sab | "you're good on rooves"

Or to quote for the millionth time this review I read, which described Torchwood as "easily the best show about a bisexual time-traveller standing on various rooftops in Wales."

So, I'm re-watching the Torchwood season premiere, "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," which is the one with James Marsters.

(It's also important to note that I'm watching Torchwood because I had to stop watching David Tennant hosting the Friday Night Project, because it nearly KILLED me. Clearly it, like the Tennant Video Diaries, is the sort of thing I will only be able to watch in very very small increments, BECAUSE OF THE EXPLODING. His mouth! His hair! His...all wiggly and throwing his head back and laughing! Fanfic! Underpants! Although, to be fair, the actual late-night variety show part of FNP isn't really his milieu. I mean, he can give a monologue and record some sketches and wraparounds and whatever, but you just get the feeling he should be off doing Shakespeare somewhere instead OR NAKED IN MY HOUSE.)

Anyway, where was I? Oh, right.

Leadership.

*clears throat*

First, if they're trying to make John Barrowman look LESS queeny, setting him against James Marsters isn't really the best way to do that. Mostly you just watch Marsters snarl and cock his guns, and wait for Barrowman to burst into song.

Captain Jack wears brown shoes. I mean, for real. Someone thinks this is okay? And also I really gotta call him on the pleated pants. After two years, it's a shame a man with such snappy suspenders and such a swoopy coat shouldn't have the pants and shoes to pull it off. And then Marsters comes in in his skin-tight tee and flared drum majorette coat and cheekbones, and, IJS, no wonder Tosh flirts with him.

Elsewhere, Gareth David Lloyd does some really brilliant stuff in his reaction to Jack asking him on a date. Seriously, if you rewatch, watch him stumble after Jack asks him out, with his little "um, as long as it's not in an office" and then trying to regain it with his muttering as he turns away, "some fantasies should be kept to yourself," that whole panicked/excited/embarrassed thing, and he just nails it. OH IANTO.

I have some more things to say about this ep, and also more importantly about how Jack is helping bring back the side hair-part, which is a trend for men I encourage, especially Bryllcreem'd like the dudes on Mad Men, but it's so late it's almost earth hour already (this is exaggeration for comic effect, I am in Los Angeles where it's 3:32am, and Earth Hour's not till 8 pm tomorrow, so keep yer sox on...) and I'd really like to fall asleep soon. That and the fact that my runon sentences seem to have reached critical limits, and if I continue writing there's a good chance I'll never find the end -

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Hey, the brown shoes go with the pleats that go with the side hair-part!

You don't seriously think they are trying to make him less queeny ...

No, no, I don't think they're trying to un-queeny him, I mean, he's John Barrowman! But it is pretty funny how James Marsters out-badasses Jack in that opening scene in the bar. And Jack just all...wide eyed and dimple-chinned! *hugs Jack*

That whole episode has a sort of BTVS/AtS feel to it, with the lighting and the fish monsters and the best of enemies ~~former vampires~~ former partners. I think Marsters got flattered a little bit by Rusty and co and got to have his impressive dramatic entrance and costume and everything.

I can excuse the hair and the shoes, OR the hair and the pants, but not both. If he's doing a Don Draper the shoes should MATCH the pants, and be properly shined at that. Jack's wearing, like, tan hiking boots.

*nods* I properly looked at a J/J icon five minutes ago and the big eyes and all, Marsters makes Barrowman look prettier (considering I loved JM for years, that's interesting to hear me say).

They copied both shows - more Angel, actually - so much that I'm glad they're doing it openly for once.

Did you see my drawing of that outfit? With the coat, it works. But then I also think the only emotionally true relationship Jack ever had was with the old man from another time.

Yeah, you know, and it's not like he ever promised to be a fashion plate -- the old man thing could explain the brown shoes (I suppose...) and I don't think I saw your drawing, please show me!

Rusty's really good at paying homage to all the old sci fi he loved and stole from. But it's been getting even Buffier/Angelier this season! And particularly in that episode.

