36 Hours

[poliphilo]

The night before last I kept waking up to discover I'd forgotten to breathe and needed to rectify the mistake pretty damn quick. Stupid old body.

Yesterday I spent in a reclining armchair watching stuff on TV. I watched Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix- a turbo-charged account of a leisurely novel- and the last three episodes of the BBC's new Torchwood series- which more than fulfilled the promise of the first two by turning all political and state-of-the-nationy. Russel T. Davies is a classic writer. He's produced a lot of tosh- much of it in the first two seasons of Torchwood- but when he gets things right he's outstanding.  Torchwood: Children of Men is a masterpiece- bitter, shaming, heartening, kinky, sentimental, morally challenging, subversive- also very exciting and funny.

 Last night I slept for 12 hours straight.

Comments

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I watched all 5 episodes yesterday; sat on the sofa with a laptop so that I could check my mail, read livejournal etc. whilst watching. I was expecting the usual Torchwood fare and while I enjoy that, it's not exactly stretching.

By Day 4, I was sat bolt upright, with the laptop forgotten. That was one of the most uncomfortable hours of television I'd watched in years.

I would have preferred a slightly less rushed resolution - 10 minutes for Captain Jack to work out how to 'reverse the polarity' seemed a little too quick - but given _how_ he had to do it, I won't complain too much.

It's quite reversed my opinion of Davies; I was happy that he'd managed to get Doctor Who back on the TV, but wasn't very impressed with him as an adult. Children of Earth is exactly what Torchwood was first advertised to be - truly adult SF.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Like you I can forgive the perfunctoriness of the solution because of (a) how shocking it was and (b) the fact that the sci-fi stuff was really only a McGuffin.

Davies has overstretched himself recently. A lot of his work for Dr Who and (especially) Torchwood was shoddy, but I've never really doubted that he's a major writer. Have you seen his Casanova- with David Tennant and Peter O'Toole? It's brilliant!

[jfs.livejournal.com]

I've just noticed that I wrote 'adult' when I meant 'writer' in my description of RTD; on reflection, I'm going to leave that somewhat Freudian slip stand.

The first series of Torchwood was teenage; occasionally brilliant, often purile, desperately wanting to be grown-up without knowing quite what that meant. And oh so earnest in its beliefs. (I can identify, or maybe just project. That's certainly how I felt as a teenager.)

CoE was mature.

I saw Casanova, but don't recall being grabbed by it - O'Toole was fantastic, as he always is - he's a magnificent old man (by which I mean he portrays loss, dignity, irritation and joy with complete aplomb) - have you seen Dean Spanley?

As for McGuffins - Science Fiction's strength has always been that it looks at today with a slightly distorted lens. It's why it's both a great record of, and also a commentary on, the times it was written in.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I seem to remember Torchwood getting better as it progressed. Even so, very little of it has stuck with me. It always seemed like a neat idea that should have spent longer in development. As it was they learned on the job and CoM was brilliant.

I loved Casanova. It was funny, sad- and the frocks were gorgeous. It was also my first real look at David Tennant. I guess I have a taste for historical farragos that don't take themselves too seriously.

I haven't seen Dean Spanley. Peter O'Toole seems to be having a distingished late career- with lots of decent roles in decent projects- which is excellent.