Half Blood Prince: The 3AM Response

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

Where it was good, it was very good. Where it wasn’t, it was often awkward and slooooow. My top two favourite Harry Potter movies remain as yet untoppled — PoA as the best followed by OotP. HBP was mid-range. Better than GoF by a mile, though.

3AM Just-Viewed Thoughts:

NEEDED MOAR:
- Remus!
- Tonks!
- Remus/Tonks! BUT OMG SHE CALLED HIM SWEETIE AND I SQUEEED VERY LOUDLY AND GOT SHUSHED!
- Snape getting angry at being called a coward.
- OMG UNDERSCORE DID YOU LOSE IT UNDER THE SOFA OR SOMETHING WTF??

NEEDED LESS:
- Pauses … between … every … single … line …
- Non-reaction reaction shots, or Being Subtle Still Means Having A Reaction, Kids!
- Choppy Plot Point signs
- Length *snippy snippy*

REMIND ME TO TALK ABOUT TOMORROW WHEN I AM COHERENT:
- Draco angsts around the castle
- Pensieve scenes
- The Tower
- Ginny!
- Harry the Horcrux
- H/Hr fodder
- Everyone being way too hot
- Maggie Smith
- The scene the Snape/Draco fans will LOVE
- Sleezy, smarmy Cormack
- The funny
- Opening flashback sequence

Me tired. Go to bed now. Talk Potter tomorrow. *snores*

Torchwood: Children of Earth, Day Five

Sunday, July 12th, 2009

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five

Why — bloody why — couldn’t Gwen have been like this in the first two seasons? WHY? Everything about her rocked in Children of Earth, which isn’t fair because now I feel fucking cheated. There were a veritable plethora of brilliant, well-formed women in CoE on both sides of the table. God, I am going to miss RTD on Who. I mean, he certainly doesn’t write women perfectly all the time, but he writes lots of them and he tries to make them 3D. Moffat’s women always seem to be written to pull something out or contrast something in the men, as if they had no purpose aside from accentuating the penis. At least RTD dares to consider these women might be characters worth exploring unto themselves. I really felt in CoE that Gwen stopped being just a foil for Jack and started to feel real.

PC ANDY, I LOVE YOU! When he ripped off his PC day-glow outfit and joined Ianto’s brother-in-law in fighting the military, I actually cheered out loud. Brilliant, you!

The conversation between Rhys and Gwen just after he’s filmed her where he’s terrified that she might actually abort their baby and Gwen tells him she could never do that to him just broke me. It really illustrated how close to the breaking point in all this fuckery that Gwen was when she snapped at him in the car, and then the way she pulled it back when she saw how it wrecked him… I love those two as a couple, because they really love each other completely in a normal-life kind of way that isn’t over-glorified or star-crossed or angst-ridden. Just two people who love each other and trying to wade through the crazy world they’re in. You hardly ever see that kind of awesome on TV.

It was pretty brutal the way they lingered with the camera on Steven as he was imploding. Cruel and brutal. It worked in a very different way than focusing on Jack watching Steven would have. The reaction shots are a safer place for something like this. Confronting it head-on visually means the audience has their own reaction to think about as well. It was pretty brutal though. For a minute, I thought they were actually going to make Steven explode on screen.

All in all, I think this series was more government-thriller than sci-fi romp, and in a lot of ways I’d argue that Frobisher was the main character in this one instead of any of the Torchwood crew. I liked his storyline, thought the actor did a really brilliant job with the heavy and giving us a man falling apart in stages. The bits with his secretary and Lois during Day Five were a bit anvilicious for me because I got the "he was a good man" bit from the beginning without needing someone to spoon feed it. Dear writers: It’s okay to trust your audience to be smart. Love Chelle.

Jack. Jack, Jack, Jack. Well, now you and the Doctor have something else to talk about. Leaving aside genocide of two races (because, you know, that’s an easy thing to leave aside, right?), Jack’s body count must be approaching the Doctor’s. Knowing that it was RTD writing this one, I kinda wonder if the whole Jack leaving thing was a Plot Point on the way to the Big Regeneration this Christmas.