*g* *pets* there there. You had to wear brown shoes when you were little, right?

http://users.livejournal.com/_inbetween_/821703.html

I just don't like it when people don't realise it, or keep saying it's so unusual (when really, Angel packed it with a bit more punch) which takes away the cheek. I haven't managed to make myself watch the last four or seven eps (need to clear HD, too), but I think neither have you, so we can't spoil each other.

Okay, if Jack's ACTUAL pants and shoes looked as good as they do in your drawing, I'd forgive him. *g* It's so good! With the gun and the swoopy coat!

And, it's how I describe Torchwood to people who've never heard of it, "it's like Angel, but even GAYER and in Wales!"

I've actually seen the whole season so far, but I promise not to spoil you. The new one comes April 4!

... it might be a gun that you see, but it's actually a big bunch of flowers? Maybe you should go to bed now? *g*

Guns and roses? Yeah, it's bedtime. Night!

Yeah, I've been bitching about those brown shoes since last season. (Just ask

nnmpsn.) I suspect they, and the pleated pants, are some sort of period thing, to go with the coat. But I think that sometimes style should triumph over historical accuracy, especially when it's your daily dress and not something you're wearing to an SCA event.

I have a terrible confession to make: neither Barrowman nor Marsters do anything for me in that episode, and I don't think they have any chemistry. Absolute minority opinion, I know. But there it is.

You're not alone. I tried watching the episode and I had to stop because I was actively embarrassed for the characters, heaving around the "charged sexual banter" like lead weights.

"Lead weights" was the impression I had, too; mind you, I thought the episode was fun crack, otherwise (though I liked later s2 episodes much better), but the one time I rewatched I fast forwarded through all the Barrowman/Marsters scenes. Do not want, as the macros say.

It was especially odd because the material was so...classic. I mean, I feel that RTD genuinely appreciates the form of homosocialism/homoeroticism that we call slashiness and has no problem featuring that kind of material(see: Last of the Time Lords), so it's all the more painful that for whatever reason the actors/director couldn't pull it off.

If one wants to be catty: could it be because Barrowman isn't that great an actor and JM gave a lazy performance, whereas David Tennant and John Simm were on top of their game?

Though to be fair: one reason why even that small moment at the end of "Utopia" with "say my name" is insanely hot is because a good deal of the viewers already knows the characters and their backstories. We know the Doctor, we know the Master, and we care because of that. Whereas why should we care about this John Hart person doing a blatant imitation of the Smashed Buffy/Spike scene with Jack? We don't know him. No emotional investment there.

Well, yes, that first point had occurred to me. Rather pointedly.

Copy, both of you. It's sort of a shame, because I always want Barrowman to be a good actor. One of the things I say about him is that he somehow manages to make everything look extremely difficult, and therefore gets to look heroic when he accomplishes anything. Seriously, watch him, like, lift a mug and take a sip; he puts his whole body into it and stands there victoriously when he's done.

Additionally, he pants after the slightest effort, like reading something serious on Toshiko's monitor or walking across the room. Should we be worrying about the man's health? *g*

*cough* I never did tell you that my family "met" David Tennant, did I? When they were in England over Christmas visiting my dad's family, they spent a few days in London and ended up staying at the same hotel as Tennant, out near the airport. Apparently he is just as attractive in person. (My sister got his autograph for me.)

I like the brown shoes, but, you're right, the pleats have got to go.

Torchwood = "easily the best show about a bisexual time-traveller standing on various rooftops in Wales."

That's definitely the funniest thing I've heard all day. And my thing with John Barrowman is that I first saw him doing "Putting It Together," a Sondheim revue with Carol Burnett and George Hearn (and oh, they are all fantastic in it, especially Mr. Barrowman) and he'll never not be the singing and dancing kind.

My love/hate relationship is long and twisty, with them inventing plot lines out of thin air and then dropping them and forgetting all that, and it's not the greatest scifi sex drama ever (okay, maybe it it, because that's a hard target to get at) but it's damn entertaining.

In addition, David Tennant tops my list of Sexy Men Alive Right Now. No, seriously, it's magnet'ed to my fridge at this very moment, and there the pretty Scot sits, with his oral fixation and ridiculous hair. Oh, I love him.

"easily the best show about a bisexual time-traveller standing on various rooftops in Wales."

I am more than a little bit in love with this description. It says so much.

"you're good on rooves"

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