(no subject)

[clo_again]

Halfway through and I swear to whatever deity you want, if they don't cut out the crap handheld camera shots and the zooming, my god the *fucking shitty zooming*, even *Robin Hood* is doing the stupid zoom thing better than this, I'm turning the damn thing off and going back to watching Buffy.

Because having watched two episodes of early Buffy today, the comparisons between camera work, acting, story telling are becoming all too clear. In that, there is no comparison. Christ on a cracker, if Buffy can do great stories in under forty-five minutes, Torchwood should be able to do fucking awesome ones in fifty but somehow it's sucking beyond belief.

I'm mad right now because this show should be good and yet, as K disappointedly remarked to me last week, the whole thing just feels amateurish.

We? Are most certainly not amused.


edit: They didn't redeem themselves. The very last shot where it panned down from Jack and Gwen to Ianto clearing up had me going "YES. AWESOME. SHINY. NOW THAT'S CAMERA WORK!" only to kill my hopes by fading out just that second too soon, when before they'd held it on Ianto sobbing long enough for it to become embarrassing rather than sympathetic. That last shot was heading towards redeeming the whole episode with prettifulness and then they ruined it. I feel like someone just showed me a beautiful puppy, waited for me to start saying "Aww," and then kicked it.

Okay, so maybe that's a bit harsh... But only a bit.

I cannot believe how much that entire episode pissed me off. Smegging hell. All day it's been "Yay! I get to watch Torchwood tonight" and then-- Then *that* happens. Going to curl up with a cup of tea in bed because I'm tired and disappointed and soothe my pain with more Buffy.

Ack. Just-- ack.

Comments

[kindoftrouble.livejournal.com]

But the difference between Buffy and Torchwood is that Buffy was made by Joss Whedon, and had millions of dollars thrown at it. Whereas in England, that doesn't happen. With any show. Not even Doctor Who.

Also, did I mention Buffy has Joss? Because it does. And anything Joss lays his hands on will end up being so completely and utterly awesome. And Britain is just not as good as producing tv shows as the US.

[clo.livejournal.com]

Yes but the BBC has managed to make things with beautiful camera work and decent scripts and fantastic acting before. Not to mention Torchwood's had a whole bunch of publicity thrown around, so the budget can't have exactly been pennies. It just bugs me when decent camera work and writing good scripts is a matter of sense half the time, not even budget (which they're wasting on pointless CGI shots of a smegging dinosaur!! Aaaaaarrrgggghhhh!!) and they can't even manage that. >_< (Not to mention I'm thissmeggingclose to killing the person with their finger on the zoom button. It's like the biggest no-no *ever* in TV and every other shot's been a zoom in this damn episode.)

[/rant]

Joss should do Torchwood and all would be right with the world. In fact, they should perfect the cloning process and have a Joss do *everything* on TV. Mmmmm. Never-ending awesomeness on every channel.

[kindoftrouble.livejournal.com]

The zoom was slowly killing my will to live. THAT IS NOT A WAY TO DO CAMERA WORK. At all. But you can't compare anything that Joss has worked on to anything else *ever*, because it's Joss. It'd be like comparing the shiniest laptop ever and a Commadore64. I actaully don't want enough BBC to notice if anything has nice camera work, the only thing I really do watch is Top Gear which actually does have beautiful camera work. But that has a stupidly large budget anyway.

Joss should make everything ever. Then Veronica Mars might actually be good because it had so much potential. The world would be a better place if Joss made everything.

[rainy-roz.livejournal.com]

There's not enough of Jack, and certainly not enough Jack moments, and the storyline is lacking in logic in the way that Dr Who never does. In Dr Who the story line makes sense. There are no 'let's put this in no one will notice' moments. But why would Ianto not tell Jack about the cyberwoman when he knew what they could do? You can sort of see why he might not mention it if he was thick, but sort of isn't good enough. Sort of is sloppy.

Although I did like the Jack being electrocuted on multiple occasions bit. I liked the cheesy line. And the pterodactil beast thing was good.

Sorry if that post is incoherent. Very very tired.

xx

[clo.livejournal.com]

Me too. Every time I thought they'd finished with it, another one would pop up (I threw a pillow at my computer in annoyance -_-). They also ruined a few shots that could've been shiny with the wobbling from the handheld. :( That's true, Joss is a genius and there's not many of them in TV. Red Dwarf then. I've been watching series 3 & 4 over the last week and considering the utter lack of CGI, the size of the budgets and that they had twenty minutes less per episode to work with? There's no question right now which one I'd rather watch an episode of. :( Not to mention that was almost back in the days when zoom was 'cool' and they still didn't do it. (Oh smeg I hope zooms aren't becoming cool again. O_O Please no. It makes everything look like home videoes.) The historical dramas BBC do have utterly fantastic camera stuff too. They *can* do it which is what's so irritating.

He should and the world would be a much shinier place. Or, everyone should learn from him at least -- maybe we can at least send Russell T. Davis to Joss School to get some tips.

[kindoftrouble.livejournal.com]

LOL. I didn't go that far. But the zoom was so annoying. I kinda like the handheld cameras, they fit the show. But the zoom? Just. No. Ah, but Red Dwarf doesn't really have any camera effects at all because it's a sitcom. All it has it a wide shot and a close up because it doesn't need anything more than that. It's so incredibly awesome though, and yeah, I'd prefer to watch Red Dwarf too. Maybe not the last season they did. But the others, yes. (If zooms become cool... I dread.)

LOL. The Joss Whedon School of How to be Awesome.

[clo.livejournal.com]

No storyline logic at all (like, transplanting your *own* brain? Okay, in what universe could that work?) I know what you mean though; very rarely am I left going "Yeah, right *eyeroll" at Doctor Who. Torchwood, it'a rare if five minutes go by without it happening at least once. Ianto had no redeeming moment too and that really bugged me, because if he's going to stay around? He kind of needed one. Definitely sloppy.

That was a nifty part because I actually wondered if it would kill him. I like that they brought the pterodactil in and have it a purpose instead of "Oooo, dinosaur!" (I just think they overdid it a bit but that's personal, because I love suggestion more than gratuitous CGI).

*pets* Not incoherent at all. :)

[clo.livejournal.com]

It was really, really bugging me. ;) I like handheld for the moments where it adds something, like when they're running or it's confused like say, the basketball game at the beginning when there was a lot of action happening all at once -- but when Jack had a gun to Ianto's head and the shot was almost bouncing up and down because the camera wasn't steady? Totally ruined the moment for me. Red Dwarf does handheld for when they're running down corridors sometimes and certain episodes do certain things differently, it's just they know to change it when it works. This episode of Torchwood, it seemed to be doing the zooms and handheld simply because someone said "Let's do all handheld this episode to make it different!" rather than for any reason relating to plotline or atmosphere. :-/ Though yeah, it does beat the last season of RD. (Me too. We'd have to start filming our own TV in protest.)

It would totally work. :D Add it to the list for when we take over the world.