The post-Steven Alice and Jack interaction was perfect. The way she came through those doors, instantly stopped when she saw him, then carefully backed away and left the way she came without saying a word. Other writers would have needed A Conversation there, and RTD just let the director and the actors play it without because, seriously, there would be no words. Jack can justify what he did to the entire world and maybe eventually even himself, but never to Alice. Does not happen.

I’ve already dripped my affection all over Rhys and Gwen here, but pregnant!Gwen and delighted!Rhys are :D :D :D. Their interplay in that last scene was the wonderful feather on the shiny cap of awesome.

Torchwood: Children of Earth, Day Four

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five

I thought the focus on the government response was really, really well done, and just as horrible as the 4-5-6 wanting them in the first place. The way the staff immediately started talking spin and using terms like "units" and "logistics" to de-humanize the concepts and make them more palatable to talk about, and served to make it all the more sickening to listen to from outside the decision. Brilliant and very real to have them start out noble and fair with their random draw business before cutting to the inevitable chase that involves snatching the "lesser" children. Beautifully executed, and I’m loving how the tension is being transferred from the aliens to the government, twisting the creepy in all sorts of new shapes.

I rather liked that they wrote a female official as the only one who would say what everyone in the room was thinking and press the point. I can’t say exactly why I feel that way, but I do. Who knows. It’s what I would have done if I’d been holding the pen.

Frobisher. Dude, I am entirely enjoying this character. He’s getting a lot of flack, and I see why, but I think the character is doing exactly what the writers and directors and the actor were trying to do with him, which is to put the civil servant everyman in an impossible position, the same way Jack was put in an impossible position forty years ago with the first twelve children. It’s easy to point fingers and be horrified, but seriously, what would you do if you were in his place? Some people might do what Lois did when she stood up and told everyone in that room where to shove it, but probably half would be Frobisher. The writers have taken great pains to remove Frobisher from most of the decision-making processes in order to buy him that same I-was-just-following-orders faux-innocence, and I’m really enjoying watching it play out. I think the actor is doing a fantastic job with this man. Yesterday, he was just another man performing a mundane job just like Lois was just another woman. This season is doing a really fantastic job of portraying ordinary people in exceptional circumstances and keeping the field balanced when it comes to which way they ultimately roll.

Gwen continues to kick some serious ass. I love her more with each passing day. Why couldn’t we have had this Gwen in the first two seasons, eh? WHY?

Poor Ianto. I am sad to see him go, but not nearly as gut-wrenched as some. Mostly because — let’s face it — it’s Torchwood, and he was never going to make it to the front porch of an old-folks home, and I felt he died in as happy a place as he was apt to. It appeared, at least, mostly painless. I wish Barrowman had played the scene a little differently than he did, but lo! I am not a director, and thus my preferences fall upon deaf ears. The way Gwen adjusts his tie at the end made me tear up a little, though. Like the way she touched the photo of Owen and Tosh.

The internets are seriously hating on the writers and Barrowman right now. OI! Fan entitlement doesn’t look good on any fandom. Opinions are fine and even encouraged, but let’s all remember that no one is beholden to anyone when it comes to the stories they tell. Like it or not, that’s cool, but there are real people behind those names and there are some folk that seriously need to Chill. The. Fuck. Out.

Last day tomorrow. Should be exciting!

Torchwood: Children of Earth, Day Three

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five

This was definitely the most plotty of the three episodes we’ve seen this week so far, and while I think it leveled out tension-wise compared to Day Two, I also think that was probably inevitable. Once the aliens arrived (and especially because they’re confined in their tank) that piece of suspense came to an end. I think the writers and directors have done a decent job keeping us wound up with what they still have in their pockets: the silence and tension during the communication with the 4-5-6, the inability to properly see the alien and understand visually what we’re dealing with, and the drawing out of Jack’s involvement with the 4-5-6′s previous visit.

Having said that, I’m not sure I understand the need for the 4-5-6′s random (because they currently feel a bit random to me) vomit and flail spasms. I think it’s been added to give the 4-5-6 the extra scare-factor, but honestly I think it hurts the creepiness without adding a compensating fright. The strength of this storyline for me so far has been in the creep-factor, which is aided by the control of the children, the silence of the 4-5-6, and the inability to make out more than a passing glimpse of its physical appearance (which I also think they’ve dropped the ball on by giving us too clear a picture of the lobster-like arm things). I think what they’re going for is the silence/noise contrast in the vomit/flaily bits, but it just seems flat to me. I much prefer the contrast in the pauses before the 4-5-6 answers.

