episode and takes the drastic step of strapping a whole load of explosives to him like some suicide bomber and his final words are clearly designed to remind us of what he was when we first met him 10 weeks ago. His lack of fear about going to hell is confounded by his line saying that its “where all the bad girls go!”. It was the fitting end for the character who has been enthralling throughout and whoever came up with the idea of casting Pullman should pat themselves on the back. Lauren Ambrose has also been very good as Jilly Kitzinger. Her desperate need to survive has been well played since the beginning and her little fight with Gwen was a great moment.
Now in the past and RTD finale would have seen the main action wrapped up within 30 minutes and then there would be 30 minutes of melodrama but surprisingly after the blessing stuff has been dealt with the interest still continues. After Rex was shot I did think that he was gone completely but when he came back to life I was exactly like Gwen and Jack. Then we get Jilly Kitzinger who made it out of Shangai and is told to that there is a Plan B. Just when I thought that RTD was trying to ruin Torchwood but in fact it was clear he was leaving it open for the next series.
As an individual episode it is very good and RTD has thought about this episode a great deal. I think that if more of the episodes had been like this then the series would have been stronger than it was. It was the episode that I wanted it to be because it explained what was going on and tied up all the loose ends (almost). The main problem with this series is that it was way too long and the main plot just didn’t stretch to ten episodes. Eight yes, seven possibly but not 10. I think that Steven Moffat has shown in the current series of Doctor Who how you pad something well. That said I hope that Torchwood comes back for another US/UK series because I get the feeling that all the flaws with this series (and there are many) would get ironed out. Roll on Series 5.
The 24 element of this section of the series was strangley enjoyable. Charlotte’s working against the CIA and sets a bomb with shockingly kills John de Lancie. It did look like for a moment that she did it under hypnosis but then at the end its clear that she knew what she was doing. I just wish that they hadn’t killed of de Lancie because he has been fantastic and has rivalled Bill Pullman as best supporting actor. I was expecting a lot more sentimentality from a Russell T Davies story. He does have a track record, just watch Doomsday or Last of the Timelords or Journeys End to see what I mean. But to be fair its reigned in significantly. There is a wobble towards the middle section but compared to what RTD has done in the past I thought this was quite enjoyable and was relevant to the story.
The big scene was all about explaining what this strange thing that everyone was looking at was. To be honest I didn’t understand it at first but when they took a second swing at trying to explain what it was then it finally sunk in. It was quite a clever idea that it was the earth that had switched the setting and it would take Jack’s blood to switch it back. Oh, we’re all meant to think, how are they going to get around this and I was half expecting some cop-out designed to get around this as quickly as possible but those doubts were misfounded. The twist that Rex had been filled with Jack’s blood seemed like quite a clever plot twist and then by the end it had become something far more important.
Both John Barrowman and Eve Myles were great in this episode. They have both had their share of good and bad episodes this series but when it mattered they both delivered. I am also amazed at how Mekhi Phifer has come along since episode one. If you had asked me five weeks ago whether I would be glad or sad that he stayed at the end of episode ten then I would have said sad but actually I have really grown to like the character and think that Phifer should be applauded for making such an irritating character likeable. If I had an issue then it was with the decision to kill off Alexa Havins’ character. Ok I had different reasons as to why I disliked the character but like Phifer’s character, I had grown to like Esther. If only she had been filled with Jack’s blood!
Bill Pullman as ever is superb in this episode and takes the drastic step of strapping a whole load of explosives to him like some suicide bomber and his final words are clearly designed to remind us of what he was when we first met him 10 weeks ago. His lack of fear about going to hell is confounded by his line saying that its “where all the bad girls go!”. It was the fitting end for the character who has been enthralling throughout and whoever came up with the idea of casting Pullman should pat themselves on the back. Lauren Ambrose has also been very good as Jilly Kitzinger. Her desperate need to survive has been well played since the beginning and her little fight with Gwen was a great moment.
Now in the past and RTD finale would have seen the main action wrapped up within 30 minutes and then there would be 30 minutes of melodrama but surprisingly after the blessing stuff has been dealt with the interest still continues. After Rex was shot I did think that he was gone completely but when he came back to life I was exactly like Gwen and Jack. Then we get Jilly Kitzinger who made it out of Shangai and is told to that there is a Plan B. Just when I thought that RTD was trying to ruin Torchwood but in fact it was clear he was leaving it open for the next series.
As an individual episode it is very good and RTD has thought about this episode a great deal. I think that if more of the episodes had been like this then the series would have been stronger than it was. It was the episode that I wanted it to be because it explained what was going on and tied up all the loose ends (almost). The main problem with this series is that it was way too long and the main plot just didn’t stretch to ten episodes. Eight yes, seven possibly but not 10. I think that Steven Moffat has shown in the current series of Doctor Who how you pad something well. That said I hope that Torchwood comes back for another US/UK series because I get the feeling that all the flaws with this series (and there are many) would get ironed out. Roll on Series 5.
No comments:
Post a Comment