Thoughts on Torchwood: Children of Earth

[sholio]

Fair warning: in the end, I really liked it. I can see why people might not, and certainly I don't mind if you disagree ... but I did.

I had to process for a while to really figure out how I felt about it, because wow, that was DARK. I like me some dark, but it's been awhile since I've seen something that dark.

But the more I process, the more I like it. In some of the comments to my last entry, I wrote that I didn't think Torchwood was a good enough show to carry that much darkness (regarding the deaths of 3/5 of the team). I take it back, though. It really is that good. This was damn good television and very good sci-fi. It made me think -- heck, I'm still thinking, because they gave us the unambiguously horrible actions of the government, and then had Jack do the exact same thing, and now I'm doing a whole lot of musing on "end justifies the means" and where exactly do you draw the line between "this is worth it" and "this is too much of a line to cross"? One child? Five? Five thousand? Is it better to hold to your principles and watch the world die around you?

I really appreciate that, if Torchwood is going to kill people, it makes you feel it. When was the last time you watched a sci-fi or action movie or show that didn't kill someone? It's a running joke with Star Trek and its descendants -- that guy's the redshirt, he won't survive the show! I really do like Torchwood's greater, I guess, emotional honesty, that they don't just kill a building full of redshirts, they kill a building full of redshirts plus a character that we're attached to. They don't just sacrifice some random person for the good of the planet -- it's Jack's grandchild, and we aren't allowed to pull back and go, "Oh, it's okay, it doesn't matter and everything ended happily even though some people are dead."

I grew up on classic scifi, and even though I don't think Torchwood is a show that I'm going to be able to relate to in a fannish kind of way (and I really do feel for people who do, or did; I remember the gut-punch of Tosh and Owen's deaths, and I know you're going through the same thing), this miniseries hit me in that same way as some of those old stories ... a good way, even though it's horribly dark. I think I actually gave a little shriek out loud when Frobisher walked into the room with his wife and children, and you saw the gun and knew that the show was really going there. Actually I still get little shivery chills thinking about it. I love it when a story does that to me, as awful as it was, including the bitter irony that in this case, in the end, things would have turned out all right for his family if he hadn't done that. And I loved that, even while some people were doing horrible things, we saw other people reach down inside themselves for courage and strength -- the whole scene with the mob fighting back against the armed soldiers, "because someone has to", was brilliant, and so was the bit with Frobisher's admin assistant (I can't remember her name) and the contact lenses. And even though it hurts to think about, that little bit at the end of Ianto's death scene when Jack leans down and kisses him very gently -- that was good. So much better than the over-the-top grieving scenes at the end of season two.

So yeah ... I liked it. I think it holds together really well -- okay, the aliens' motivations make less and less sense the more I think about it, but they're really just a plot device to play out a story about fascism and human nature anyway. I thought the "Owen's death" arc in season two was some of the best sci-fi TV I'd seen, for all its implausibility, and the last half of this arc is right up there, despite the occasional cheesy and contradictory bits.

Even though I do feel for you guys on my f'list who are (as one person noted yesterday in their reaction post) feeling like you've been shivved with a rusty butter knife. *hugs you all*

Comments

[nonniemous.livejournal.com]

YES. I agree, 100%. I think, though, that what made Jack's actions so heartbreaking was that he made the choice *personally* to sacrifice both his child and his grandchild--because he knew there would be no forgiveness from Alice for his choice. He carried the responsibility and the pain himself--and rather than sacrifice some unknown kid, he chose his own. It's both more noble and more cold and calculating at the same time. But the gub'mint cabal was being very careful to foist the choices and the heartbreak off on everyone else--not MY kids, or my family's, but the "non-palatable" elements of the culture--people like Ianto's brother-in-law, on the dole and "worthless," and yet willing to fight for his kids to the bitter end. I loved, loved the way they played all that out.

And was it just me, or was it chilling that Ms. "Choose the non-productive children" was taking over from the PM at the end? What made her any less morally compromised?

Yeah, the more I think about it, the less sense the aliens make, but the social commentary in this is just devastatingly perfect in how it's written and played out. I love this the more I think about it. Kind of reminds me of "Watchmen" in a way, like that.

[sholio]

What they did with Ianto's sister and her family was utterly brilliant, because we meet this sweet little family, these likable and kinda goofy people, and get to know them -- and then we find out that they're the expendables, the bottom 10%'ers, and see the soldiers coming for them and watch them acting with courage and dignity and self-sacrifice. Meanwhile, Frobisher and his pampered, top 1%'er family fall apart -- where Ianto's sister's husband throws himself between his children (and other people's children) and an army, Frobisher's only way of dealing with it is to kill his family and himself. And in the end, Frobisher and his kids are dead, and Ianto's in-laws are together and safe and alive. It's a marvelous little subversive bit of storytelling.

... and hmm, you know, 'til you pointed it out, I hadn't really consciously made the comparison between Jack's sacrifice of his own grandchild and the government types' willingness to sacrifice other people's children but not their own. That's a really good point, and demonstrates, I guess, that these are the people worth rooting for; as dark as the show was, it still put some of the very best aspects of human nature on display, along with the worst.

Edited to add: And I thought of Watchmen too -- actually, I almost put a comparison into the above post. It's really a very similar dilemma, though in Watchmen (the book anyway; I haven't seen the movie) there's the added angle that Ozymandias is enough of a megalomaniac that he's not particularly affected by what he's done. In Torchwood the world is saved by a decent person who makes a terrible decision and breaks himself in the process; in Watchman, the savior of the world is a complete bastard, but of course no one knows that.

[nonniemous.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong; I think Jack would have done what he did no matter whose child was there at the time. That it happened to be his was shit bad luck--or karma. I think he did see it as some kind of karma, actually. He had willingly led Clem and his fellow orphans to their horrific fates; now his child is the price that must be paid to save the rest of earth's children from that same fate. It was payback with a vengeance, and nothing less than he deserved. He even waited to see Alice's reaction, knowing that she wasn't going to forgive him. Hope, yes, on his part, but also twisting the knife.

Ah, sorry for going on. I find Jack to be an endlessly fascinating character, so I tend to obsess over him. I loved Tosh and was pissed when they killed her off. Owen, too, as he'd become a much better character over season 2. But Jack is the reason I watched and kept watching throughout.

Goreat point about Ianto's brother-in-law fighting for other people's kids. He's just trying to make a few bucks, bringing in all those extra kids for his wife to watch, but in the end, he's fighting for all those kids, not just his own. I love your analysis about Frobisher's 1% vs. the bottom 10% as represented by the projects.