Torchwood - Small Worlds
Jul. 17th, 2007 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catalyst2I find myself conflicted about this episode - I liked it, I didn't like it, I liked it, I .... well, you get the picture
I found the A-story a real let-down. It just had no excitement and tension to it except for the very last scene as the "faeries" took Jasmine. The conflict in Jack's face was just so powerfully shown. The rest of the team's disgusted reaction as they walked back to the vehicle was equally powerful. Clearly the family were actually related to each other because the inability to act obviously runs in the family - all three were just wooden and awful. I know Jasmine was supposed to be doing that "indifferent to this world" thing but, ironically, it takes a very expressive actor to do that - and she wasn't!
Now, the B-story on the other hand was just brilliant - to see Jack obviously still having great affection for Estelle was moving. I know it has been done before but the price of immortality is that everyone around you will grow old and die while you continue on. That Jack had dealt with that so gracefully, albeit dishonestly, by claiming he was the son of the Jack that Estelle knew. was a lovely touch. Then to see Jack in another flashback in India in 1909(?) was just a bonus. I hope we see some more of Jack's past in more detail.
Some things didn't exactly make sense:
The rose petal on the table in the Hub after Jack's dream - where? who? how? but above all why?
Why destroy Gwen's home - she had done nothing to Jasmine nor had she threatened the faeries either?
How did Estelle drown - surely if it is raining (downwards remember), all you have to do is stop looking up at the sky with your mouth open and look down at the ground instead?
Why isn't Jack (and indeed the whole team) pissed off with Ianto after last week's events?
Why don't Owen and Gwen acknowledge last week's kiss - even if it is just indirectly by being uncomfortable in each other's presence or something?
Anyway, the weaknesses of the main story were offset enough by the second story that the episode was OK for me, although .... No, it was Ok, sort of .....
I found the A-story a real let-down. It just had no excitement and tension to it except for the very last scene as the "faeries" took Jasmine. The conflict in Jack's face was just so powerfully shown. The rest of the team's disgusted reaction as they walked back to the vehicle was equally powerful. Clearly the family were actually related to each other because the inability to act obviously runs in the family - all three were just wooden and awful. I know Jasmine was supposed to be doing that "indifferent to this world" thing but, ironically, it takes a very expressive actor to do that - and she wasn't!
Now, the B-story on the other hand was just brilliant - to see Jack obviously still having great affection for Estelle was moving. I know it has been done before but the price of immortality is that everyone around you will grow old and die while you continue on. That Jack had dealt with that so gracefully, albeit dishonestly, by claiming he was the son of the Jack that Estelle knew. was a lovely touch. Then to see Jack in another flashback in India in 1909(?) was just a bonus. I hope we see some more of Jack's past in more detail.
Some things didn't exactly make sense:
The rose petal on the table in the Hub after Jack's dream - where? who? how? but above all why?
Why destroy Gwen's home - she had done nothing to Jasmine nor had she threatened the faeries either?
How did Estelle drown - surely if it is raining (downwards remember), all you have to do is stop looking up at the sky with your mouth open and look down at the ground instead?
Why isn't Jack (and indeed the whole team) pissed off with Ianto after last week's events?
Why don't Owen and Gwen acknowledge last week's kiss - even if it is just indirectly by being uncomfortable in each other's presence or something?
Anyway, the weaknesses of the main story were offset enough by the second story that the episode was OK for me, although .... No, it was Ok, sort of .....
