Riverwind (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2011 8:12 am
Agree, Torchwood as the connection to Dr Who and it ends there. Moi, watch a couple of them before you decide if you like it or not, because its nothing like Dr Who.
CHILDREN OF MEN was one of the most Horrific TV shows ever written and filmed for viewing. Many shows say they are going to present something horrific but CHILDREN OF MEN puts the words in the character's mouths and their actions on the screen. I never imagined anyone (Short of the worst in the world and in that I can justifiably cite Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and a few others) making decisions as cold and as heartless as CHILDREN OF MEN portrays.
...
Of Course it is British/Euro, it was set in London and all sorts of places in England.
And unexpectedly, Captain Jack Harkness is in the middle of it all and is just as guilty a hero as the villains are guilty.
moi621 (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2011 3:37 pm
I tried. Not Hollywood enough. Too Brit/Euro.
Moi
In there lies the problem Moi, Hollywood does not make good movies or TV anymore. That is now being done by the UK and Canada. Hollywood has not put out a good TV show sense hill street blues or Taxi. I was still married when they were out and i have been divorced for years. And no matter what they say Stanfeld (sp) is not the best comity ever, it was not good when it came out and even worse in reruns.
It is like "The Hollywood Style" uses different camera angles, editing, stuff that holds my interest easier then the Brit/Euro style. And I don't mean senseless action and noise. Hope that makes sense.
curious_guy (imported) wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2011 6:59 pm
It is Torchwood: Children of Earth. For some strange reason I could not find it on IMDb but I could find it on wikipedia.
Yes, "Children of Earth" was horrific. Really gut-wrenching at times.
As for "Miracle Day", I liked it so far, but have one or two minor issues with it. (Admittedly, I don't see any real way around them, but they still bother me.)
And now about two months later, I finally saw all eight episodes in one day and episode nine the night before. Comcast gave me STARZ as a consolation for a failure of their equipment.
The storyline did not develop as I thought it would. Usually when "death takes a holiday" (to borrow a phrase) and no one dies, there is a supernatural explanation but in this case, they do wind through a rather interesting set of characters and they manage to keep the secret of the end of death a secret.
Too many movies and TV shows telegraph their endings. They lack subtlety and character development. However, these characters have depth. Bill Pullman is excellent as a psychopathic killer as opposed to the cold-blooded loons responsible for the "Miracle" of Miracle Day.
Not to give spoilers but Episode five or six has scenes and concepts that are truly horrific.
Episode seven (I think) is a really touching love story.
Everything will be revealed this Friday with the Tenth episode and I don't know how it all is going to work out.
I don't know if I would have stuck with it week by week. I think that I would have.
And surprise, surprise, I finished my short story so I can meet the deadline. Yes, I write on deadline sometimes.
I feel somewhat differently about this current Torchwood series. Quite honestly, most of episodes 6, 7, and 8 (and hell, likely 3, 4, and 5) could easily have been cut out without interfering with the overall storyline. This series is SLOOOOOOOW, and feels like 4-5 eps worth of material stretched over 10. I'll try to avoid too many spoilers for those who haven't seen it.
Episodes five and six did have some really horrific scenes and concepts. Unfortunately, I thought they could have been played up even further to amplify the horror. It's one thing to show [redacted, but the horrific concept] as entirely evil with no redeeming features. Its another to show both sides, get the audience to agree or even side with 'the bad guys', even while they're horrified at where that leads them. They didn't go far enough, as they were too busy beating you over the head with 'bad concept! evil! bad people!' (The throwaway acceptance mention in ep 9 was just that. Throwaway.)
Yes, it was episode 7 seven that was the love story. It was quite well done, I was impressed. The sex scenes were especially well-handled, in my opinon. Sadly, I have one question about it. Was it necessary? Would the overall storyline have been that greatly affected if none of it had happened?
We're at epsiode 9, and have just seen "The MacGuffin". Not impressed with it. Pacing has been completely off for the whole series, but it really screamed out in this ep. Everyone was all over the place, until the jump in time, which seems less to have been a good story move, than the writers saying "Oh shit! We've got to get everyone together for the big climax!" That's what most of episode nine felt like, aside from a few nice scenes. It didn't scream 'penultimate episode'. I also agree with one criticism I heard elsewehre. Isn't there a rule in writing that says 'show, don't tell'? Are there no clips that could have been used to show the world has gone to hell? Anything would have been better than two people in a room talking about the changes.
The best part of the series, for me, hasn't even been the Torchwood team. It's been John deLancie and Bill Pullman. Pullman is doing a great job with the character. He's completely creepy, but smart and subtle (at least at times.) DeLancie... well, he's just fun. There are few shows that couldn't be improved by having him do a guest spot.
And now I'll stop bitching about the series. I will be there on Friday though, to see how they pull this one out of their asses.
