October 29, 2008

Torchwood, Season 2 & Will & Grace: Whatever Happened to Baby Gin?

This week I've been staying in more than usual during the dark hours, and as a result I've caught up my Netflix. Earlier I mentioned that I quite enjoyed The Fall. I am happy to say that I also found much positive across the whole of Torchwood's second season. I was always a fan of the premise of the show, of certain parts of the supporting cast, some of the inventiveness, some of the music, and of course I'd been a fan of the character of Captain Jack on Doctor Who. But sadly the first season was a real mixed bag, and one could quite credibly argue it had more misses than hits. The second season however is a great improvement. Sure here there John Barrowman's mugging is a bit much, and the show goes in for the usual tv silliness of people with severe injuries nevertheless being able to accomplish impressive feats of strength and concentration. But those are very minor marks against it. On the whole it's inventive and fun, the most tiresome character traits and storylines from season 1were dropped, and here and there it's actually sincerely moving. All in all a very good season that I imagine I'll end up buying.

My other tv dvd of late has been closing out the final season of Will & Grace. Talk about your show that features more misses than hits ... As much as I enjoyed Karen Walker (love her) and many of the recurring characters, on the whole that show tended to be tiresome and rather self-involved. Well, not necessarily the show - but the lead characters. The finale was enough to make you want to gag, with its invocation of fate, and charting the paths of these dim, petty and dull people across the years. That said, the episode that preceded it was really pretty great. Since it was good it's not surprising that it was a Karen-centered episode. But beyond that it also featured two favorites of mine, Bernadette Peters and Josh Lucas, who were great sports (even though the writing for Lucas was poor). And as an added plus producer Abraham Higginbotham got a few lines. As a former writer for Arrested Development (he also appeared as Gary on the show), he's another old favorite. So while the long-running series didn't end in a particularly interesting way, I was happy to see that the last Karen episode was pulled off well.

Posted by armand at October 29, 2008 10:29 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Culture


Comments

I *love* the Gin episode. One of the best of the whole series.

Posted by: kikimonster at October 30, 2008 08:43 AM | PERMALINK

I'd agree - though from the last few years of the series I think the dinner party episode with Mira Sorvino is probably the show's best (though some of the Blythe Danner episodes are quite good too).

I loved the Twister jokes.

Posted by: Armand at October 30, 2008 12:24 PM | PERMALINK
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