beccatoria | Cardiff: 1 - I am there! 2 - Torchwood is there! 3

Okay, so, I have successfully moved myself, my husband, and all our stuff back into my parents house and we have started on our distance learning course. I now know the difference between the definite article and an indefinite article (see what I did there, hur hur?) and all sorts of various bloody tenses. Including the future perfect continuous. What the hell kind of name for a tense is that? "I will have been being," indeed. Pfft.

And we've only just started. Ugh. Still - eyes on the ULTIMATE GOAL!

And at least now I have decadent wireless internet and can surf the net FROM MY BED! And it only took, like, four days to get my parents to let me set it up. Go me! Sorry if I've missed anything important on my flist: I've had a brief flick through and I don't think I have, but I could well have missed something, and if so - please comment and direct me to it! :D

It's...interesting living with Kev and my parents. But...hmm. I'll discuss that later. Maybe.

On to Torchwood, which I finally got around to watching it: I didn't even know it had started!

So, it had an AWESOME start because, that place where the blowfish in the sportscar lets the old woman cross the road? THAT'S THREE HUNDRED YARDS FROM MY HOUSE! Or something like that. It's the other end of the little village (which makes me sound like I live in the countryside; I don't - it's a suburb, that's just what our shopping area is called) that's like a two minute walk from my house. I was like, "Dude! I was there an hour ago walking home after buying Coke at a ridiculously late hour!" (I should note that's Coke as in Coca Cola, not as in the Coke the blowfish was high on). And then I was like, "Dude! That was a high speed car chase right past the shop where I bought that Coke!"

All of which is probably entirely uninteresting to anyone except me, but what can I say? I don't live in New York or London so I'm not used to seeing my home turf on scifi tv! :D

Okay, on from there it gets...less good.

I'm enjoying the new, more flirty, more like his first introduction Captain Jack and it makes me feel sad I only managed to get through one episode of the 10th Doctor Captain Jack episodes because they GOT RID OF CADFAEL AND REPLACED HIM WITH SAM TYLER AND DESTROYED MY SOUL. So I guess he had some sort of transcendant experience or something? And decided that he was in love with Gwen even though that sort of came OUT OF NOWHERE.

Srsly. I approve of Gwen moving her work-crush as far away from Skeezy Owen as possible, and I suppose at least she always had a bit of a distant crush on Jack, but I remember even being a bit confused as to why it was her that got that whole "I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU *GOODBYEKISS*" scene at the end of last season because...well they seem to only be close when its convenient to the writers.

Meanwhile, at least Jack finally made an honest man out of Ianto and asked him on a proper date, though I still think how they handled that relationship last season was beyond weird. What was with all the subtext when this is the show that seems to exist to let the writers run around like seven year olds shouting, "SEX!"? It's not like they were even playing against type and subtexting it in order to be more romantic. It was truly weird. But whatever, it provides a nice segue to:

PEOPLE OF TORCHWOOD: SOME OF YOU ARE TOO GOOD FOR OTHERS OF YOU!

Ianto: I'm not sure I think you're "too good" for Jack, but you're certainly "too good" to be his second choice after Gwen turns him down. That said, you don't know that, so I forgive you for saying yes to the date. That also said, I have a sneaking suspicion that Jack's ultimate goal was to come back to Cardiff and settle down with you and Gwen at the same time. Which could work okay if Gwen wasn't such a needy whiner (albeit one I kind of like) and didn't insist on tacking Jack's name to the end of every bloody sentence.

Tosh: Tosh, I cannot stress this enough: You are too good for Owen. Everyone on this team is too good for Owen, and you're better than the rest of this team. DO YOU UNDERSTAND HOW BENEATH YOU OWEN IS? Stop crushing on him. Please. The evil alien from My Family was a better choice than him, and she tried to kill you. Also, good luck with that whole attempt to get a plotline thing. If it ever happens, page me.

Owen: Everyone is too good for you. Start dating elsewhere, preferably far away from me, and if you could swap your screen time allotment with Tosh, that'd be good too.

Jack: Explain to me again the bit where you're in love with Gwen?

Gwen: Treat Rhys better. Let's forget, for an instant, the fact that I found the line, "Well nobody else'll have me," really funny in its deliver, and get back to the fact that while - due to your job - I might be able to forgive you the lying and emotional infidelity, you've also been physically cheating on him, and have abused and violated him by mind-wiping him uneccessarily and in an attempt to use him as an object: a path to cheap forgiveness. I don't doubt you love him, Gwen. You screaming over his dead body at the end of last season was probably one of the most real moments you've had on this show. So much so I almost wish he'd stayed dead; the price of your decisions and how you treated him, and something you'd always have to live with. Rather than still being here, but of both in- and out-of-universe jokes, and a convenient McGuffin for romantic problems. The guy deserves more respect, dude. And loving him doesn't mean you're treating him right. The fact that you love him isn't enough. And that's hard, and scary, but it isn't enough.

If you've all noticed that I haven't really been commenting on the plot...well...what's there to say? Another evil dangerous plot that revolves around money. That comes down to people throwaway lining explanations at the last minute about why they can't just cut of Spike's arm (it'd be my first idea) despite the fact that it makes no sense (srsly, Tosh might as well have shouted in response, "Can't do that, it'll detonate the plot!"), and the bizarre fact that the uber bomb actually exploded five seconds after it was removed, not, as advertised, instantly. Okay, screwed up DNA, etc. I know, I know.

It just...eh. It was all right, I guess. But mostly it was functional.

I suppose Captain Spike was kind of fun. Though it makes me wonder if he and Jack were con-artists during their time with the time-police (which would tell us a lot about that outfit including why Jack runs Torchwood the way he does?) or if that was afterwards? It's all so confuseded.

The thing at the end with "I found Grey," was cheap, too. But again, I expect no less of this show.

Oh, also, paralysing lip gloss? How, exactly, doesn't it paralyse you when you put it on? (And perhaps Jack ought to have said, "Never let him kiss you because he's wearing paralysing lip gloss," instead of just, "Never let him kiss you?")

So, yeah. Lots of headdesky interpersonal relationships, though I am genuinely a little interested in the fact that they're all pissed at Jack for buggering off. And a rather dull but vaguely entertaining plot. Hoorah.

ETA: And I'm a moron because I also wanted to add another facet of being-in-Cardiffness to this post: