Monday, October 23, 2006

It had a steel claw!

Not the Steel Claw, but never mind. I thought the first episode of Torchwood was pretty good. The Cardiff setting works well, the script was tight, and the ending was * *** ** * *******. Didn't like the way every third scene was wildly over-lit, and that shot of Captain Jack standing on top of high building in the style of Buffy's boyfried/a Batman was a little bit too cheesy, but I'll definitely be watching more: not something I thought after seeing the first eps of the new Who (either series) or Robin Hood.

Full disclosure: my agent sent off scripts of mine to Who, Robin Hood and Torchwood, in each instance long before the series was actually screened. Never heard anything back from any of them, so one tends to get a bit emotionally invested in the viewing of the first episode of each of these. In this particular instance my feelings were of renewed annoyance I never heard anything back along with: 'hmm' and 'Ooh, I wonder if one of those things in the background could be a-' which usually bodes well.

In some of the other viewings of course, my feelings could be described as 'enormous relief'.

27 comments:

Dave said...

Do you mind? Some of us in remote parts of the country can only get four channels, so have to watch the repeat on 2 later this week. So I'm not reading the first paragraph.

James Henry said...

Apologies - was trying not to give away anything, but have asterisked for safety.

James Henry said...

The steel claw isn't giving anything away, just so you know.






Or is it?

patroclus said...

I quite liked it, the main bird in it is a nice sympathetic character and not over-pretty. The swearing is a bit too self-conscious for my liking, and the fact that 'Torchwood' is an anagram of 'Doctor Who' is so cheesy I can't actually bring myself to say it, therefore I have to refer to it as 'that Dr Who spinoff thing'.

Yes, you can rely on me to review something purely on the basis of its use of the English language, and to miss every important aspect entirely.

Dave said...

The best kind of review that, pat, as it gave nothing interesting away. I'll remember to switch my auto-bleeper device on, so that I don't hear any swearing.

Anonymous said...

well..... my 8 year old was very keen to see it, and thank goodness we had the tv turned down low and she had her back to it for most of the time, playing cards with Dad, as certainly the second episode was NOT suitable. Looked OK.....

Anonymous said...

Watched it with our nearly 15 year-old daughter (very funny during Episode 2, as she had to keep putting her fingers in her ears and humming loudly, due to the embarrassment of watching S-E-X scenes with her parents!) Think we'll persist with it (not sure what we'll do with the 11 year-old though).

Re. Alan Sugar posts, can I offer "Sugar Snap", in which Sir Alan has to shout "snap" every time he sees another grumpy, bearded entrepreneur?

Anonymous said...

I was disappointed with both eps, but will stick with it as it definitely had good moments. I had problems with the tone, characters and cheesy humour. It feels like a kids' show with bad language. Why post-watershed, then? Why?

James Henry said...

Mmm, tonally it still seems like a seven o'clock Doctor Who-ish kind of show, and the swearing sat rather oddly with that. I'm never sure about shows that consciously set out to be 'adult' - for every New Battlestar Galactica, there's a Baywatch Nights.

Anonymous said...

I thought it was a bit disappointing. Liked the main woman and Capt. Jack is ok. Like anon I'll probably stick with it in the absence of anything else.

Dave said...

With televisual advertisements telling me that I will have to go digital, so they can sell my analogue signal to someone else, can I just say that I'd be delighted to, if they would kindly arrange to send a digital signal to rural Norfolk.

In the meantime, the rest of you -


No. Sorry. I'm in pain, and it makes me snappy. I was going to say something involving the word 'smug', but no, see: I bite my tongue.

Spinsterella said...

* *** ** * *******

A bit of a letdown??

Anonymous said...

"A poo in a gritbin"?

rach said...

I liked it, and found it very funny, but I suspect that's mainly because our one-year-old has a soft toy cat that's called Captain Jack and the thought of it on top of various buildings in Cardiff made me giggle.

Wyndham said...

It will hardly surprise you to learn that I preferred Fear Of Fanny on BBC4 - "Do you want your doughnuts to look like fanny's?" Astonishingly a quick Wiki reveals that in her early career Fanny Cradock wrote two science-fiction novels.

Wyndham said...

And, by the way, a friend of mine claimed her father invented The Steel Claw. He was a science-fiction writer, but his name wasn't Fanny.

patroclus said...

Was it Quentin?

Anonymous said...

I know this is TOTALLY unrelated, but will someone inform at least one of the Bearded Ladies that the book is on hold for distribution and noone knows why...

I would, but alas; for I have no blogger account. And they're PICKY, that way. ;-)

James Henry said...

What book?

James Henry said...

Oh, that book, sorry. Apparently my bit about Mac's first love was sooooo brilliant all the printers started crying and the ink ran, so they had to start again, but I think it's okay now. Prob'ly.

I hope that was helpful.

Anonymous said...

Was it you who wrote that?

That's already my favourite bit, even though I haven't read it. If it makes me cry, I'll eat you.

It's okay. Play have just said they've posted it.

Rose said...

Well, because he was brought back to life in such an amazing magical way, he can't ever die, which I think is massively convenient. So, he probably just strolled out.

Jen said...

The book arrived this morning.

The letter made me 'AWWWH BLESS!' like you wouldn't believe. Was it based on personal experience, but with say, Mokey? His hair is a bit like yours.

Mac sort of looks like Wembley. Sort of.

Though, Red is the best looking.

James Henry said...

Red was the sauciest of all the Fraggles (new Fraggle Rock film on its way apparently, not sure how I feel about this).

My favourite bit in the book is Sue White's complaint letter (written with help from Richard P.).

Jen said...

WAS THAT YOU TOO?

Those two letters are inspired. And of course, Sue's Quarterly report for Mac was very funny too: "Words f*cking fail me..."

I hate you James Henry.

Who wrote the emails between Boyce and Dr Betty?

James Henry said...

Richard Preddy wrote the complaint letter, which was inspired.

Don't know who did the emails though...

Jen said...

Ah - SUE with a little help from Richard. I get it now.

Any joy on a signing, by the way? Like, anything a bit closer to Glasgow, p'raps...?