Saturday 9 February 2008

TW 204: Meat

They keep saying "everything changes", and this is a big change! Oh, and anyone have a steak burger or a turducken handy? I feel hungry...


Whenever Jack and Gwen share a scene together, they always seem to be on the verge of making out, and this no more apparent than in this episode, where the addition of Rhys back into mix highlights the eternal unspoken love triangle. Speaking of Rhys, he so hasn't been in this series that if it wasn't for last weeks trailer I wouldn't have been sure it was him in the opening teaser! But he's come back into the series, and we are treated to the Gwen-Rhys love dynamic at full force, a real "domestic" as Owen says (which is clearly a stupid term RTD should be shot for for bringing up).

The plot is really only an excuse to set up the "boyfriend finds out" storyline, and has many of the classic elements: boyfriend stumbles into girlfriend's work territory, finally finds out the truth about the world, end in a final climax where he gets shot... hang on, which of a hundred shows that have done this am I watching again? It had to happen sometime, I suppose, but it's evident that despite Gwen's outburst at the end, Rhys is still going to come second to Torchwood, so expect many exciting "domestic"s in the future.

Aside from the real reason for the episode, the ostensible one is that "anyone who eats meat is clearly evil and everyone should be a vegetarian". I hereby predict that many talking heads in the Declassified will be either proclaiming to be vegans or saying they were put off meat in this episode. I'm not. We are fairly barbaric in many ways towards our meat, but I'm not going to apologise for that. And besides, my heart doesn't go out to a clearly CGI-creation, despite the many panning shots we get of it and the large eyes it gives (the CGI is particularly off in the last scene when Jack is trying to touch it). You want to say "meat is murder", go ahead, just don't try to dogmatically enforce your views onto me.

So, a story more character important that plot heavy, which works on a basic level, but remains rather superficial.


Next week: looks like the return of the sexual predator! Well, maybe not, but definitely could be a rehash of that episode...

[END]

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