Torchwood - End of Days, 1.13

Torchwood was branded a more "adult" answer to Doctor Who, but until its first series finale, "End of Days," it was little more than a highly uneven show showcasing a motley, unrelatable crew of grade-A screw-ups (a sex-monster and some cursing do not a mature show make).

However, "End of Days" (and "Captain Jack Harkness," the episode that preceded it), presented what I think is the series' first truly mature storyline: the true definition of a starcrossed romance (not gay for the sake of being gay, rather, heartbreaking love story because it's an impossible romance!) juxtaposed with a believable mutiny, climaxing when Owen shoots Jack. The challenging of the team's dynamic (Jack the leader, everyone else subordinate; not to mention the Owen/Ianto struggle the episode prior) was the right way to take the show. Why should Torchwood trust Jack when they don't even know who he is?

I was impressed with the design of the Abbadon, which looked a lot like the creature from "The Satan Pit," but thought it should have been bigger. For the destroyer of the world, it was kind of small. I thought the same of the episode's final showdown with Jack enduring the Abbadon's shadow -- impressed by the obvious solution, but disappointed by the "smallness" of it. No big guns. Just Jack and his surplus of life, which surprisingly, totally made sense.

My final criticism concerns Jack's resurrection. Why would Gwen be able to bring him back to life? What makes her so special? While watching, I thought it would be Ianto, because Jack had brought him back to life with a kiss before. (There is always residual space-time vortex energy! Ianto has got to have some stored somewhere!) Or if not Ianto, I would have been satisfied with a dream sequence in which nearly-dead-Jack sees Rose or "the right kind of doctor" and remembers he's got a ton of life in him. Something.

I'll be more than happy with season two if most of it is up to par with the second half of this season.

Doctor Who - Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, 4.09/4.10

I love Doctor Who. Luckily I've already written about it, so I don't have to praise and gush about the show in an introduction here; that's already done. I haven't talked about Tennant as the Doctor, but I don't have much to say about him other than I think he's brilliant and perfect. Simple.

I was excited for the Moffat-penned "Silence in the Library" and "Forest of the Dead," his first two-parter since series 1's "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" (my favorite episodes so far), for numerous reasons: 1) I wanted to see how he would write my favorite companion, Donna, 2) I love libraries and forests and the fairytale-like happenings that often populate them, 3) I absolutely adore the never-corny emotional poignancy of his stories, 4) I think his villains are consistently fantastic, and 5) the caliber of his episodes is (arguably) higher than anyone else's.

"Silence in the Library" didn't quite live up to all my expectations, but I wasn't disappointed, either. Awesome monsters: check (reminded me of Crichton's Prey nanobots). Quippy Doctor/Donna lines: check. Intriguing world/universe/setting: check. Sufficiently creepy plot: check. Etc.

Wonderfully nightmarish details (that I always love to see in Who) include:

• Donna stuck in a world that progresses like a dream -- I loved this bit.
• The Vashta Nerada disintegrating meat on bones in less than a second
• Miss Evangelista appearing to Donna dressed in black/the quick flashback-like sequence that accompanied Donna remembering her
• Donna/Doctor in the Library events appearing on the little girl's television screen
• Dr. Moon/the "Doctor Moon" above the Library
• Miss Evangelista's warped face
• Donna's husband stuttering her name

I'm not sure of the mechanics behind River Song saving everybody in the end, but I'm not complaining. What a wonderful scene with her and the Doctor.

"Everybody knows that everybody dies. But not every day. Not today... Some days, nobody dies at all." - River Song

Like "The Doctor Dances" -- everyone lived! Moffat likes this theme: the Doctor faced with so much inevitable death that he often can't bear, sometimes there are small victories in which everybody lives. And at the end of each chapter, the Doctor is "all right," which very well may be Time Lord-speak for "not all right at all." Small victories are a reason to live; there are "always things to live for" ("The Doctor's Daughter"). Part of the reason I love this show is because beneath the quips and general wackiness of individual episodes, there is a lot of melancholy in the life of a near-immortal time traveler (who must part ways with everyone he loves because everyone dies), and the show never forgets that.

(Tennant wears this well when his voice cracks when he briefly mentions Rose to Martha, or when he is visibly anguished at the supposed death of a woman he knows he will love in the future.* Eccleston did a similarly spectacular job as the Doctor's even more heavily burdened ninth regeneration, the only survivor of the Time War.)

