Comments on: Torched Earth

By: Katherine

Katherine — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 15:57:34 +0000

To me, it just seemed like a Doctor Who episode with some sex in it. Which actually isn’t all that “adult” at all. It has wasted potential written all over it I fear. And good god what the hell is going on with the male assistant’s mouth? Freak!

By: Nick

Nick — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 10:42:01 +0000

And whereÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s Barlow? HeÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s the local expert and Whovian, isnÃ¢â‚¬â„¢t heÃ¢â‚¬Â¦?

I’m here, and I’m watching, it just doesn’t motivate me to write about it! Which might be a damning enough criticism in itself. I like it – it’s an enjoyable enough way to spend 50 minutes, and better than just about anything on ITV – but I’m not sure I’d really feel any urge to watch it if not for the Who connection.

Besides, I seem to only have the ability to obsess over one TV show at a time, and Spooks is currently filling that position for me – in fact, I’m thinking of a post on it, especially as Mad Mel has decided it represents all that’s bad about the BBC…

By: Wolfie

Wolfie — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 12:19:41 +0000

I found myself liking the “idea of it” a lot more than the inception and strangely enough I can’t quite put my finger on why exactly. Maybe its just a bit boring? Maybe I’m just getting too old, after all I get riveted to the history channel sometimes.

By: Phil E

Phil E — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 08:38:22 +0000

I'll say some more about Torchwood in a proper post. I'll be hard pressed to say anything nice about episode 3, I have to admit, but I'll do my best. My wife and I (ahem!) both liked Queer as Folk very much, although we didn't agree over which of the main characters we would... you know, I mean if you had to...

By: Backword Dave

Backword Dave — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 22:09:34 +0000

Phil, could you elaborate on the criteria you would use please. I don’t watch much TV. Only Vegas CSI at the moment, otherwise Spooks and Dr Who when on, and Larry David on DVD. Since one of my criteria was that I’m materialist – you can guess what I like about CSI. Ian sees another good aspect. So as to Queer as Folk – you asking the wrong question: I didn’t even see it, why would I? I’m tempted to point out that I’m a straight man, and if there’s no tits or violence why bother, but I’ve seen Angels in America on TV and twice (maybe three times) again on DVD, originally on the strength of Arthur Silber’s recommendation – but that has Streep and Pacino in it, and Emma Thomson and Michael Gambon and Simon Callow. And I could take ‘The Hours’ several more times (though I can take anything with a Philip Glass score lots of times). But I don’t do soaps apart from dipping into the Archers if it’s on when I’m cooking.

I suppose I should admit that I didn’t see all the references that Justin and Panchromatica saw. I didn’t get Men in Black: depite the presences of Rip Torn and Linda Fiorentino, I thought it was pretty flat. But I don’t think you should have to get references for something to work. When I first saw ‘Apocalypse Now’ I didn’t know that the epigraph of ‘The Hollow Men’ was ‘Mistah Kurtz – he dead!’ (Brando doesn’t read that bit); I hadn’t seen ‘October’ so I didn’t get the reference of the slaughter of the cattle – only that the images were stunning and the cutting as powerful as I’ve ever seen (that goes for Eisenstein too of course; though I like most of us saw Peter the Great coming down as a reference to Brando). Come to think of it, when I read Eliot at first, I hadn’t read Dante. I read Dante, and the Metaphysicals, and Jacobean tragedy, and Marlowe, and all of that because of Eliot. Whatever Torchwood’s references are, it hasn’t had that effect. Though if Russell T Davies references FH Bradley (I read him too), it can only be a good thing he doesn’t inspire anyone to seek out the originals.

By: Phil E

Phil E — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:54:41 +0000

Pah. You and Justin are both wrong, I'm afraid - at least, you're both not only judging Torchwood much more harshly than I would, but (more importantly) using criteria that I'd never have dreamt of applying. More later, but can I just ask - did you like Queer as Folk?

By: Panchromatica

Panchromatica — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 10:10:13 +0000

Torchwood…

Over at The Sharpener Dave Weeden doesn’t like Torchwood. …it pains and embarrasses to totally agree with Justin: Torchwood sucks. It sucks in lots of ways. Russell T Davies and co-writers may be willing you to suspend your disbelief, but…

By: gabor

gabor — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 19:15:05 +0000

Well I like it!

Admittedly there are things on tv that I think are dire that others love, but that’s life.

By: Justin

Justin — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 17:21:57 +0000

Solidarity, Dave.

And where’s Barlow? He’s the local expert and Whovian, isn’t he…?

By: ian

ian — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 13:56:10 +0000

If he can’t die, it would have been better I grant you that it was some sort of time related thing, like just not being in th eway of the bullet etc. In general however, I didn’t think it was quite so bad as you paint it. When I watch CSI I’m always mentally shouting that they are contaminating the crime scene walking in in ordinary clothes. But of course f they didn’t we wouldn’t see so much cleavage and tight trousers from the likes of Marge Helgenberger and Jorja Fox would we? Not that I’m complaining, but all drama works by requiring us to accept something as given at the start and then builds on it – like religion really…

What I liked about Torchwood was the cheerful and transparent way it rips off films like Men in Black – the idea behind the opening of episode 1 was clearly ripped off from the Will Smith scenes in MiB – to produce undemanding entertainment. It could have been much better of course but then – what couldn’t?