Promethia Does Torchwood Wrong: Miracle Day Edition

[promethia_tenk]

Feeling in the mood for a bit of recreational RTD hatred, I took the evening to watch what's been aired so far of Torchwood: Miracle Day. Given the generally dismal state of the reactions I've read, I figured I was all set for a satisfying run of fuming, eyerolling, and exaggerated gestures of disbelief and annoyance, relieved only by mad bouts of Gwen adoration. Well, surprise, surprise:

I think I kinda love it? I'm still working out exactly why, but it's a bit like this: When Kill Bill came out, critics described it as a baroque meditation on the aesthetics of violence. And, oh, I do love anything baroque. Miracle Day is something like a baroque meditation on the aesthetics of Russel Davies' misanthropy. It's every narrative tic and cliche and failing and sentiment of his that I've ever hated, pushed to the point of . . . art. It's a bit magnificently appalling.

I'm going to bed now. Let's see if I regret admitting this in the morning . . .

Comments

[da-phoenix13.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm nowhere near fandom so I have no idea what others have been saying, but I fucking LOVE Miracle Day. It's just so dark and twisted and, other than last weeks episode which was pretty dull other than the last three minutes, really really exciting to watch. And Gwen is almost tolerable most of the time! If only there was more Jack, I'd call it my perfect miniseries, and it's almost certainly my favorite Torchwood installment. What can I say? I dig misanthropy every now and then.

[promethia_tenk]

Your icon is genius!

Well, I've not done an exhaustive survey, but there's a whole lot of "meh" out there, recently upstaged but complaints of offensive OTT-ness, so it's great to hear someone else is loving it too!

I'm not usually much one for misanthropy (and RTD's particular brand tends to put me off quite badly), but this is just such an overblown cracky orgy of it that it's . . . a bit beautiful. And I mean that genuinely. It's also quite gripping in an action/suspense way, although I think marathoning the episodes helped on that front--I might think it dragged a little if I was watching week to week?

I might still like season two a bit more because I really loved the dynamics of the whole team as it was, but MD is giving it a serious run for its money!