Saturday, August 20, 2011

Twofer: "Torchwood," "Strike Back" Reviews

The shows go up simultaneously, at 10 p.m. on Fridays. This week, so did the reviews: Torchwood, Strike Back.

9 comments:

Tulkinghorn said...

Interesting. The fans at the Guardian blog are getting a bit testy, but your reactions continue to grow more favorable....

David Chute said...

Indeed. And yours?

Tulkinghorn said...

Haven't seen last night's episode, but the series continues to balance on the edge of incoherence and is WAY too long.

Also the Venice beach safe house reminds me of some old WB cartoon in which the hideaway has a three story neon billboard with a huge arrow pointing to the word "Hideaway".

Tulkinghorn said...

All right. You got me. Just watched episode 7 which is one of the best things I've ever seen ever...

How does that happen?

David Chute said...

Comments flourishing on IndieWIRE, where you are more than welcome.

Tulkinghorn said...

Not interested in that kind of 'where was Jack in 1927' trivia. Especially since the most recent comment appears willing to drag things down into the "RTD sucks" morass. Kind of like Apple v. Microsoft.

Significantly interested in the structure of this series which, in delaying anything of interest beyond by-the-numbers melodrama and red herrings until the seventh episode, borders on the self-destructive, if not suicidal.

David Chute said...

Taking the liberty of copying this excellent comment from my Facebook page:

Adam Thornton: Absolutely loved it, both the past and present elements. The love story was totally convincing, and the confrontation between Gwen and Jack in the car deepened their relationship in a way that I didn't think was possible (give Eve Myles some great dialog and she's unstoppable).

I didn't even find the "rescue" to be a cop-out. Though if lady-villain was so certain Jack would come with her, I'm not sure why she had to go through so much trouble getting him there.

PS: If I have my Harkness timeline right, he met Italian Guy during his first trip through Earth's history. He was subsequently buried alive for thousands of years before coming to the point where we are now. So it's probably understandable that the connection slipped his mind.

David Chute said...

The point about comments on real blogs, unlike this amateur hour jape, is that the number and intensity of them are what tag a post as successful. For something like TW, you want to become the place where fans collect after each episode to argue about "where was Jack in 1927 trivia."

David Chute said...

See also: http://www.cafepress.com/wildewear/5609273