Catching up on TV
Feb. 20th, 2008 09:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
purplecatThanks to a reliance on B recording things while I was away and "other means" when that failed I have finally caught up with both Torchwood and Primeval:
Torchwood: Meat
This was a pretty good episode, particularly by Torchwood standards, though not without its nickpicks (why was Rhys needed to get into the warehouse?). I do, however, appear to be the only person in this corner of the blogsphere, to have found Rhys's anger at Gwen rather baffling - you're cross because the ultra-secret job she couldn't tell you about is not the ultra-secret job she couldn't tell you about that you thought it was? and why did Gwen never counter with "because I signed the official secrets act"? though of course, since this is Torchwood, its entirely possible that she never did.
Appropos of nothing in Torchwood, but enlightened by current affairs, I've decided it must be controlled directly by the Duke of Edinburgh.
Primeval 2.5
On the whole a fairly ho-hum primeval episode. The continuing rather clumsy attempts to differentiate Jenny and Claudia back-fire more than usual. Part of the problem is, I think, that Lucy Brown's range doesn't really extend to making the Jenny character believable - in particular her interactions with the general public when she either tries to flirt or intimidate them into silence make Jenny look amateurish rather than professional. She is not helped, however, by appalling clothes and camera direction which attempts to establish her as some sort of ball-breaker type in short skirts and high heels even when such attire is clearly inappropriate and would probably take only minutes to change. The stranded girl was excellent though.
Torchwood: Adam
I thought this was a mixed bag of an episode with some bits that were plain confused either in the script or the direction (its actual treatment of memory and personality doesn't bear close inspection). However it handed the actors some lovely material to work with and it was interesting to see which ones rose to the challenge (Naoko Mori, Eve Myles and Burn Gorman, in particular) and those who fluffed it (John Barrowman, sadly).
The whole Gwen/Jack thing seems such a major rewrite of what happened last year - just like the whole Gwen/Owen thing just appeared out of the blue then. Its one aspect of the Torchwood mini-reboot I find quite hard to swallow.
Primeval 2.6
I really enjoyed this despite the awful clothes they once again tried to squeeze Lucy Brown into and Helen's wonder-bra. In fact I loved Helen's manipulation here - often it comes across as rather clumsy and unbelievable but here you could see her pushing Stephen's buttons in just the right way and playing off a knowledge of Cutter's character flaws to reinforce her points... and just where she starts being clumsy again Stephen starts looking a bit suspicious. I think, though, that this is the first time Primeval has attempted an episode which doesn't really have a self-contained story within it but is inextricably linked to the wider plot.
Torchwood: Meat
This was a pretty good episode, particularly by Torchwood standards, though not without its nickpicks (why was Rhys needed to get into the warehouse?). I do, however, appear to be the only person in this corner of the blogsphere, to have found Rhys's anger at Gwen rather baffling - you're cross because the ultra-secret job she couldn't tell you about is not the ultra-secret job she couldn't tell you about that you thought it was? and why did Gwen never counter with "because I signed the official secrets act"? though of course, since this is Torchwood, its entirely possible that she never did.
Appropos of nothing in Torchwood, but enlightened by current affairs, I've decided it must be controlled directly by the Duke of Edinburgh.
Primeval 2.5
On the whole a fairly ho-hum primeval episode. The continuing rather clumsy attempts to differentiate Jenny and Claudia back-fire more than usual. Part of the problem is, I think, that Lucy Brown's range doesn't really extend to making the Jenny character believable - in particular her interactions with the general public when she either tries to flirt or intimidate them into silence make Jenny look amateurish rather than professional. She is not helped, however, by appalling clothes and camera direction which attempts to establish her as some sort of ball-breaker type in short skirts and high heels even when such attire is clearly inappropriate and would probably take only minutes to change. The stranded girl was excellent though.
Torchwood: Adam
I thought this was a mixed bag of an episode with some bits that were plain confused either in the script or the direction (its actual treatment of memory and personality doesn't bear close inspection). However it handed the actors some lovely material to work with and it was interesting to see which ones rose to the challenge (Naoko Mori, Eve Myles and Burn Gorman, in particular) and those who fluffed it (John Barrowman, sadly).
The whole Gwen/Jack thing seems such a major rewrite of what happened last year - just like the whole Gwen/Owen thing just appeared out of the blue then. Its one aspect of the Torchwood mini-reboot I find quite hard to swallow.
Primeval 2.6
I really enjoyed this despite the awful clothes they once again tried to squeeze Lucy Brown into and Helen's wonder-bra. In fact I loved Helen's manipulation here - often it comes across as rather clumsy and unbelievable but here you could see her pushing Stephen's buttons in just the right way and playing off a knowledge of Cutter's character flaws to reinforce her points... and just where she starts being clumsy again Stephen starts looking a bit suspicious. I think, though, that this is the first time Primeval has attempted an episode which doesn't really have a self-contained story within it but is inextricably linked to the wider plot.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-22 10:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-02-22 10:36 am (UTC)