So, which Doctor did River know? I assume it's his final regeneration, because I also assume he would only tell her his name if he were about to die. Or, future-Doctor (Thirteen?) knew the only way Ten would trust River, which was integral to solving the Library, would be to tell her his name to pass on to his past self. Right now I'm leaning toward the former, because Time Lord names are pretty serious business.

Wow, these episodes were good.

* Future love, you say? Yeah. I went there.

Party Down - "Not On Your Wife" Opening Night, 2.06

Party Down is back in fine form with a near flawless episode, "'Not On Your Wife' Opening Night"!

I won't even try to record all the misunderstandings/scandalous after-party happenings that added up to the fabulous climactic backstage scene (and the smaller one in the post-credits tag), but it all worked perfectly, and was hilarious to boot. Paralleling the community theatre's farce at the beginning was brilliant.

All in all: triumph!

• As usual for Party Down, I could quote for ages, but I'll try not to.
• "So you were all magnificent, which means statistically, magnificent means average, so you were all average." - Roman
• "It was like all these little misunderstandings adding up to this tragic ending." - Kyle
• "Magnicifent!" - Roman
• Mullally's character is finally fitting in. Great scene with Ron and pepper spray.

Skins - Freddie, 4.05

To be honest, I usually watch this series of Skins in a small browser window while I play solitaire next to it.

It's still shot beautifully, gorgeous cinematography, utilizing light better than most shows on TV, and it still has a cast of really gorgeous and talented young actors. The individual episodes are written well; none as stand-out as the earlier seasons' stunners like "Cassie" (s1), "Sketch," or "Everyone," but they are still plainly good stories.

My main complaint is the same as it was last series: the second generation characters are not as strong, and neither are their relationships with each other, as the first generation's. In the second series, if Jal had a heart-to-heart with Sid, it was completely natural because you knew these people were all best friends. However, this series, I found it weird when Katie admitted her medical problem to Thomas (frankly, I think it's weird when anyone interacts seriously with Thomas -- when did they become even remotely close?) and when the girls showed up at Cook's birthday party in series 3. There is no evidence that they know each other at all. I expected them to create and grow relationships throughout series 3 so that in series 4 the writers could play with that, but it didn't happen. Plus, we were left with an irritating finale that only focused on the least interesting group of the bunch -- Freddie, Cook, JJ, and Effy.

Scratch that -- not the least interesting. That award would go to one of the twins or Thomas. Or Naomi.

I have quite a few complaints about this generation I suppose...

"Freddie" does nothing to assuage my annoyances. It is a moving, but very average, love story, what with Freddie trying to save Effy from depression, interspersed with beautiful scenes of field-frolicking and the like (not to mention, lines like "I fucking love you so fucking much"). I appreciate this episode for what it tries to be, but unfortunately, I don't care enough about Freddie and Effy to be moved.

Thoughts:

• Freddie runs into Cook dressed as the Devil, appropriate for a whimsical carnival scene where Katie is an angel and saves Effy.
• I am convinced I would love this episode a thousand times more if I wasn't so annoyed with Effy. Because the scenes with Freddie and his granddad are brilliant. Freddie is such a good person, and it's heartbreaking that his efforts are in vain in the end.

Torchwood - Random Shoes, 1.09

I waited to write about Torchwood until I was more than halfway done with the first series, because I was warned beforehand that the first half was uneven, and the second half is more the tone and style of the rest of the series. Also, I was lazy. But this was a wise move nevertheless -- I hated the first four episodes of the series, I hated Gwen Cooper, the lead, I hated Jack's deference to his team (the Jack I knew did everything himself), I hated the special effects (even for Who, they were atrocious), I hated the utterly boring plots, I hated Torchwood... in no uncertain terms.

My opinion began to waver at "Small Worlds," which was more tame (if not in plot, then in ambiance) than its predecessors, and stood in stark contrast with the terrible, all too dramatic "Cyberwoman" before it. Where "Cyberwoman" failed in story (a sorry attempt, I think, at bridging the worlds of Who and TW) and overall execution, "Small Worlds" excelled. It wisely gave us a peek at Jack's past, which doubtless is what migrated Who fans salivated at the thought of, and offered a plot that tied it with the present. Fatally vomiting rose petals was classic Who -- cheap and uniquely supernatural. It was not a perfect episode by any means -- some of the same issues still befell it, and the outcome was not surprising nor terribly interesting -- but it was a refreshing 50 minutes that renewed my hopes for the show.