Lois is growing on me very, very slowly, but I confess there’s something about her that still feels a bit plot-devicy to me. I do like that she’s visibly distasteful of her own methods of getting into the room with Frobisher. The read I get from her is she’s genuinely put off by the way it’s representing her character, but that she felt it was her only/best shot at doing what Gwen needed her to. We’ve seen other females use this tactic to gain entry or information before, but I think this is the first time I’ve also bought the shame and hesitancy that comes with it. I like how it reads as a knowing sacrifice of female reputation instead of just another woman using her sexuality and brushing it off.

I’m really starting to enjoy Frobisher’s character. He’s really been thrown under the bus here by superiors looking for a fall-man, and I sympathize with the poor guy. He’s making the best decisions he can given the circumstances and who he has to answer to, and you really feel he’s being swept up. He’s a man trying to hold onto a shred of control and dignity in a situation where he really has none. Props to the actor for giving us the right number of cracks in the right places.

Lots of meta being generated by Clem’s "the queer" comment to Ianto. I will remain quiet on the subject except to say that the comment — homophobic and all — read appropriate for Clem’s character, as Ianto’s reaction to it read appropriate for his. Smarter people than me talk about the exchange here and here.

Jack went a whole day without dying. That must have been nice, given the last 48 hours. I really love that Torchwood embraces the brutality of Jack’s immortality so completely by refusing to pretty it up or make it easy on him. He experiences every death and every resurrection, painfully. He came back from being blown up in excruciating slowness (it seemed to me he was experiencing being burned alive in reverse), and by never allowing him to just fade to black. For all the ways other sources work to make us feel the weight of living beyond loved ones, Torchwood is the first time I’ve seen the extreme sensory side of immortality explored.

Cockblocked by beans is the best thing ever. Second to that are discussions on the sexual merits of high-tec contact lenses. The best part about the contact lens scene to me is that these people are not only having this conversation, but none of them are ashamed to have it, and if nothing else I commend this show on that. Sexuality — and perhaps more importantly, talking about sexuality — on Torchwood is almost never portrayed as something to be embarrassed about. It’s embraced and shared between friends in ways that aren’t gratuitous or explicit. These characters delight in their friends’ pleasure without prejudice, but also without pressure. I like it.

Gwen is growing on me at an alarming rate in CoE, which is pretty cool. I’m hoping the trend continues, because there were times in the other two seasons of Torchwood where the only thing I really wanted was for Gwen to STFU. She’s resonating in CoE in way she never has before for me.

Torchwood: Children of Earth, Day Two

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

Day One | Day Two | Day Three | Day Four | Day Five

So. Naked Barrowman. Actual naked Barrowman. Sure, the camera was fuzzy and there were conveniently placed words, but was I the only one who think they caught a look at little Barrowman? Or am I just crazy?

Dude, this has got to be one of Jack’s worst days ever. His dead count so far:

1. Shot, in the back.
2. Shot, in the chest, not a second after coming back from the first one (so brutal).
3. Blowed up. BOOM.
4. Buried in concrete. The suck.
5. Dropped from a significant height while still buried in concrete.

That government guy who’s in charge of building the thingy, he’s extra creepy. This crazy five-day aliens-possessing-our-children thing really seems to be his Christmas. WTF?

I really love Rhys. Gwen and Rhys in the potato truck was pretty awesome. The two of them frantically trying to find the car keys whilst the gun brigade was on their way to Gwen’s (ANDY YOU TRAITOR!) was win.

Ianto and his father! "He always pushed me too hard." Can I just say I heart a man with daddy issues? The problem with giving me Ianto and his family is that now all I want is more Ianto and his family. That storyline holds far more interest to me than Hello, My Girlfriend Is Half A Cyberman. I’m also enamoured with his sister and her husband and the way they pwned the government guys.

And the getaway with the tractor-forklift thing… HURRY! THEY’RE GETTING AWAY! AT, LIKE, 10 MILES AN HOUR! OH NOES WE’LL NEVER CATCH UP! (They’ve got a head start? GO AROUND THE FLAMING CAR YOU STUPID VILLANS! You could catch up to them on foot for heaven’s sake.)