The episode that followed it, "Countrycide," was another delicious (tasteless word choice totally intended) installment. Torchwood's base was nowhere to be seen in this utterly creepy, Blair Witch-esque achievement. As a result, the episode was less sci-fi and more horror, beautifully written and acted.

Three episodes later, "Random Shoes" is Doctor Who's "Love and Monsters" with a dash of any Darin Morgan-penned X-File (perhaps Jose Chung for an outsider's view and goofily poignant love story, or Clyde Bruckman for clues adding up in the end -- and either one for truly getting the "big picture" and tying elements together so perfectly in the end). And it is absolutely delightful.

I could have predicted exactly where and how RTD (edit: apparently, this episode was written by Jacquetta May. Still, though, I'm sure the creator had a say) differs from Darin Morgan, though: Of course, of course, Eugene gets his little happy ending with Gwen until he floats off into the sky surrounded by light. A nice touch was him not stopping in the clouds, but continuing into space (as his monologue also continues), perpetuating the obvious, but nice, theme of outer space and life and death. Morgan would have kept him dead, no happy endings, but kept the monologue. I'd put money on that.

Overall, just a wonderful episode. I loved that Eugene was in love with Gwen, and I loved how he subconsciously influenced her. One gripe, out of their hands, is that I wish TW had a bigger budget -- I never really believed he was a ghost. Wanted to put his hands through people. Walk through walls. But that's just a small nitpick!

What I'm Watching This Summer

Watching Now:

• Skins (Just a few more episodes left in series 4)
• Doctor Who (On series 4)
• Torchwood (On series 1)
• Heroes s1 (Regarded as the best season, so why not? Also, Christopher Eccleston. So there's that.)

Watching Soon:

• Treme (Need to catch up from episode 3)
• FlashForward (Need to catch up from episode 18)
• Secret Diary of a Call Girl (Not sure where I can watch this...)

Watching... Sometime:

• The Wire (Regrettably, not on Netflix, so I don't know what I'm going to do... Megavideo will be the death of me. Maybe I'll buy the DVDs, dunno.)
• Angel (Saw the first season, hated it. But I feel like I need to tough it out for Joss, the Buffster, and Cordy. So one day I will.)
• Six Feet Under
• Pushing Daisies s2

Watching Intermittently:

• The State

Breaking Bad - One Minute, 3.07

The whole East Coast having watched this episode 3 hours before me, I am already aware that this episode kicks major ass. Expectations high. Mostly sentence fragments. Bullets are as-I-watch:

• Teaser, holy shit! (As usual!) So are the cousins really hermanos, not primos? Also, the direction is beautiful and utilizes sunlight so well. (As usual.)
• Love the blackness of the hospital room, behind Saul and Walt's heads
• Hank and Marie in the elevator! Ahh, dead. These two!
• Walt cutting off the crusts again? Not yet, because Skyler's at the door. "Hank is your family." "Not currently." Motif!
• Lol, Gale. IMDB has informed me he's Mel's husband in Flight of the Conchords. Poor, pathetic Doug.
• New Mexico is such a gorgeous place to shoot. This shot!! With the car and the Cousins and the bright blue sky and perfectly white clouds! Wow, you really know what this gun salesman has coming, don't you. Ominous. Haha, of COURSE they would shoot him to test the vest. Hmm, but they did pay and now we know they do know English
• I can't find any information about Rubicon! Watching anyway of course
• JESSE. All of the performances tonight are killing!
• Oh shit.
• OH MY GOD! PARALLEL!
• Holy shit, this direction.
• OH MY GOD!
• Oh my goddddddddddddd
• I. DON'T. EVEN.
• What the fuck, this is such a THE BEST SHOW IN THE WORLD.
• How does the preview for the next episode look even better than this week's explosion of amazing??
• Watching the encore. Ahhh, the first shot looks like an axe falling! Of course it does! Because this show is perfect!

Fun Fact: Thomas Schnauz, who wrote this episode, wrote two of the worst episodes of The X-Files (sorry. But this was amazing, so I forgive him 110%!); one of them, "Lord of the Flies," guest starred Aaron Paul. Bryan Cranston guested in a Vince Gilligan-penned episode a season or two before, if I'm not mistaken.

I really need to allow myself a half hour or so to calm down before I write these posts.